This Personality Trait Is The Most Important Driver Of Creative Achievement [ Business Insider ]

There's a common thread among the highest-achieving scientists, artists, and novelists: They're more open than the rest of us.

Psychologists have determined that the single most consistent variable in creative achievement is a trait called openness to experience.

In short, the more open you are to experience, the more likely you are to do great creative work in your career.

One of the Big 5 personality traits — along with conscientiousness, agreeability, extroversion, and emotional stability — openness to experience speaks to how much or how little you get excited about new information. 

At a neurological level, it has a lot to do with dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter. 

"The essence of the whole domain has to do with a particular kind of dopamine projection," says Scott 

Kanye West

Barry Kaufman, the scientific director of the Imagination Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

Openness is about "valuing information," he says. "People with high openness show high dopamine projections at the potential of acquiring information."  

In other words, the higher you score on the "openness" trait, the better it feels to learn new things. 

Kaufman, who made a splash with his book "Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined," has found that openness can be further separated into four factors.

They are: 

• Explicit Cognitive Ability: This factor consists primarily of traditional measures of intelligence (i.e., IQ tests), including fluid reasoning, mental rotation, verbal analogical reasoning, and working memory. 

• Intellectual Engagement: The essence of this factor is a drive to engage in ideas, rational thought, and the search for truth. 

• Affective Engagement: This is essentially a preference for using emotions, gut feelings, and empathy to make decisions. 

• Aesthetic Engagement: This is a preference for aesthetics, fantasy, and emotional absorption in artistic and cultural stimuli.

Notice the word engagement here. Openness to experience is about the way information activates you.

Folks with high intellectual engagement are driven to discover ideas as a scientist does. Those with affective engagement are driven to investigate emotions as a poet does, and folks with aesthetic engagement are driven to find beauty as a painter does. You can't be high in all of these, Kaufman's research indicates; you're either drawn to the more conceptual or nonconceptual parts of life. 

Openness to experience is a "very active process," Kaufman says. "That's what genes do; that's what dopamine does — they energize." 

Psychologists have different accounts of how that energizing happens. 

One theory is that it has to do with "latent inhibition," or your mind's tendency to filter out information as irrelevant. In one study, Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson found that college students who were high creative achievers were seven times more likely to have reduced instead of enhanced latent inhibition. People with high openness tend to have low latent inhibition, and thus more original ideas, or so the argument goes. 

Then there's the quality of absorption. People who have a high openness to experience enjoy learning new things, which means they'll be more likely to get into the state of flow — that just-right feeling where your skills meet your challenges — when grappling with their work. When you're flowing, you're continually stretching your skill set, thus allowing for more and more creative achievement. 

But that flowful growth requires that you fit yourself into the right situation. Since having a high openness to experience means that you spend a lot of time investigating your own intellectual and emotional life, it means that you need to get away from other people's demands on your ears, eyes, and mind.

This can be difficult, given that American office culture doesn't exactly value people turning the scarce resource of attention onto themselves.

"People who want to explore their inner experience need solitude to do so," he says, which requires the things we usually — and perhaps falsely — associate with introversion, like peace, quiet, and freedom from distraction. 

Then it's just a matter of letting the joys of curiosity take over. 

"A lot of us, in school, get that joy knocked out of us because of bad end results, like an F or a C on a test," Kaufman says, "but the intrinsic enjoyment value of seeking information is what activates dopamine and energizes us." 

Photography by Vivienne Gucwa http://nythroughthelens.com/

This image was taken from the top of Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) with the Sony A99 during an absolutely gorgeous sunset. The view is of the skyscrapers and rooftops of the midtown Manhattan skyline looking south including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and 1 World Trade Center.

This is one of my favorite views of the Chrysler Building from midtown. The neighborhood is currently known as NoMad (North of Madison Square Park) and borders Murray Hill. This particular location near Lexington Avenue and 28th Street is colloquially known as Curry Hill though due to the plethora of Indian restaurants and spice shops that dot the urban landscape.

