Encouraging employees to become creative

In order for your small business to thrive, you need to continue to encourage your employees to be creative. Creativity allows people to feel needed by their employers and they will have a strong devotion to the company when some of their suggestions are used in the company processes. How can you encourage employee creativity? This article will explore some great tactics that have worked for many small business owners:

Hold brainstorming sessions
One of the best ways to encourage creativity is to hold regular brainstorming sessions. When you feel like you have hit the wall, hold a brainstorming session with your staff to see if they can help you. After all, this is one of the main reasons why you hired them and it shows them that you trust in their instincts and abilities.

Brainstorming sessions are a great way to energize your staff and to come up with new ideas for the company. Sometimes your staff members that are hired to do finances can come up with interesting ideas that exceed the marketing teams' ideas. Don't count out any employee and give everyone an opportunity to be creative.

Harbor a stress-free work environment
A wonderful way to boost your employee's creativity is to create a work environment where they feel free to come up with new ideas. Give them plenty of sunlight along with new equipment that will help them easily do their jobs and don't place stressful deadlines on them. You need to keep the stress level to a minimum in order to help your employees find that extra motivation they need. Encourage your employees to exercise during business hours as this helps many employees reduce stress and gain extra strength and motivation to work hard. Exercise releases endorphins, which help to spur creativity in a lot of people.

Tear down barriers
Creative work environments happen when employees are able to interact with each other. Tear down the things that may be keeping them apart like large cubicle walls and seniority issues. You want everyone to feel like they are equals and that they can come to each other at any time for help and advice. Lowering the cubicle walls just a little bit allows them to see each other and talk to one another more, which will help them bounce ideas off each other. It's a simple way to get them to talk to one another and it can foster creativity.

Listen to ideas
As a manager, you need to be receptive to new ideas. Some of their ideas may not seem new or creative but you can help inspire them to keep thinking outside the box by just listening to them and providing them with feedback. As you are listening to them, write down a few of the things they are saying and then talk about things that you have done in the past that may be similar and then ask them to tweak that a little bit more and come back to you with a different approach. This may be one of the best ways to help them think outside the box a little bit more and it can help them find the direction that you are heading with this new creative approach.

Get out of the office
Sometimes creativity comes when people get out of the office. Take your staff away for a weekend retreat where you can all sit together and bounce ideas off one another while sitting on couches in your pajamas. Getting comfortable and relaxing together is a great way to foster creativity as your employees are encouraged to talk in a safe environment.