Leader impacts on creative teams: Direction, engagement, and sales

Although many variables influence the creativity of teams, leadership has been found to be one of the more important influences. In the present effort, a tripartite model describing the key functions leaders must perform to encourage team creativity is proposed. This model holds that leadership of creative teams requires complex thinking skills. In addition, leaders must be able to plan creative projects, and they must be able to sell these projects to others. Finally, leaders must build the psychological, or creative, capital of team members. The implications of these observations for effective leadership of creative teams and the development of leadership potential are discussed.