COEUR - BCM
Business Creativity Module
Critical Thinking and the
Creative Personality
Carolyn McNicholas
Aberdeen Business School, RGU
Key Questions
• How do creative/ entrepreneurial people differ?
• What makes one creative/ entrepreneurial?
• Can anyone be creative/ entrepreneurial?
• Do you need special skills and characteristics
to be an entrepreneur?
• Are entrepreneurs born or made?
Personality Traits
Strong need for achievement (Nach) McCelland 1965
• high achievers
• spend time considering how to do a job better or
how to accomplish something important to them.
• They actively seek out opportunities to take
responsibility and
• They welcome feedback on their actions
Risk taking propensity
• Medium, calculated risk takers
• Avoid high and low risk situations
• Ability to evaluate risk
Personality Traits
• Locus of control Rotter 1966
• desire to be in control of their own fate
• High internal LOC
• the achievement of a goal is dependent on their
own behaviour
• Tolerance of ambiguity Schere 1982
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have an open mind,
respond quickly to change,
need to know only the key facts
have a flexible attitude
Personality Traits
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Desire for autonomy Birley and Westhead 1993
high need for independence
Smith 1967- fear of external control
Determination
Initiative
Creativity
Self confidence
Trust
Personality Traits Chell, Haworth and Brearley
(1994) & Chell 2008
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Opportunity recognition/ Opportunistic
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE)
Social competence
Intuitive
Innovative
Imaginative
Proactive
Agents of change
The ‘Big Five’ based on Costa and
McCrae’s (1992) model of personality
structure
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Chell 2008 p.123
Anxiety, angry hostility, depression,
self-consciousness, impulsiveness,
vulnerability
Warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness,
activity, excitement-seeking, positive
emotions
Fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions,
ideas, values
Trust, straightforwardness, altruism,
compliance, modesty, tendermindedness
Competence, order, dutifulness,
achievement-striving, self-discipline,
deliberation
The Personality Approach
Observations are that:
• Some personality traits can be acquired by people
• Some traits eg high energy, emotional stability are
innate
• Most entrepreneurs do not possess all of the ideal
personality traits
• The validity and reliability of personality scales are
questioned
The Personality Approach
• Entrepreneurs are not homogenous
• Gender, age, social class, nationality and education
make a difference
• Environment and cultural influences must also be
taken into account
• Entrepreneurial decision making is based on the
interaction of many factors (motivations, stage in life
cycle, personal economic context)
Background of Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are:
• Female
• Immigrant
• Socially oriented
• Family oriented
• Rurally based
• Young and old
• Life style oriented (hobby/part time)
• Serial Entrepreneurs
The 10 Ds
Bygrave (2010)
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Dreamers
Decisive
Doers
Determined
Dedicated
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Devoted
Details
Destiny
Dollars
Distribute
Critical Attributes for Success
Brannick 1995
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Numerical ability 1%
Verbal ability 3%
Professional marketing qualification 5%
Computer literacy 5%
Imagination 17%
Observational powers 18%
Personal judgement 24%
Ability to get on with others 27%
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tod1moy8VZM
Desirable and Acquirable
Attitudes Timmons (2008)
Commitment and determination
• Tenacity and decisiveness
• Able to commit quickly
• Disciplined
• Persistent in solving problems
• Willing to undertake personal sacrifice
Leadership
• Self starter
• Team builder and hero
• Share the wealth
• Integrity and reliability
• Superior learner and teacher
Desirable and Acquirable
Attitudes Timmons (2008)
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Opportunity obsession
Have intimate knowledge of customers needs
Market driven
Obsessed with value creation and enhancement
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Tolerance of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty
Calculated risk taker
Risk minimiser/ sharer
Tolerant of uncertainty
Tolerant of stress
Able to resolve problems and integrate solutions
Desirable and Acquirable
Attitudes Timmons (2008) contd
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Creativity, self-reliance & ability to adapt
Creative and lateral thinker
Ability to adapt and change; creative problem solver
Ability to learn quickly
Rely on own judgement & lack of fear of failure
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Motivation to excel
Goal and results orientation
Low need for status and power
Aware of weaknesses and strengths
Have perspective and a sense of humour
Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
Kaplan 2009
• Passionately seek to identify new
opportunities
• Pursue opportunities with discipline and
focus on a limited number of projects
• Focus on action and execution
• Involve and energise networks of
relationships
So what is an Entrepreneur?
• “Who is the entrepreneur ?” may be
the wrong question
• Why successful entrepreneurs think
the way they do, might be better?
• Thinking processes can be taught, so
we can all be entrepreneurs if we
learn how to develop and evaluate
opportunities
Cognitive abilities
Westhead, Wright & McElwee 2011
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Information acquisition and dissemination
Intelligence, ability with information
Sense making
Unlearning
Implementation and improvisation,
autonomous behaviour, experimentation,
reflection and action
Entrepreneurs Cognitive
Processes (Palich & Bagby 1995)
• Entrepreneurs do NOT perceive
themselves as being more pre-disposed to
taking risks than managers
• Entrepreneurs interpret equivocal data in a
more positive way than managers
– Strengths versus weaknesses
– Opportunities versus threats
Entrepreneurs Cognitive
Processes (Palich & Bagby 1995)
• “What each man wishes, that he also
believes to be true” - Demonsthenes
• Entrepreneurs categorise situations as
having strengths and opportunities, because
the positive attributes, are more salient to
them
Components of Critical
Thinking
1. A set of skills to process and generate
information and beliefs, and
2. The habit, based on intellectual commitment, of
using those skills to guide behaviour
It is contrasted with the mere acquisition and
retention of information alone, (because it
involves a particular way in which information is
sought and treated)
Core Critical Thinking Skills
Interpretation
Analysis
Critical
Thinking
Self-Regulation
Evaluation
Inference
Explanation
Source: Facione, P. A (1998)
Attributes Of A Critical
Thinker Ferrett 1997
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Asks pertinent questions
Can/does admit a lack of understanding or information
Has a sense of curiosity
Is interested to find new solutions
Is willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions
and weigh them against facts
• Listens carefully to others and can provide feedback
• Seeks evidence to support assumptions and beliefs
• Can/does adjust opinions when new facts are found
Hemispheres of the brain
Ornstein 1896
The left side handles language, logic and
symbols.
• Information processing; step by step
• Systematic thinking
The right side takes care of the body's
emotional, intuitive and spatial functions.
• Information processing; intuitive
• Unsystematic thinking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinning_Dancer
Right brain thinking
Lewis 1987
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ask if there is a better way of doing things;
challenge custom, routine and tradition;
be reflective – often deep in thought;
play mental games, trying to see an issue from a different
perspective;
realise that there may be more than one “right” answer;
see mistakes and failures as pitstops on the route to
success;
relate seemingly unrelated ideas to a problem to generate a
solution; and
see an issue from a broader perspective, but have the
ability to focus on an area in need of change.
Critical and Creative thinking
Kirby 2004
Entrepreneurial skills
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communication skills, especially persuasion;
creativity skills;
critical thinking and assessment skills;
leadership skills;
negotiation skills;
problem-solving skills;
social networking skills; and
time-management skills.
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http://www.get2test.net/index.htm
Online test of entrepreneurship
http://www.personalitytest.net/quizzes/quiz3/index.htm
Online test of right/ left brain
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