Creativity is a valuable strength for leadership. It enables innovation, helps solve complex problems, and makes it possible to imagine new strategic directions. But when it is overused or poorly channeled, it can become a derailer: ideas multiply, priorities become unclear, and teams no longer know what to do.
This article explains how the Imaginative derailer, measured by Hogan Assessments’ HDS (Hogan Development Survey), can turn innovation into confusion. It also shows how highly creative leaders can develop strategic self-awareness in order to connect their ideas to execution, clarity, and business objectives.
For executives, HR leaders, and Talent Management professionals, the issue is strategic: creativity creates value only when it serves collective performance. Without structure, it can undermine a leader’s credibility, team trust, and organizational effectiveness.
Most of us have encountered a leader who uses meetings as a personal brainstorming session. Everyone leaves feeling confused or uncertain about the next steps.
That same leader may also have a reputation for rapidly expressing several vague ideas at once. These ideas may even be so unclear that they seem contradictory. Yet the leader still expects the team to implement them.
There is a strong chance that this leader is showing the dark side of creativity. At Hogan Assessments, this behavior is called Imaginative. It appears when imagination derails performance and teams suffer from the resulting confusion and lack of direction.
Short definition — The dark side of creativity: The dark side of creativity refers to the point at which imagination, originality, or idea generation becomes counterproductive because it creates confusion, disperses attention, or prevents execution.
Innovation and creativity are strengths measured by Hogan personality inventories: the HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory), the HDS (Hogan Development Survey), and the MVPI (Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory).
In the HDS, the Imaginative scale evaluates the extent to which these strengths can become career-limiting liabilities by weakening a person’s effectiveness.
Creative, unconventional thinking serves leaders well in their day-to-day work. But it becomes counterproductive when it is overused or poorly applied. Hogan Assessments calls this phenomenon derailment.
Derailment most often occurs during periods of stress, boredom, or complacency, when the person is no longer paying attention to their behavior. Imaginative is one of the 11 derailers — one of the dark-side personality characteristics that Hogan Assessments assesses using the HDS.
Short definition — Imaginative: In the HDS, Imaginative refers to a tendency to think in original, creative, and unconventional ways, which can become counterproductive when it results in ideas that are unrealistic, scattered, or difficult to execute.
Short definition — Derailer: A derailer is a behavioral tendency that can become problematic when overused, particularly under stress, boredom, pressure, or reduced self-control.
Leaders with high Imaginative scores generally demonstrate unconventional thinking, curiosity, and innovation in their daily work.
But when stressful or boring circumstances trigger Imaginative derailment, these same leaders may appear disorganized, easily distracted, or even confused. Their creative energy then overtakes practical execution.
An excess of creative thinking can make leaders seem eccentric, lacking in judgment, or overly confident.
In practice, the problem is not having many ideas. The problem appears when ideas are not connected to a decision, a priority, a responsibility, or a clear action plan.
In this video, Jaclyn Menendez, PhD, Talent Solutions Manager, explains Imaginative behavior through a concrete example and shares practical advice for managing creative derailment.
This expert insight shows that the Imaginative derailer is not merely a matter of personal style. It can directly influence team performance, quality of execution, and an organization’s ability to turn ideas into results.
Innovation, vision setting, and creative problem solving are highly sought-after strengths when creativity serves business strategy.
But highly creative leaders, such as Steve Jobs, who illustrated this pattern, can create serious problems for their organization if they derail frequently.
Their imagination derails performance when they propose unrealistic ideas that teams cannot implement, when they believe they have a unique understanding of complex problems, or when they make decisions based on instinct rather than data.
Erratic behavior creates confusion within the team. Employees may feel overwhelmed by the flow of ideas and frustrated by the lack of clarity.
Short definition — Strategic creativity: Strategic creativity is the ability to generate original ideas that clearly serve business objectives, organizational priorities, and collective performance.
For a leader, creativity must therefore be connected to three simple questions: Does this idea serve the strategy? Can it be executed? Does the team understand what it needs to do next?
Imaginative derailment can damage leadership credibility and team trust.
When leaders jump from one idea to another, their erratic behavior weakens the team’s trust and can make them appear scattered. When they propose unrealistic ideas that teams cannot implement, this creative chaos erodes confidence.
Unconventional speech or behavior can also make them seem strange or unusual. When spontaneous ideas repeatedly fail to inspire, the downstream effects can include weakened trust, increased disengagement, and higher turnover.
