The Most Creative Teams Are Empowered By Trusted Leaders

Thesis: Empowered Teams Are More Creative (And Make Better Games)

Supporting Point 1: Empowering teams, by delegating and giving people authority and responsibility over their work, is something that's delivered great results throughout my career. While this sounds simple, I've learned that creative empowerment doesn't work as intended unless combined with a clearly communicated vision and complete trust in your team. When properly implemented, this leadership style has been the driving force behind the most successful games I've been involved with.

Supporting Point 2: Research presented in the Harvard Business Review suggests that "empowering leadership can motivate employees and fuel their creativity", but crucially (and often overlooked) managers must "understand that empowering leadership has its limits and that factors like trust and experience affect how their behaviors are perceived".

Supporting Point 3: Companies like Valve and Respawn promote employee empowerment, and the results have been impressive. Valve is known for letting employees work on things they are passionate about (and desks on wheels); while at Respawn they "work to create and nurture a family culture where trust and support for one another empower our talented developers to achieve more together".

Fun Fact: Adobe has been on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 19 years; amazing! According to Small Biz Club this is due to Adobe's employee handbook, which clearly defines goals and responsibilities to workers and then lets them work without micromanaging. In turn, they've harnessed incredible creative innovation from their employees while keeping them engaged and happy.

Conclusion: Empowerment is proven to lead to more creative teams, but only if done properly; with trust, communication, and focus.

Extra Credit: Inspire others by sharing your own story about empowerment leading to creativity, whether as a leader who's empowered others or someone who's been empowered. You can also "like" the comments of those who do share, to show your support.

—

About Chris Hewish

Chris Hewish is a veteran game developer, executive and entrepreneur who's helped many great teams ship over 50 games earning over $1B. You can follow him on LinkedIn and his website www.GameCraft.games.

#empowerment #empower #creativity #creative #harvard #videogame #valve #respawn #empower #trust #gamecraft #entrepreneur #game #developer #smallbizclub #samsofy.fr