“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Creativity and innovation are the hallmarks of great civilizations, great companies, and great leaders. People like Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney built thriving companies producing products that changed the world.
Even in organizations where innovation is not a goal in its own right, leaders are required to innovate as they adapt to new situations. They must propose and then implement new ways to approach each problem. An effective leader develops new insights into situations, questions conventional approaches, and encourages new ideas and innovations.
This often results in leading the team to design and implement new or cutting-edge programs/processes, to be discussed next. A good way to make creativity a habit is to come up with one new idea every day, not necessarily to adopt every idea, but rather to think like an innovator.
What does it mean to be a creative & innovative leader? Can it be learned? While there is no one answer to the first question, like every habit in PerfectCoaches, it can be developed over time by identifying specific characteristics and turning these into actionable behaviors or habits.
How could you practice developing new insights? By coming up with three alternative strategies for each situation or problem? By questioning conventional approaches? As a leader, striving to measure whether or not you practiced each leadership skill every day, innovation is a challenge. Here’s one measure: Did you encourage one new idea today, yours of someone else’s? Yes or No?
Recent research by innovation consultancy Lucidity identified that lack of time is the single biggest barrier to innovation within organizations.
Read MoreIt turns out that you can teach yourself to be more innovative after all.
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