Tips for Innovative Leadership

Some nuggets of inspiration that I have adapted from a blog I subscribe to. I have nothing to do with running a business, but I think the principles are good.

Have a vision for change. You cannot be innovative if you do not know the direction in which you are headed. Innovation has to have a purpose. It is up to the leader to set the course and give a bearing for the future. You need one overarching statement which defines the direction for the business and which people will readily understand and remember. Great leaders spend time illustrating the vision, the goals and the challenges. They explain to people how their role is crucial in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. They inspire men and women to become passionate entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success.

Think like a venture capitalist. VCs use a portfolio approach so that they balance the risk of losers with the upsides of winners. They like to consider a large number of proposals. They are comfortable with the knowledge that many of the ideas they back will fail. These are all important lessons for people who typically consider only a handful of proposals and who abhor failure.

Break the rules. To achieve radical innovation you have to challenge all the assumptions that govern how things should look in your environment. Business is not like sport with well-defined rules and referees. It is more like Art. It is rife with opportunity for the lateral thinker who can create new ways to provide the goods and services that customers want.

Welcome failure. The innovative leader encourages a culture of experimentation. You must learn that each failure is a step along the road to success. To be truly agile, you must give yourself the freedom to innovate, the freedom to experiment, the freedom to succeed. That means you must give yourself the freedom to fail too.

Be passionate. Focus on the things that you want to change, the most important challenges you face and be passionate about overcoming them. Your energy and drive will translate itself into direction and inspiration for your people. It is no good filling your bus with contented, complacent passengers. You want evangelists, passionate supporters; people who believe that reaching the destination is really worthwhile. If you want to inspire people to innovate, to change the way they do things and to achieve extraordinary results then you have to be passionate about what you believe in and you have to communicate that passion every time you speak.