Sometimes it can be easy for leaders just to tread water, especially when things seem to be going well. Yet in truth continued creativity and risk taking is critical to leadership success. Why?

Leadership success is about finding new or better ways of doing things or meeting needs of customers or clients.

Leadership success is about finding different solutions to long standing problems or issues that are getting in the way of results.

Leadership success starts with an idea or concept that needs to be developed.

Leaders need to be willing to dip their toes into the pool of uncertainty without fear of failure.

No decision or action comes with a warranty or guarantee: there is risk in every decision or choice.

In these highly competitive and fast moving times pushing the boundaries personally, as a team and as an organisation as a whole is not an option but a necessity.

So if you are seeing creativity and risk as being bad or something to avoid, think again. It is not just critical but essential to your success as a leader.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to realise their true potential and maximise their earning. You can sign up for his free audio masterclass here www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

Sadly in some organisations there are real barriers to creativity. So what are some of those barriers to which you need to be alert?

Barrier 1: We Are Not In A Creative Sector

You may not be an organisation that is in the creative sector but that does not mean that you should not be looking at different ways of doing things.

Barrier 2: I Don’t Have Time

As a leader there are two very distinct but interrelated roles to consider: taking care of the present and building long term sustained success in the future. It is easy to fill your schedule with the here and now and fool yourself into believing you have no time.

Barrier 3: Being Passive

By that I mean waiting for someone else to come up with the answer and then trying to lift it and shoe horn it into your organisation.

Barrier 4: Over Control

Much is said and written about employee engagement. The fact is employees will only engage if they feel that if they come up with an idea it will be given appropriate consideration. If you want to control everything you will never get creativity.

Barrier 5: No Incentive

Take a look at the reward structures in your organisation. Do they reward people who come up with good solutions or do they just treat people as if they are all the same?

Barrier 6: Fear of Failure

Every organisation needs to take some degree of risk. Those risks might result in successes sometimes and failure at other times. If you fear failure, your organisation, team or function will always be sub-optimal in terms of results. We often learn more when we fail than when we succeed.

Barrier 7: Complacency

The minute you think you have it cracked you are in dangerous waters. Just look at organisations that were around in the past who are not any longer. Don’t ever think that you have it all cracked.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to take advantage of his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

The teams were mixed up again, with Noorul leading what turned out to be the winning team and Paula leading the losing team.  The big learning point from this week was that it is often the most basic of mistakes that can be the most costly.

So let’s compare both of the teams.  As a team leader, Noorul was clearly not leading and any time where a decision needed to be made he looked like a rabbit in the headlights.  There was absolutely nothing in the way of creativity and the product, particularly the soap was awful.  When it came to selling he just could not do it, despite the fact that in one of the clips he would rate himself 10 out 10 when it came to selling.  Yet despite all of this he and his team delivered a profit of just under £500.

Paula by contrast was a great team leader.  She took decisions, made things happen, a good example being the sale of the remaining stock as a single batch.  She was creative and pretty dynamic on the whole.  So what was the big mistake that was made?  Choosing a hugely expensive fragrance and not considering the financial consequences.

So what in summary are the leadership lessons can we learn form this week’s show?

1. A great product, with good marketing and selling is not enough
2. Crunching the numbers might be dull but essential to running any successful organisation
3. Delegation need to be clear and unambiguous
4. It is important to be self aware
5. When in a situation of conflict, choose your tactics wisely
6. Not being an expert in something is not a defence.  If you are the leader, the buck stops with you.

You can watch The Apprentice in the UK every Wednesday evening at 9pm or on the BBCiplayer