10 Traits of Creative People

Albert Einstein said, "Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community."

Who are these "creative" people, what characteristics do they share and how can we develop those traits to boost our own inherent creativity? How can we develop creative managers and employees? Everyone has the capacity for creativity, but not all choose to use their creativity for performance. We can boost our innovative thinking by knowing what the creative traits are and then applying those useful traits and behaviors within our grasp.

10 Common Traits

I've come up with my own "composite" of 10 traits commonly associated with very creative individuals.

* They come up with many ideas quickly for random requests. Creative people create ideas! Most of their ideas will not be blockbusters, but they make a habit of coming up with ideas. This behavior or process is called "ideation" by psychologists. Their minds generate "charged" ideas. Their brains produce almost unlimited numbers of ideas, and they seldom get "blocked" in their thinking. If they have an idea "dry up," they know how to unlock their thought processes and reinvigorate their creative juices. Creative people often record their ideas, because one bad idea might trigger a good one.

* They are flexible in their thinking styles. Creative people have diverse thought patterns and styles. They can look at ideas from different perspectives, even dropping cherished beliefs and rules in the quest for a fundamental breakthrough in thinking. This is the opposite of narrow or "tunnel thinking" in which a number of ideas are variations of the original idea. Creative thinking is more complex than developing many ideas at once or manipulating ideas--it's creating new ideas with different characteristics based on synthesis. Imaginative people use "kaleidoscope" thinking: taking data, situations, phenomena, and assumptions, and then mixing, twisting, shaking, or otherwise manipulating them to see new patterns. They give unpredictable, unexpected answers or interpretations to questions or situations.

* They tend to be emotional and intuitive. Not all creative people are temperamental eccentrics. But many creative people tend to be both cerebral and visceral, and enjoy flights of fancy and feel unrestrained in...