Why This Underrated Trait Separates Top Leaders from the Rest As innovation outpaces predictability, data-driven decision-making is no longer enough. Leaders who harness creative intelligence will be the ones who shape the future.

When the world feels volatile, it's tempting to double down on what's familiar: performance metrics, hard data, and a proven business playbook. But this instinct often comes at the cost of the skill leaders need most right now: thinking creatively in the face of the unknown.

For decades, data-driven leadership has dominated the C-suite. Yet in a market shaped by AI disruption, economic volatility, and eroding customer trust, companies that rely solely on logic and analysis risk being outpaced by visionary competitors. In fact, studies show a strong correlation between creative innovation and financial performance.

As the leader of an entertainment technology company, my team and I have had the chance to work with some of Hollywood's most brilliant creatives – the kinds of people who dream up universes on a napkin. Their unbounded imagination is inspiring, but creativity in leadership can't just be about ideation for its own sake.

What leaders need today is creative intelligence: the ability to think laterally inside constraints, ask sharper questions and make bold yet practical decisions that move the business forward. And it's fast becoming a prerequisite for navigating uncharted territory.

The good news? Creative intelligence is a skill that can be developed individually and organizationally. Here's how.

Stay curious and open to nuance

Today's leaders need more than good instincts; they have to be able to see around corners, spot what nobody else sees and challenge their own assumptions. Research shows that the most innovative leaders spend up to 30% of their day exploring new ideas. Often, this boils down to noticing what others overlook and finding ways to act on it.

I often see this ability (or lack thereof) show up in dealmaking. Too many people get stuck on their own singular objective and miss the nuances within the back and forth. On the flipside, taking on the perspective of the other party to explore how they may think about their situation often leads to a significantly better outcome.

Dr. Vicki Medevec, a negotiation expert and Northwestern University professor, built her high-stakes negotiation framework around this idea. One of her key concepts is BATNA – the best alternative to a negotiated outcome. Understanding what matters to the other party, including what they'll do if the deal falls through, gives you powerful insight. When you can offer unexpected value relative to their alternatives, you create space for real movement.

The key here is that data alone can't help you plan for these kinds of opportunities. It requires attunement to human motivation and a willingness to solve problems with unconventional ideas.

Related: 12 Things First-Time Leaders Need to Succeed

Design a personal creativity practice

We're all born wildly creative, but as author Ken Robinson famously observed, many of us lose that spark as we grow. In my experience, even fewer carry it into the corporate world.

I was lucky: I grew up in a household where curiosity and unconventional thinking were encouraged. But I've also worked to hone those qualities over time.

Bill Gates is known for his "think weeks" – time spent solo exploring new ideas. My version is a hike, a walk, or shorter time blocks dedicated to resetting my thought process. I also look to books or podcasts that are loosely adjacent to the challenge at hand, and make a point of talking to peers and subordinates both inside and outside the business. Diversity of input is key to challenging my viewpoint.

Boundaries can help, too. Whenever I'm working on a complex problem, I run through a mental checklist: Is anyone's safety at risk? What are the legal, financial or reputational impacts? Who is affected and how? Defining those edges frees me up to think more expansively – proof that oftentimes constraints focus innovation rather than stifle it.

Cultivate a culture of creativity

Employees need structure and leeway for creative thinking, too.

A change of environment – and the addition of physical movement – can be significant creativity boosters. It's one reason why, a few times each year, we go on a leadership offsite that lets us remove our functional hats, step out of the day-to-day, and look at the bigger picture. It's well worth it: more progress comes out of these two days than we'd get from months of spread-out in-office meetings.

Across the organization, we also work to normalize thinking out loud, asking what-ifs and letting good ideas percolate if meetings need to move on. Not every moment has to be innovative, but establishing a culture of creativity means encouraging lateral thinking and strategic reflection, and avoiding immediately shutting down ideas.

When done effectively, this can pay off: in one survey, over 85% of respondents said businesses are more financially successful when they invest in creativity.

Related: Is AI A Risk To Creativity? The Answer Is Not So Simple

Think beyond shiny objects

There's a misconception that innovation always has to be cutting-edge. In reality, some of the most valuable breakthroughs happen in the least glamorous corners of a business.

For example, we've shaved off months of back-end work simply by building better budgeting tools and legal agreements.

Sometimes, breaking down silos can also yield powerful results. In a recent merger of our consumer electronics and automotive divisions, we unlocked new opportunities with our existing IP. Engineers who'd never collaborated were suddenly pairing up, spotting overlaps, and sketching concepts we'd never considered. That didn't come from new talent or tools; it came from changing who talks to whom.

Creative intelligence often comes down to connecting the dots in ways no one else has thought of to unlock additional value streams. The key here is resisting the shiny and new, and considering instead how you can create impact with what you already have.

Balance creativity with execution

It's easy to dismiss creativity as a luxury, especially if you're busy putting out fires. For many leaders, especially in smaller companies, practical realities leave little headspace for ideation.

One solution? Optimize your business fundamentals first. When your operations run smoothly, you free up time and cognitive bandwidth to think more creatively. That starts with systematizing processes that drain your attention, streamlining workflows and delegating low-value tasks. This is one area where leveraging AI can help, with some studies suggesting it can boost productivity up to 40%.

Creativity alone doesn't grow companies. Great ideas need structure and follow-through. Conversely, resources applied without creative intelligence rarely lead to meaningful results. It's the businesses that can marry the two — expansive thinking and swift execution — that stand to get ahead. Because in a landscape defined by change, the only risk greater than doing nothing may simply be doing more of the same.