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32 Traits.

(8 minute read.)

'By these be the man defineth.'

'So that's why you're such an awkward sod…'

Ages ago I read an item entitled '32 Traits of Creative People (Crayon Breakers)' by Robert Alan Black.

As an aid to understanding me, I include an extract here.

Think of a truly effective and productive leader you have been impressed with in business, industry, education, sports, the arts, government or politics… chances are, you are thinking of someone who broke crayons and is or was a 'Crayon Breaker'.

Effective leaders must be risk takers, curious about many things, challenge most things, willing to go against the norm or the accepted ways of doing things. Managers stay with the accepted, the usual, the normal, the ways things are or have been. The very nature of a leader is to break crayons.

To be highly effective you need to break crayons. You need to capitalize on some of the traits of Crayon Breakers…

1 Sensitive.

Being sensitive helps creativeness in many ways:

• It helps with awareness of problems, known and unknown.
• It helps people sense things easier.
• It helps to cause people to care and commit themselves to challenges or causes

2 Not motivated by money.

As important as money is in most societies or economies it is not a driving force for a creative person. Generally they have an intuitive sense of the amount of money they basically need and once that need is fulfilled then money stops affecting or driving them.

3 Sense of destiny.

Intuitively creative people know that they have a purpose, a destiny or they realize that they can choose or create one to drive them to reach greater heights of skill, ability, or talent.

4 Adaptable.

Without the ability to adapt people could not become creative. But rather than adapt to something they choose to adapt things to suit them, their needs or the goals they are striving towards.

5 Tolerant of ambiguity.

Two or more things or ideas being right at the same time challenges the thinking of a creative person. They love to be ambiguous to challenge other people and ideas. Ambiguity helps them see things from many different perspectives all at the same time.

6 Observant.

Creative people constantly are using their senses: consciously, sub-consciously and unconsciously, even non-consciously.

7 Perceive the world differently.

Thoreau talked about people drumming to a different drum beat. Creative people thrive on multiple ways of perceiving: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, sensing things. These different perspectives open up their minds to unlimited possibilities.

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