I took this photo on a brilliantly sunny afternoon in the early summer with the Sony NEX-6. It was the kind of afternoon that seemed as if it was without end: the kind of afternoon that seems to lazily drift into evening.

In short, it was summer in New York City at its finest. And it doesn’t get much better than that sometimes.

This is a view of the skyline of midtown Manhattan including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. It was taken during a brilliant sunset that emerged after a rather dramatic rainstorm. The rooftops in the foreground are the rooftops of Long Island City, Queens. To the right is the Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge, and the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge)

This is East Broadway in Chinatown, New York City. I took this photo with the Sony NEX-6 while standing on the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge. The buildings in the distance are the Municipal Building, New York by Gehry, and 1 WTC.

This image is of Doyers Street, a winding alley in Chinatown, New York City. It was taken with the Sony A55 during a summer rainstorm.

This is a HUGE post. HUGE. I took the time to post screenshots of the interface and explain the different menus and functions as well as how to get started using the QX100 on your Android or iOS device. Also included are more photos that I took this past week with the QX100.

This is a 2 second exposure taken on a moody evening with the Sony A99. The late summer haze had mixed with heavy rain-fog producing eerily beautiful colors at dusk. The vantage point is the top of the Empire State Building overlooking the Chrysler Building, rooftops, and skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan. Looking north, Central Park is on the left and the borough of Queens is on the right.

Central Park - Autumn Leaves - New York City

There is something so incredibly touching about urban decay.

Sorrow and longing can be traced in the peeling layers and crumbling brick. In warm sunlight, iron oxidation produces.....

The New York City Skyline covered in snow

New York City - Winter Night - West Village

Manhattan Bridge and New York City Skyline at Night

New York City Skyline at Sunset on a Stormy Evening

New York City - Snow - Lower East Side

New York City - Sunset - East Broadway

  

The Problem with Being Too Nice by Michael Fertik . Harvard Business Review

Leaders are placed under a tremendous amount of pressure to be relatable, human and … nice. Many yield to this instinct, because it feels much easier to be liked. Few people want to be the bad guy. But leaders are also expected to make the tough decisions that serve the company or the team’s best interests. Being too nice can be lazy, inefficient, irresponsible, and harmful to individuals and the organization.

I’ve seen this happen numerous times. A few years ago, a senior staff member of mine made the wrong hire. This can happen to anyone, and the best way to remedy the situation is to address it quickly. Despite my urging to cut the tie, this staff member kept trying to make it work. While I laud the instinct to coach, fast forward two months later, and we were undergoing a rancorous – and unnecessary – transition process. There’s a key lesson here for any leader. Nice is only good when it’s coupled with a rational perspective and the ability to make difficult choices.

Here are a few other other recognizable scenarios where being nice isn’t doing you – or anyone – any favors:

Turning to polite deception. You’ve been in these brainstorming meetings – everyone is trying to hack a particular problem, and someone with power raises a ridiculous idea. Instead of people addressing it honestly, brows furrow, heads nod like puppets on strings, and noncommittal murmurs go around. No one feels empowered to gently suggest why that particular idea won’t work. At my company, rejecting polite deception is a big part of how we do business. When something isn’t right, we call each other out on it respectfully, then and there, without delay. Why? It’s not helpful to foster an everyone-gets-a-trophy mentality; you have to earn the honors to get the honors.

The long linger. Sometimes a hire just won’t cut it in a certain role. It might seem easier to keep an employee in place rather than to resolve the mismatch – but it actually is not. Resist the temptation to prolong confrontation, to see if things will get better. It is more of a disservice to let someone flounder, especially when it’s clear that he or she just isn’t hitting the mark. Be kind and communicate clearly, but don’t be nice. Be surgical about it. Make the clean cut. Help the person transition somewhere he or she can succeed. Handling employee issues immediately helps your culture and productivity – over time, you’ll attract employees with similar values and convictions.

