Give your creative thinking a boost
Businesses value employees who are able to increase efficiencies and produce innovative solutions. This means that being an employee who can be an innovative thinker to produce creative ideas and help problem solve will be highly valued.
Being an innovator and someone who is striving to add value to the business also helps build a strong case for advancing your career.
To do this, start including several key processes into your everyday work to help you adopt an innovative thinking approach.
Communication
Nothing throttles the creativity and innovation in the workplace like the failure to communicate, such as managers who don’t deliver full information about a project to the team, or employees who fear being honest with leaders.
In a work environment where top-quality work and openness are valued, even difficult conversations and constructive feedback are welcome. Try to ensure you have clear lines of communication with your colleagues and line managers.
Clients
Are there processes that could be streamlined for customers and internal clients? Speaking to clients can highlight processes or ideas that you had not considered previously.
Feedback can offer a great springboard for innovation and solving problems that you might not have been aware of, so tap into these sources of information to help identify ideas and potential business opportunities.
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Brainstorm
Creative and worthwhile suggestions often emerge when ideas are being batted back and forth. Join in meetings and brainstorming sessions that are being held at your company or with your colleagues.
This is a good opportunity to gain a new perspective. You might hit upon an idea or problem you hadn’t previously thought of and, from there, develop a strong proposal with the help of your colleagues.
Best practice
Read industry publications – it is often worthwhile to see how other sectors operate. So don’t limit the content you consume, both online and offline, to material directly related to what you do.
By gaining an insight into best practices in other industries and competitors, you can start looking at adapting and applying processes that could work well in your organisation.
Learning
In the optimal work environment, employees are encouraged to grow by learning from colleagues and taking on projects that introduce them to new techniques or skills.
Whether it is paying for employees to go to industry conferences or allowing them to attend training events during work hours, make sure you put yourself forward for professional development pursuits and then share what you learn with your colleagues.
Considering how much time you spend on the job, it is important that the work environment where everyone spends those hours is filled with positive energy and happiness.
Author: Alex Miller, writer
This article was first published in Student Accountant in September 2021