How Highly Successful Leaders Drive Innovation CareerMetis.com

How Highly Successful Leaders Drive Innovation â€" CareerMetis.com Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comInnovation has become an overused, hollow buzzword.Quite the opposite.Martin Reeves, head strategist at BCG’s think tank in New York, offers some startling statistics:The average lifespan of a public company is now just 30 yearsEmployees can expect no more than 15 years of tenure in their current companyThere’s a 30% chance that your business will fail in five yearsClearly, as a leader, trying to surf trends won’t cut it anymore. As I’ve mentioned in my recent interview with the Huffington Post, you have to genuinely, aggressively, passionately innovate â€" your strategy, your value proposition, your culture, and your products.As in, what sort of culture does your leadership inspire? Below are some descriptors to get you thinking:Cautious or inquisitiveServing the C-Suite or serving your customersReactionary or strategicCompetitive or connectedBe honest with yourself.Because where you are stylistically is likely a direct reflection of your company c ulture.evalOften, our approach to challenges evolves as a means of survival. And once the energy is set in motion, it can be tough to undo. But it can be undone.EVALUATE YOUR PEOPLEWhat kind of work does your team produce â€" good, or ground-breaking?If you’re at the good end of the spectrum, you’re not alone. And again, it’s likely a by-product of the classic big business culture in which so many of us function. Where individuals matter more than teams; and where only ideas from senior leadership make the cut.So, now that you know where you are, where do you want to be?evalI suspect that if you really think about it, the roadblocks in your company’s culture have been disturbing you for a while now.HOW, THEN, TO SHIFT THE PARADIGM?Author, leadership consultant, and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan professes that the secret lies in chickens.In her famous TED talk, she quotes a six-generation productivity study that compares a group of diverse hens to a group of continually han d-picked “super chickens.”While the diverse group of hens thrived and grew more prolific, the super chickens destroyed each other. Literally.So, what do these chickens have to do with your team’s ability to innovate?Let’s break it down:Super Chickens = High Potential EmployeesDiverse Chickens = Blended TeamCould it be that the days of relying on an uber-talented SME or a hand-picked first-string senior exec are gone? Check.evalAccording to Malcolm Gladwell, in his podcast Revisionist History, the phenomenon isn’t just showing up in the corporate world.He asserts that sports teams and institutes of higher education are also more innovative when driven by a culture of what Gladwell calls “weak-link networks” Jean Oelwang, CEO of Virgin Unite, said that honest dialogue is a new power, the new success, the new sexy.So, what exactly might this look like?Consider 50+-year-old company, WL Gore. The creators of the material Gore-Tex, and countless other inventions, the culture is known for its focus on innovation. But with a few unique twists.1. There’s No Set HierarchyGore refers to his company’s structure as a “lattice-work”, one of the original matrixed organizations.And when team members from different sections of the lattice come together on a project, they make it a point to distinguish between questioning someone’s idea and questioning the person.By taking the personal element out of it, everyone is free to speak their minds about the work.2. Many Employees Have Been Around for 20+ YearsAnd they’re still active in ideation. In fact, the millennials onboard call them the “Wise Ones”.Whether virtual or in-person, their project teams are multigenerational. Again, everyone has their place. Everyone’s contribution matters.Which brings me to my last point about WL Gore.3. They Don’t Call Their Culture “Innovative”They don’t offer Googly perks like free food and onsite dry cleaning.HR refers to their culture as “conscious”. Meaning, it empowers the individual to mindfully question and create. And amazingly, leaders and associates READY TO LEAD LIKE AN INNOVATOR?Start with these five actions that Stephen Covey coined the “Innovator’s DNA”…Question: Challenge conventional wisdom at every turn, especially when it’s uncomfortable.Observe: Scrutinise everything about your business as though you’re seeing it for the first time.Network: Seek out people who are utterly different from you (and your team) to spark some constructive conflict.Experiment: Tweak, twist, bend, flex, and move in ways that might seem outlandish to see what results emerge.Connect: Don’t limit your sight to your industry, or your comfort zone. Use your vision to connect the dots on a universal scale.Wondering if the approach will work? Personally, I love concrete examplesâ€"especially those coming from outside the corporate world. So I’ll leave you with one.In the late 1950s, a breakthrough American TV series called The T wilight Zone tackled taboo topics like aliens and time travel.The writer and creator, Rod Serling, felt it gave him the perfect forum to question the country’s political status quo.“I found that it was all right to have Martians saying things Democrats and Republicans could never say.”How will you rethink your world?