Leading Creative Groups

Leaders play a critical role in group performance including groups asked to work on creative tasks. Leadership of creative groups might be understood either in terms of requisite leader behaviors or the critical functions that must be executed by those who assume leadership roles in creative groups. This chapter examines the key functions that must be performed by leaders to encourage group creativity. It argues leaders of creative groups must recruit team members, define team climate and processes, establish objectives and constraints, plan and evaluate creative work, and champion creative efforts to obtain necessary resources. The implications of these observations for understanding effective leadership for creative groups are discussed.