All roads lead to Rome: Navigating the creative process using the CIP model of leadership

To advance our understanding of a leader’s role in the creative process, this chapter argues that it is critical to embrace a more nuanced perspective of creativity and effective leadership. First, as per recommendations in the literature, it is essential to utilize a process perspective of creative performance. Next, to facilitate the examination of a leader’s influence on creative performance, this chapter argues that the charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic (CIP) model of leadership is particularly well suited as a framework for dissecting the contribution of leaders across the various stages and the entirety of the creative process. This chapter provides a detailed description of a process perspective of creative performance, an in-depth discussion of the CIP model of leadership, and subsequently outlines several propositions related to CIP leaders influencing creative performance. Additionally, limitations of the CIP model of leadership are identified and other future directions are highlighted for further investigation. Ultimately, this chapter aims to highlight the ability of the CIP model of leadership to advance the study of the relationship between leadership and creative performance.