Leadership, the road to innovation!

How breaking up old hierarchies leads to an innovative corporate culture.

How do you build an organizational culture that values innovation? How did your company get to where it is today? Did you start as a scrappy startup, work your way into a market leader, or take on a large acquisition? In each case, one key to success was building a culture around innovation that enabled its leaders to innovate and drive change, even when their organization wasn’t sure what that meant at the time (and maybe still isn’t).

Authority in the hand of managers is followed by the obedience of workers, which traditionally characterized the relationship between superiors and their subordinates in a company. The manager gives orders and the worker executes. But management leadership styles need to change to create a strong innovative environment. Companies that want to implement an innovation strategy are required to build an innovation culture. They must be able to create incremental innovation and continuous improvement on a daily basis. A change in leadership style is necessary for companies to become innovative.

It is important to internalize that innovation cannot be imposed from above; it requires the participation of everyone. This new style of leadership includes openness, trust, freedom of expression and the ability to listen and learn from one’s subordinates. It means leaders have to open up and not only let go of their power but also act as coaches and facilitators.

As we look back, we often wonder about our early decisions. Outcomes of innovation leadership include inspiring employees to the create and implement novel ideas for products, services, and technologies. In addition, these novel ideas can also be used to solve problems within an organization. What this illustrates is that innovation spurred by innovation leadership can be translated across various industries and can be used for a multitude of purposes. Ultimately, inspiring and initiating organizational innovation through innovation leadership can serve to advance an organization to the next level.

Written by Christian Wildt