INNOVATION | LEADERSHIP
Innovative Leaders Only Get What They Deserve
A story about leadership and innovation
Rather, leaders get the type of innovation that they deserve.
Nikola Tesla may have been more brilliant than Thomas Edison, but Edison had huge successes that changed the world, and Tesla died pennilessly.
What Edison had that Tesla didn’t is what professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Nathan Furr of INSEAD business school call innovation capital. (Allen, 2018)
So what did Tesla lack that Edison grasped as critical to success, a factor he deemed more important than invention?
The answer: innovation capital.
What is innovation capital?
According to Frederick E. Allen, “innovation capital” is a combination of strengths:
- The “skill at leading innovation”
- “Powerful connections with other leaders”, and
- The “ability to make big things happen”
Allen also said that leaders “with the greatest” for “innovation capital today” encompass four essential qualities:
- A “reputation for innovation (looking at media coverage over five years)”
- A network of “social connections (on Twitter and LinkedIn)”
- A “track record for value creation (based on the market value growth of their companies)” and
- The ability to meet “investor expectations for future value creation (measured by the premium investors put on their companies’ stock)”
This article will explore innovative-leadership.
Creative Flow
Not all ideas work out as planned. The ones that do can transform a business from a struggling startup into a global mega-brand.
Innovative leaders adopt a unique style, an approach that’s playful, inquisitive and bold in nature. They initiate gatherings, not designed to grill employees on financials or project performance, but to liberate the creative flow of the collective brain-power.
Break the rules
Abstract ideas are encouraged by innovative leaders. They push people to share thoughts that may even embarrass, why? because they want everyone to be comfortable with abstract thought — ideas can never go too far.
If you’re a leader you should know that leaders set the tone for innovation. As a leader, everything you do or say sends a message, what's acceptable, expected even. Steve Jobs told the Apple Mac team:
“We’re here to put a dent in the universe.”
His actions and words gave those around him permission to push boundaries. He unshackled their fears to do amazing work. He expected nothing less.
Make a dent
As a leader Jobs knew the difference between mediocre participants and brilliant innovators, the journey from ugly creation towards beautiful invention. A turbulent path that requires a leadership style that inspires others to break things, mostly rules bound by convention.
Leaders that focus on the future prepare people for the unknown.
Thinking and talking about the future influences others to believe that the impossible is possible. Consumers expect innovative brands to deliver the impossible tomorrow.
Innovators are jail-breakers
Focusing on the present is not conducive with innovation or innovative leadership. Employees who spend their valuable time doing what they believe is possible in the present are prisoners.
The here-and-now mindset is a trap, a cell that arrests creative thought, governed by rules relevant today.
Employees work hard every day to achieve month-end objectives, deliverables that distract them from what customers really want now, or next year.
Invest in imagination
Imagination is an investment that precedes innovation. It takes time to imagine the future, so innovation is unlikely to occur if those charged with this task are bound by short term thinking and time-poor.
Investing time to invent is the only recipe that reaps dividends tomorrow.
Leaders are vital for innovation. The way they talk, walk and think envelops innovation. Workers seek leadership-cues. Direction. Guidance. Inspiration. Unsaid non-verbals ignite the type of change that can redefine everything.
Revolutionary innovation depends on game-changing leaders who inspire others to believe that their future destination is worth temporary pain.
Final Thoughts
Innovative leaders possess the ability to make people feel and believe that the future is possible. They convince others that the path to tomorrow is both desirable and highly valuable.
Innovators lead by selling a vision of original invention.
A difficult task, yes, one that's dependent on factors like:
- The company ethos
- The team i.e. people
- The culture
- The innovative vision
- The appetite for change
- The drive and ambition for change
There are three types of innovative leaders, but one is style is the most effective:
№1 — The egomaniac
The egomaniac has huge expectations but lacks a sense of what can be achieved in the time available.
These colourful, brash megalomaniacs behave alarmingly. They exhibit traits and behaviours that are divisive, childish, argumentative, and unrealistic, compounded by temper tantrums.
№2 — The introvert
The introvert is unassuming. Egoless. They avoid attention, the media. They are team orientated, making decisions about people, process and rewards in order to instill innovation on a cultural level.
They work quietly behind the scenes, removing barriers and bottlenecks that stand in the way of invention.
№3 — The Omni-vert
The ideal leader is someone who blends #1 and #2 above. Crazy at times, irrational and childish too, but can step back at the right time to allow others to flourish, bask in the flow of innovative thought.
Innovative leaders are practical, methodical facilitators with the ability to spark human creativity with timely and artful execution of:
- Ass-kicking, or
- Just shutting-up
Great leaders are fluid and perform best when they simply get out of the way. Take Dr Mehmet Yildiz for instance, a leader who subtly steps aside to make space for his team to probe and explore at will.
Bruce Lee captured the essence of innovate-leadership when he said:
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” — Bruce Lee