You might know that, in addition to being the founder and creative leader of Thinkergy, I am also an academic who shares my passion for creativity and innovation with master’s and Ph.D. students. One of the less glamorous aspects of being a Ph.D. advisor is the significant amount of time it demands. However, one of its marvelous rewards is the opportunity to broaden your horizons by gaining deeper knowledge of adjacent topics and delving further into the subjects within your domain expertise.

This is precisely how I found myself collaborating with one of my Ph.D. students, Alicja Pawlaczuk, and my colleague, Dr. Ronald Vatananan-Thesenvitz, on a bibliometric analysis of Creative Leadership (CL). Creative leadership has been a passion of mine for over 15 years, resulting in seven research papers on how to develop creative leaders both effectively and creatively, as well as a forthcoming book on my Genius Journey method. When my Ph.D. student expressed a shared interest in this domain, it presented the perfect opportunity to adopt a systematic approach.

Together, we combined our strengths: my domain expertise and qualitative insights derived from a systematic literature review of seminal works in the field, paired with Dr. Ronald’s quantitative rigor. The outcome? A triangulated investigation that culminated in an award-winning paper, Mapping the Landscape of Creative Leadership.

Why Creative Leadership Matters

Creative leadership is emerging as a critical capability for navigating today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. This niche domain lies at the intersection of business creativity, innovation management, and leadership studies, equipping leaders with the know-how and mindsets needed to inspire, empower, and drive innovation in dynamic environments and to seize the opportunities of the Sixth Wave of technology innovation.

Organizations are increasingly recognizing creativity as a must-have skill. Numerous studies by IBM, Deloitte, and McKinsey emphasize its importance in fostering adaptability, innovation, and growth. Yet, until recently, creative leadership lacked a comprehensive academic map—an absence that inspired us to embark on this bibliometric journey.

A Bibliometric Dive into Creative Leadership

Bibliometric analysis offers a structured, data-driven approach to map and analyze academic landscapes. Using tools like Bibliometrix, we systematically reviewed and quantified research trends in creative leadership. Our study was guided by key questions:

1. What are the dominant perspectives and seminal publications in the field?
2. What emerging themes have gained traction in recent years?
3. Where are the perceptual gaps in understanding creative leadership?

The process involved mining hundreds of articles from academic databases like SCOPUS and EBSCOHost, clustering themes, and visualizing connections between authors, keywords, and publications.

Key Findings

1. Temporal Evolution of the Creative Leadership Domain

Our analysis revealed three distinct periods in the development of the CL domain:

• Integration Period (1990s):
  Initial attempts to conceptualize creative leadership by merging creativity and leadership concepts to establish the domain's theoretical foundation, characterized by basic organizational and leadership concepts.
• Growth Period (2000-2017):
  Expansion in conceptual frameworks and empirical studies, such as moving from individual creative leadership skills to a creative leader’s impact on organizational creativity or the role of a creative leader in driving and facilitating the creative process.
• Synergy Period (2018 onward):
  Increased interdisciplinary research and methodological sophistication, including linking creative leadership to evolving innovation ecosystems or investigating the performance implications of CL.

‍2. Thematic Clusters in the Creative Leadership Domain

Four dominant clusters emerged through thematic network analysis:

• Leadership Development:
  Preparing future creative leaders to drive innovation and growth appeared as a well-developed and highly relevant research area (and is also one that I am most focused on and am passionate about).
• Innovation Management:
  Integrating creativity into team climates, organizational culture, and systematic innovation practices, such as using creative process methods and tools to facilitate innovation in structured ways.
• Leadership Approaches:
  Examining transformational, empowering, and visionary leadership styles as subforms of CL.
• Organizational Performance:
  Investigating how creative leadership drives measurable outcomes and performance in organizations.

3. Thematic Evolution of the Creative Leadership Domain

When investigating how researchers view the field, we identified three dominant research perspectives:

1. Individual-Level: This perspective examines the domain through the lens of a creative leader's personal creative capabilities (such as mindsets, skills, and routines). This focus, my preferred area of interest, blends individual creativity with the development of creative leaders.
2. Organizational-Level: Another strand of literature explores how creative leadership drives organizational creativity and connects it to innovation management.
3. Process-Level: The third perspective examines creative mechanisms from the standpoint of creative processes and tools, while also addressing their methodological foundations.

‍4. Emerging Themes in Creative Leadership

More recent research explores digital transformation, sustainability, and crisis leadership as new focus areas of CL. These themes reflect the evolving challenges leaders face in an increasingly complex, interconnected, and unpredictable VUCA world, as well as two of the three main intersecting technology spaces of the Sixth Wave of technology innovation.

5. Bridging Gaps, Shaping Futures

Despite its noticeable growth over the past decade, the creative leadership domain still has many gaps to address. For instance, cross-cultural perspectives remain underexplored, and creative leadership in virtual work arrangements is only beginning to receive detailed examination. Our study also highlighted opportunities for more integrative methodologies and a greater focus on CL’s role in shaping diverse industries and sociotechnical systems.

A final significant gap we identified is the need for the CL domain to expand its focus from conscious creativity to the sub- and superconscious realms of creativity—an approach exemplified by Thinkergy’s mindsets-based Genius Journey method for creative leadership development.

A Personal Note on the Journey

For me, this project was as much about the process as the outcomes. It was a joy to blend my qualitative domain expertise with Dr. Ronald’s quantitative skills, pushing the boundaries of what we know about creative leadership. The icing on the cake? We received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE-sponsored 2025 9th International Conference on Management Engineering, Software Engineering, and Service Sciences (ICMSS) in Bangkok, where we presented our findings. It was a gratifying moment that validated our collaborative efforts.

Closing Thoughts

Being a Ph.D. advisor may take time, but it offers profound rewards—like collaborating on projects that expand knowledge and make meaningful contributions to the field. As we celebrate this milestone, I’m excited to continue exploring creative leadership and sharing insights through Thinkergy. Stay tuned for the release of my upcoming Genius Journey book, which is planned for next year. Together, let’s inspire and develop more creative leaders to embrace creativity in maneuvering today’s complex world and seizing the opportunities of the Sixth Wave of technology innovation.

• Learn more about creative leadership and how to develop creative leaders in Chapter 7 of my new book, Unleashing Wow!
• Ready to evolve yourself into a creative leader? Learn more about how we develop creative leaders effectively and creatively with our Genius Journey method.
• What’s on your innovation agenda for 2025? Are you looking to create new value propositions that wow the world? Do you want to grow your business creatively? Are you considering a pivot to stay ahead of technological and market changes? Or do you aim to transform your team, business unit, or organization creatively to ride the Sixth Wave?
  Whatever your creative breakthrough needs may be, contact us today to discover our innovative methods, training programs, and workshops.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2025.

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