Leadership is an evolution of competencies and behaviors that inspires team members to achieve success. Competencies include creating a vision, emotional intelligence, managing conflict, strategic planning, and financial acumen. Being able to show innovation in leadership is one of the most essential of these competencies.
Because businesses change rapidly, leaders need to understand and address how these changes influence people and their behaviors in achieving performance goals. The measure of success is the ability of leaders to be innovative in their approach to managing the organizational dynamic.
A short list of potential innovations in leadership includes:
- Interest in getting to know team members
- Willingness to take risks
- Research
Interest in Getting to Know Team Members
People respect leaders that take an interest in knowing their likes, dislikes, and motivations. Try incorporating a process that will allow team members to communicate what is important to them. This action is easily achieved in a questionnaire that includes responses that will allow you to understand:
- Actions the leader may take to better interact with the team member
- Triggers for success or actions that prompt an unfavorable response
- Motivation factors
- Preference for praise (some people do not prefer hoopla, and this is information that you should have before planning the big surprise lunch!)
Willingness to Take Risks
All leaders need to take risks, a practice that creates a framework for leaders to try something new. Move beyond the standard scope of comfort. Doing so will help you achieve a new direction filled with infinite possibilities. To get to this level, you have to be willing to plan big! This action also requires letting go of previous actions that have kept you from moving forward.
Release past failures or mistakes and turn those experiences into a platform for success. Use brainstorming or mind mapping to develop a list of ideas that help you accomplish organizational success.
Finally, create a vision board to depict where you want to be. Good or bad, taking risks and learning something new is much better than staying in the safe zone and avoiding the unknown.
Research
Research is a valuable tool. In terms of leadership innovation, it helps you better understand the organization, its culture, and your team members. The research will broaden your knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work.
Partner with other leaders and team members to gain valuable information regarding organizational culture. This will improve your ability to make effective decisions. The research will also ensure a balanced and unbiased approach to business outcomes.
For example, suppose you are looking for a way to implement a new scheduling process for network updates by engaging team members. In that case, you may learn about a specific element of the change that could have been a costly oversight.
In this case, incorporating team members in the research phase of the process will yield valuable information for the organization while appealing to team members’ engagement.
Culture of Success
So, what’s the point of innovation in leadership? The point is to build a culture of success and a mutual exchange of ideas in order to navigate changes within the organizational landscape. Innovation in leadership is the heartbeat of organizational accomplishments.
By incorporating the ideas described in this article, you will demonstrate an ability to expand the capacity of your leadership skills while creating an improved culture of organizational success.
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