Exclusive: How to Inspire Innovation in Your Company

Serena Garner

Effective leadership and innovation in the workplace have become gold-standard goals in business. Together, they produce some of the most successful companies in the world. From Amazon to Novartis, Tesla to Netflix, ambitious business people seek out the key components to create the right culture under the best leadership.

Key Qualities of Innovative Leaders

Embracing Change

By definition, innovation is change. No endeavor can grow and remain successful by doing business the same way forever. New competitors come into play, new technologies improve workflow, and new ideas disrupt old ways. Innovative leaders not only recognize this core aspect of innovation, they embrace it for themselves and encourage it in their staff.

For example, if your company specializes in developing mobile apps, as a leader you should encourage updating your system and processes to create apps for the newest devices. Offer your staff new technology and software so your iPhone app development is at the cutting edge of the industry and functions on the latest versions of iOS coming out of Apple.

Taking Risks

Change involves risk. Bringing in new staff, creating new goals, and exploring alternative methods can fail as well as succeed.  A leader that inspires innovation in their company accepts the possibility that their ideas might not work out, while having confidence that they will.

Innovation truly only happens when good ideas leave the page and become executed in reality. Understanding the value of risk – and its consequences – leads to creativity.

Understanding Teamwork

The days of the solitary visionary producing innovation are past. In today’s fast-paced, global marketplace, innovation arises from teamwork. From small startups to multi-level corporations, this concept still holds true.

Successful implementation of ideas needs a variety of skills that complement each other. Innovative leaders recognize that team success translates to company success. They build teams that work together instead of supporting lone achievers.

Key Qualities to Create a Culture of Innovation

Setting Goals

An inspired leader sets goals that create challenges. A workforce challenged in positive ways rises to overcome the obstacles and achieve their goals. Setting solid goals and showing employees that they can achieve success builds enthusiasm. A keen eye toward assigning projects and responsibilities that caters to staff strengths, allows individuals to contribute, and encourage collaboration instills confidence in the workforce.

Inspiring Commitment

Studies show that demonstrating to team members that they have value produces higher engagement. By understanding employees’ goals and acknowledging that they matter as much as company goals, innovative leaders provide a positive environment that rewards achievement and commitment.

Fostering Creativity

By removing obstacles to achievement, innovative leaders allow employees to make better decisions. Insteading of micromanaging or demanding strictly metric results, leaders allow individuals to make their own decisions, guide them along the best course of action, and engage with team members on new ideas.

Treating teams and their members as participants in decision-making rather than as task workers leaves room for new ideas and greater individual leadership.

Innovation is a Process and a Culture

Through inspiration and collaboration, leaders that focus on innovation bring together the best talents and skills to achieve success. Employees who believe that their personal success and the company’s success are intimately related experience higher levels of engagement with their work. Leaders can keep themselves involved with the ongoing process of projects by nurturing staff to do the best they can, while letting them have room to participate in their own growth.

Innovative leaders remain as engaged with employees as they do with the strategizing, management, and project assessment. By instilling a sense of pride, contribution, and value on an ongoing basis, a culture of innovation naturally develops that leads to higher employee satisfaction and retention, and ultimately greater success.