Don’t be a doormat. When you’re too nice – to suppliers who can’t deliver on time, to colleagues who don’t do their work, to customers who refuse to pay – you’re actually letting others take advantage of you and your business. When you’re overly generous with your allowances for others, you create a fertile atmosphere for contempt to spread. Imagine the reactions of your most talented, focused, and motivated employees as they watch lackluster coworkers get pass after pass. Anger and resentment take root, morale plummets, and turnover starts to go up, up, up. Think of how loyal customers will react if they see how easy it is for others to take advantage of your services. Your reputation will surely suffer. These problems become more difficult to solve as they pile up. You don’t need to be severe to be respected, but you do need to hold your organization to certain standards — and you must be firm about people meeting them. Setting rules will help you when decisive action is needed. No more delays, no demurring, no debating.

Failing the introspection test. Are you too nice to yourself? Introspection is a powerful leadership tool, but we often forget to use it. When you ask yourself what behaviors hold you and your team back, you can recalibrate your leadership style for the better. When you give employees the space to give you the hard truths, without fear of repercussion, you’ll get valuable perspective and make a giant leap forward in maturing as a leader.

Of course, this doesn’t mean managers get a free pass to be disrespectful, cruel, or a bully in the workplace. There’s a world of difference between being an effective leader with high expectations and dealing with problem after problem caused by milquetoast management. Beware of confusing being nice – or being liked – with being a good leader.

When Your Boss Is Too Nice by Amy Gallo [ Harvard Business Review ]

Yes, it can be pleasant to work for someone who is kind and thoughtful but there’s a difference between bosses who are pleasant to work for and those who avoid conflict at all costs. Managers in the latter category don’t give tough feedback, shy away from going to bat for their teams, and give in too easily to demands. If this sounds like your boss, your career may be at risk.

What the Experts Say“I’m 100% in favor of kindness and compassion in leadership. What I don’t believe in is a boss who in the name of niceness, doesn’t do what he’s supposed to,” says Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Working for a manager who is conflict-averse can have deleterious effects on your performance and your career. Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and coauthor of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, says that many of these bosses aren’t aware of the effect they’re having on their direct reports. “My experience with leaders like this is that they don’t know they’re behaving that way,” she says. Here’s how to mitigate the potential damage of a boss who is too nice.

Be empatheticHaving a boss who doesn’t stand up for you is frustrating —  but don’t blame him. “New bosses are particularly prone to this. Have a little sympathy that he’s trying to gain credibility with his peers and boss,” says Hill. If you see the situation from his perspective (rather than painting him as the enemy), you’ll be better able to help him.

Directly address the issueStart by talking to your boss. Make clear what you need — and be as concrete as possible. If you’re not getting the necessary resources for a project, you might say: “This is what we’re supposed to get done and unless we have more people dedicated to the project, we won’t be able to do it. Is there a way we can work on getting more resources?” Or if she’s being too hands off and not giving you enough input, you might say, “I need more insight from you along the way and I’m not sure how to get it.” You can also try to make it easier for her to give feedback. “You may want to describe actual events and how you handled them and then ask for advice on how you could’ve handled it differently,” says Hill.

Make the costs clear“People change but not unless they’re dissatisfied with their own behavior,” says Hill. For this reason, it’s important that you help your boss understand the costs of his behavior. Step into his shoes and try to understand what he really cares about. “That way you can show that what he wants to accomplish is at risk,” says Hill. If you can make the downsides of his conflict-avoidant behavior evident, he may be incented to change. For example, you might explain that by not directly addressing underperformance on your team, he’s alienating the high performers. Point to direct evidence, such as a team member’s disengagement.

Take matters into your own handsMcKeown suggests that instead of waiting for your boss to give you guidance and input, do it yourself. “Write a contract with your boss,” McKeown says. “Put down in writing what results you’re trying to achieve, the parameters you’re working within, and how you will be held accountable.” Then ask your boss to react to it and sign it. “At least you’ll have something concrete you can run towards,” he says. For some people, this seems pushy, but McKeown’s research shows it’s effective. “All the managers I’ve talked to say they’d welcome that level of initiative,” he says.

Tap your networkIn some cases, you may need to go above your boss and use your network to get feedback or resources. But don’t sneak around your boss if possible. Try to include him in those discussions. For example, you might discover that there is some slack in another department and tell your boss about it so he can ask that team leader for additional resources.

