Tendencies

When working with a team, Inventive team members will often offer creative solutions and ideas. Their forward thinking and analytical capabilities can lead to thoughtful, new approaches to old barriers. Inventive team members are typically energetic and passionate when coming up with and sharing new ideas.

Potential Pitfalls

Inventive team members are likely to produce many ideas. This can lead to idea-overload for other team members, as it can be a lot to process at once. Their energy can also be overwhelming when the idea ball starts rolling. Inventive team members are prone to drawing attention to their ideas, may come across as competitive, and are highly sensitive to criticism.

Build Team Excellence

Teams can rely on Inventive team members to get unstuck. Count on these individuals for original ideas during brainstorming sessions and when working through the toughest barriers. Keep the ideas focused and manageable by providing Inventive team members with a clear objective for time spent together and by using data to drive problem-solving discussions. Once the team decides on a direction, the Inventive team member’s adaptability, reasoning, and resourcefulness can be harnessed to determine creative ways to implement the solution. It is important to minimize criticism of an Inventive team member’s ideas. Rather than directly shutting down an idea, explain why an alternative direction is more appropriate.

Personal Growth

You tend to produce lots of ideas and can easily fill up a whiteboard with solutions. Take a notepad to meetings and write down all your ideas and solutions. When it’s time to share or brainstorm, decide which ideas are most aligned to the objective or problem to be solved and offer the best from your list. After offering one idea, consider intentionally holding back on sharing your other thoughts until a few other team members have time to process and share their ideas.