Characteristics of Creative People

Personal Characteristics 

According to Gilda Waisburd, a specialist in creativity, the traits of creative people are as follows:3 

• Flexible (they go beyond the obvious) 

• Fluid (they generate many ideas about a problem) 

• Elaborative (they expand the task in detail) 

• Tolerant of ambiguity (they stand up well to conflict) 

• Able to see the whole (they take a systemic approach) 

• Inquiring (interest in many disciplines) 

• Sensitive to the interests of others (they understand others’ needs) 

• Curious (interested in “playing” with things) 

• Independent (they come up with ideas of their own) 

• Reflective (they think about what they see and hear) • Action-oriented (they go beyond thinking and the idea to act) 

• Able to concentrate (they work in a consistent manner) 

• Persistent (they don’t give up easily) • Committed (they get involved with things) 

• Sense of humor (they are able to laugh and use humor to put things in perspective) 

Personal Qualities Frank Barron, Howard Gardner, Calvin Taylor, Robert Sternberg, E. Paul Torrance, and Robert Weisberg, all distinguished theorists on creativity, generally concur that creative people exhibit the following qualities 

 • Verbal fluency 

• High IQ 

• Imagination 

• Ability to influence others’ and one’s environment 

• Ability and propensity to take risks 

• Interest in properly defining the problem to be solved 

 Common Resources of Creative People 

• Use metaphors 

• Use images 

• Use logic 

• Usually ask themselves the “why” in what they observe