Values: The Backbone of Personality

In coaching, personal values play a central role. They are the backbone of our psyche, holding up our personality—much like our skeleton keeps our body upright. In German, there’s a playful distinction between aufrechte Haltung (an upright posture) and aufrichtige Haltung (a sincere attitude). When, in our daily lives, we are forced to twist our values to the point where no amount of clever storytelling can set us straight again, emotional distress, frustration, or even depression start to creep in.

That’s why it is so important to explore and nurture our values.

My Own Creativity Crisis

Throughout my career, I have often stumbled over the concept of creativity. And right now, as I type these words, I am begging mine to just sit beside me for a second. Here I am—a grumpy old critic, quick to judge the “creative lives” of others—humbly submitting myself to your judgment: Am I even a little bit creative?

But let’s not talk about my creativity. As a coach, it is not my place to decide whether creativity is one of your values—as long as you are satisfied. But I do hope I have planted a small, unsettling question in your mind: Am I truly creative? Take a moment to think about it…

Creativity: A Scientific Voyage of Discovery

…And if you’re still here, another question might have popped up: What even is creativity?
At least, that’s how my lab-conditioned mind works, shaped by the mundane routines of everyday science. I could not resist spending hours—days, even—buried in papers and books: maybe to find a solid definition from expert colleagues, or perhaps to uncover a few empirically backed tips from social research that could give our creative expressions a boost.

I found what I was looking for—the real starting point of this blog—in an insightful and entertaining book, L’Homme augmenté (The Augmented Human) by Raphaël Gaillard (head of psychiatry at Sainte-Anne Hospital and Paris Cité University).

In a chapter titled “Einstein’s Nap,” Gaillard describes the work of Delphine Oudiette’s team (Brain Institute). Their research shows that in that half-asleep state—the sweet spot—the contents of conscious and unconscious thought blend together with the rhythm of brain waves. Woken at just the right moment, you might boost your creativity during the waking phase. Fascinating! I want to dive deeper into this elsewhere. But for now, I am sticking to my original quest: finding a concrete, usable definition of creativity for coaching.

The Standard Definition: Originality + Effectiveness

After digging through the references, I landed on Jaeger and Runco’s article, “The Standard Definition of Creativity” (yes, there is a Journal of Creativity Research!). Their two-part definition: Creativity = Originality + Effectiveness. I am going to interrupt the philosophers and language purists here—no need to elevate the definition game to the next level. I am rather sticking with the article, which cites a 1950s author (Stein, 1953):


‘A creative insight arises from a reintegration of already existing materials or knowledge, but when it is completed it contains elements that are new‘.


And for effectiveness: ‘Creative work tends to be useful for some group, and thus that social judgment is involved‘ (Jaeger and Runco, 2012).

Now we have something to work with! To be creative, we need to find a way to novel, uncommon solutions—what might be termed an ‘internal frame of reference’ (Stein, 1953). However, we must also engage with the ‘external frame of reference’ if we wish to be recognized as creative. These are two concrete avenues for science-oriented coaching in general, and for coaching scientists in particular.

Scientists: The Eternal “Seekers”

Scientists—or chercheurs, as the French so aptly call them—are, by definition, doomed to seek the new. You might struggle to believe just how difficult this task is, even for the most logical or original minds. . Legend has it that even the brightest among the scientists received his theory of general relativity in a dream (Einstein’s nap). But even small discoveries—the kind that do not upend entire paradigms—are rare in a scientific career. This makes neuroscientific findings like the Sweet Spot study all the more exciting, as they indicate that creativity can be fostered through empirically grounded methods.

Even more fascinating for a coach is the social judgement—that external frame of reference revealing where and how to live, defend… or sell our originality.

This is life coaching at its best, .. and I cordially invite you to it.

The Crucial Question: Am I Creative ?

For those still wondering if they are creative, psychologists have designed tests. One classic is the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS). I have adapted it for you—you can download it here with my amateur instructions. A warning: the physicist in me screams for objective measurements… but the evaluation remains subjective. You are the one scoring yourself.

A Final Postscript 

As previously mentioned, this blog is dedicated to your creativity, not mine. However, I wanted to lead by example and—it must be said—indulge my vanity a little. 

It is interesting to note that the literature identifies various domains of creativity, the number of which varies depending on the author. Antiquity recognized nine (the Muses), whereas Kaufman himself proposes five (Kaufman, 2012). My wife clearly belongs to the artistic domain, possessing considerable craft-based talent, particularly in ceramics. Here, originality reigns supreme, as does the energy she brings to living out and expressing that originality (external frame of reference). Yet even my vanity hesitated to venture into this realm. I did, however, give the mechanical/scientific domain—or perhaps even the scholarly domain—a chance to satisfy my creative ego. But Kaufman was ruthless: it was all nothing but copying and plagiarism—and thus, devoid of originality.

I cannot help but smile when thinking back to my own external framework—social impact. Nevertheless, I would be delighted to receive any comments you might have.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. The next one will be dedicated… to scientific intuition.

References:

• Gaillard, R. (2024). L’Homme Augmenté. Grasset
• Lacaux C. et al. , Sleep onset is a creative sweet spot, Sci. Adv. 7, eabj5866 (2021). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abj5866
• Runco M.A. and Jaeger G.J., The standard definition of creativity, Creativity Research Journal 24 (2012), 92.
• Stein, M. I., Creativity and culture. Journal of Psychology 36, (1953), 31–322.
• Kaufman, J.C., Counting the Muses: Development of the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS), Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 6 (2012), 298.