Are Effective Leaders Creative?

The relationship between leadership and creativity is surprisingly complex. This paper discusses the relationship between the two, and how it was explored using an agent-based model. We found that when the followers are uncreative, the degree of creativity of the leader matters a lot; the effectiveness of ideas across the society as a whole is positively correlated with the frequency of invention of the leader. However, the more creative the followers are, the greater the extent to which the beneficial effect of creative leadership is washed out. We also found that creative leadership is more valuable early than later on. The result suggests that a new startup company benefits most from highly creative leadership, while a more established company, or one that has stabilized on an established product line, benefits most from a more conservative form of leadership.