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recognize when new behaviors, skills, or attitudes are called for to deal
with a problem or issue or situation.

Leaders who are intellectually stimulating tend to continually ask

questions, constantly probing for information about the effectiveness of the
organization. They talk to their constituents and customers and listen
carefully to them before making up their own mind. Assessment and
feedback are critical if people are to recognize that the competencies and
their associated skills they currently possess are insufficient. Getting

reliable information continuously about how they are doing is an
important way for people to know that change is necessary.

The motivation to learn is unlikely when people are comfortable with their
current way of thinking and doing. When faced with a new challenge,

most people tend to draw on what they already know or respond in the
way that they usually do. Furthermore, the more expert and specialized a
person becomes, the more his/her mindset becomes narrowed and the
more fixated he/she becomes on confirming what they believe to be
correct. Consequently, when confronted with new and different ideas, the
focus will be on conformity. Does this idea conform with what he or she
knows is right? If not, management and staff will spend all their time

showing and explaining why it can't be done and why it can't work. 119

Even the approach to learning how to be more creative may not be as
effective as it could be if an individual has a narrow and fixed mindset.
With that attitude, he or she will not look for ways to make it work or get it

done because this might demonstrate that what he/she regarded as
positively and absolutely correct is not that way at all. Conversely, a
creative person wants to know what is working and what is not. An
important source of information for this type of leader is to know about the
failures and mistakes that are being made so that they can be learned from

and corrected. 120

The leader must know, must know he knows, and must be able to make it
abundantly clear to those about him that he knows. Clarence B. Randall.

119 http://www.creativitypost.com/create/twelve_things_you_were_not_taught_in_school_about_creative_t
hinking.
120 John Bryson and Barbara C. Crosby. Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in
Shared-Power World. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992, p. 3.

David Kolzow 108