While leaders are often encouraged to exhibit creativity, greater creativity does not always enhance leader effectiveness. Drawing on creativity typology research and implicit leadership theory, we distinguish between two types of leader creativity: responsive and proactive. We propose that leader responsive creativity aligns more closely with subordinates' prototypical expectations, while leader proactive creativity tends to deviate from these expectations. Considering that subordinates' leadership prototypes vary by hierarchical level, we further hypothesize that the positive effect of leader responsive creativity on leader prototypicality—and, in turn, leader effectiveness—is stronger for low-level leaders, whereas the negative effect of leader proactive creativity is weaker for high-level leaders. Results from two experiments (Study 1 and Study 2, n = 276) and a multi-wave field survey (Study 3, n = 220) generally supported our hypotheses. Overall, these findings show that low-level leaders who exhibit proactive creativity and high-level leaders who display responsive creativity violate subordinates’ prototypical expectations, resulting in diminished leadership effectiveness. These findings extend creativity and leadership theories and provide new insights into the complex interplay between leader creativity, hierarchical context, and leadership effectiveness.
