Leveraging technology to develop creative leadership capacity

Leaders must think creatively and facilitate the creative work of others, but traditional approaches to developing leaders have not fully addressed this need. A key problem with regard to developing creative and innovative leadership capacity is the lack of clearly articulated objectives for developmental programs. Moreover, novel developmental tools and techniques may be necessary to develop these capacities. We provide a synthesis of what the existing literature indicates must be developed to facilitate creative and innovative leadership. We present the requisite knowledge and skills-complete with developmental objectives, learning prompts, and reflection questions-in a practical, summarized format. Next, we explore how creative/innovative leadership capacity in organizations might be enhanced by leveraging technology via simulations, e-mentoring, multisource feedback, social media, and succession planning programs. The design and implementation of a creative/innovative leadership program requires a shared investment by key stakeholders-senior executives, employees, managers/leaders, mentors, information technology experts, and human resource development professionals. We review the key concerns for these stakeholders and outline specific considerations for human resource development professionals.