Short definition — Creative chaos: Creative chaos occurs when an excess of ideas, shifts in direction, or ambiguous formulations prevents the team from understanding priorities and executing effectively.
In organizations, teams do not only need inspiration. They need to understand what is a priority, what should be tested, what should be abandoned, and what should be implemented.
Leaders with high Imaginative scores should reflect on why they share their ideas and how they choose which ideas to share.
Creative leaders can prevent derailment by recognizing the moments when their imagination needs strategic framing.
They should ask themselves one essential question: “Does this creative thought advance business objectives, or does it derail team performance?”
This question transforms the creative impulse into leadership discernment. It helps the leader distinguish a useful idea from an attractive distraction.
Several development activities can help highly Imaginative people strengthen their strategic self-awareness.
Leaders should identify what triggers their Imaginative derailment: stress, boredom, a lack of accountability, or something else.
Keeping a list or progress-tracking tool for specific ideas can help them limit distraction and follow through on commitments.
Their team members would likely benefit from guidelines on how to challenge or clarify their thinking. These leaders may also find value in a validation partner who can give them feedback — someone willing to say clearly, “Here is why this will not work.”
Short definition — Validation partner: A validation partner is a trusted person responsible for reviewing a leader’s ideas, testing their feasibility, and providing direct feedback before implementation.
For a creative leader, this type of partner is not a barrier to innovation. It is a quality mechanism that helps transform ideas into stronger decisions.
Direct reports need clear direction from Imaginative leaders.
Team members should ask which ideas actually require implementation, then document precise timelines and expected actions.
To limit excessive idea generation, teams can distinguish brainstorming sessions from strategy sessions.
In a brainstorming session, the goal is to open up possibilities. In a strategy session, the goal is to choose, prioritize, and decide.
When teams clarify how proposed actions affect other teams or connect to business strategy, this structure channels creative energy productively. It also provides a reasonable way to push back against unrealistic ideas.
Short definition — Brainstorming session: A brainstorming session aims to generate a large number of ideas without immediately trying to sort or execute them.
Short definition — Strategy session: A strategy session aims to select priorities, arbitrate between options, define responsibilities, and connect decisions to business objectives.
In practice, much confusion arises when these two types of meetings are mixed. Teams believe they are receiving decisions while the leader is still exploring ideas.
Leaders with an innovative disposition must closely monitor their Imaginative behavior.
Strategic creativity balances imagination and execution so that innovation serves organizational objectives without derailing team performance.
When creative leaders manage their behavior, they can channel imagination toward outcomes that advance business strategy instead of creating confusion.
In concrete terms, this means moving from idea generation to execution discipline. The leader must help the team understand which ideas deserve experimentation, which ideas should be put on hold, and which ideas are not aligned with current priorities.
An Imaginative leader can become extremely valuable to an organization when they learn to structure their creativity.
This can involve several simple practices: writing ideas down before sharing them, explicitly connecting them to a business objective, seeking a dissenting opinion, defining feasibility criteria, and clarifying whether the team should explore, decide, or execute.
For teams, it is also useful to ask precise questions: What is the priority? Which idea should we implement? What problem are we trying to solve? What results do we expect? What deadlines must we meet?
These questions do not reduce creativity. They make it usable.
Short definition — Strategic self-awareness: Strategic self-awareness refers to the ability to understand one’s strengths, behavioral risks, reputation, and impact on others in order to adapt one’s leadership to the context.
Jaclyn Menendez, PhD, is an industrial and organizational psychologist. She leads the consulting team at Hogan Assessments.
Creativity is essential to modern leadership. Organizations need leaders who can imagine the future, challenge existing models, and propose new solutions. But imagination becomes a risk when it is not connected to execution, data, priorities, and collective clarity.
The Imaginative derailer, measured by Hogan Assessments’ HDS (Hogan Development Survey), shows how a valuable strength can become counterproductive when overused. A creative leader can inspire, but they can also disorient. They can open up possibilities, but also scatter the team. They can stimulate innovation, but also weaken trust if their ideas remain vague, unrealistic, or constantly changing.
For executives, HR leaders, and Talent Management professionals, personality assessment is a strategic tool for identifying these risks, developing strategic self-awareness, and helping leaders transform imagination into impact.
Sustainable performance does not depend on creativity alone. It depends on the ability to combine imagination, discernment, execution discipline, and team trust. When mastered, creativity becomes a driver of innovation. When it derails, it becomes a source of confusion. The leader’s role is to make the difference.
