Keep Challenging Your Workers

The recent MacWorld Expo ended without any major announcements of new products from Apple. There were some very exciting upgrades to existing software -- iPhoto 09 has got some great new features, for instance -- but "upgraded" is different from new. A number of folks wrote in their blogs or in newspapers about how disappointing that was, and of course, they're looking at it from the point of view of the consumer.

But what about the employees?

Creatives like to create. That's why they get into innovative fields in the first place. The good ones -- which are the ones you want working for you -- generally want to push boundaries, to broaden themselves and see what they can get away with. Rather than just incorporating others' ideas, they want to come up with something that other people will have to react to. You want employees who are motivated, who are thinking about teir projects away from the office, who are excitedly telling their friends what they're working on now, and if all they're doing is upgrading what's been done before, you're liable to lose some of that energy.

There will be times when your firm needs to slow down, perhaps taking stock of changes in your business environment so you can decide where to go next, or maybe just pausing to catch your collective breath and take a well-deserved break. But if you have employees who really want to explore and create and innovate, then don't stay in such a holding pattern for too long. Apple didn't have much new this year, but next year, they may need to be thinking a bit bigger, not just for their customers, but also for themselves.

None of this is to say that Apple is about to see a mass exodus of its employees. For many people there, improving their existing products to take advantage of new ideas and opportunities is a fantastic thing, and they'll be quite happy to continue tinkering and improving and generally linking emerging ideas together in new and different ways. But for others, they came to Apple to explore new possibilities and develop something no one else has come up with yet. That's the allure of someplace like Apple, or Google, and possibly even your firm. As a leader, you should understand your employees' motivation and what it will take to keep your Creatives happily engaged. The last thing you want is for your most creative -- and most valuable - -people to leave because they feel unchallenged.