With a conflict-avoidant manager, it’s doubly important that you have strong relationships elsewhere in the organization, Hill says: “Build your network so it includes people a few levels up and so you have a legitimate reason to talk to them.” McKeown agrees on the importance of these connections: “Find someone who is not your boss’s boss but sits just outside your team who can be your spokesperson.”

Consider leaving if you canIt’s easy to assume that having a conflict-averse manager isn’t really a problem. But there are serious long-term effects. These kinds of bosses may not help you advance your career because they’re afraid to ruffle feathers and get you promoted. Or they may damage your credibility if they are seen as ineffective and others assume those on their teams are too. “People let it go on for a long time,” McKeown says. He suggests that you transfer to another department or leave the company if your boss is unable to change. “I would always prefer to work with someone who has some edge and is willing to challenge me to be better,” he says. If that doesn’t describe your boss, it may be time to find a new one.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Talk directly with your boss about what you need  —  and be as concrete as possible
• Build your network so that you can rely on other people for help and resources
• Make the costs of her behavior very clear — that’s the only way she’ll change

Don’t:

• Hesitate to take matters into your own hands
• Think of your boss as the enemy — he may not be aware of his behavior
• Let it go on for too long — if possible consider transferring to another department or finding a new job

Case study #1: Get what you needFor just under a year, Matthew Hart* worked for a boss who tried desperately to be nice (we’ll call him Bryan). Bryan managed a team of 52 people at the credit card processing company where they worked  —  and avoided conflict at all costs. “He couldn’t step up when it came to making hard decisions,” Matthew explains.  “He wouldn’t make resource requests he promised to and gave in to unreasonable complaints.”

Matthew tried to talk with Bryan about the problem. “I was the voice for the team and explained how his behavior was affecting morale and causing turnover,” he says. He gave Bryan specific examples of the impact he was having on the team. “Everything that Bryan said in response was in line with what you’d read in a book — but that’s not how he acted,” Matthew says.

After failing in his direct attempts, Matthew resorted to going around Bryan: “I ended up getting what I wanted from those above him.” After Matthew got a promotion, he asked Bryan for more resources. When those requests didn’t come through, he talked with Bryan’s boss, the company’s CIO. “I asked him about the status of my requests and realized that he didn’t know about them,” he says. While Matthew didn’t like the idea of going around Bryan, he felt it was necessary: “I had direct reports who were counting on me to get them what they needed.”

It soon became obvious how damaging Bryan’s behavior was. “We lost four senior engineers and two managers in a three-month timeframe.” Eventually, Bryan was let go and Matthew and one of his colleagues were promoted to jointly fill Bryan’s role. “Most of the people that left have come back and our culture has dramatically changed for the better,” he says.

Case study #2: Don’t stay too longFor close to a decade, Carlon Cayenne worked at a petrochemical facility in the Caribbean. During that time he had numerous bosses but his last, a manager named Fred*, was one of the toughest. “He had a ‘country club’ management style. He was very sociable, always courteous, and approachable,” he says. But Fred was also indecisive and often looked to the team to make key decisions by consensus. He gave in to almost all instructions from the level above him, and rarely, if ever, pushed back. Carlon sensed that he did this in order to maintain a friendly and conflict-free work environment.

But if the team couldn’t agree on how to move forward on a particular project, they were stuck. And it wasn’t just their performance that was affected. Their relationships suffered, too. “The team lost credibility in the organization and some people struggled to move their careers forward,” Carlon says. Senior leaders scrutinized him and his peers because they worked for Fred and he felt his professional development opportunities were limited.

Because Fred was very approachable, Carlon felt comfortable raising these issues with him directly. “I would present the potential consequences or outcomes of decisions or situations as they arose and try to influence his choices,” he says. And when that didn’t work, he stepped in. “In some cases, I took charge of the situation and reassured him by assuming responsibility for the outcomes,” Carlon says.

He worked for Fred for three years until he decided to leave the company to take another job. Several of his colleagues have also since left — but Fred is still there.

*not their real names