Innovative Leadership – The Building Block Of Successful Organizations

Innovation and creativity are critical to the management of people and projects. Therefore, leadership that inspires productivity in new ways and takes different approaches is often characterized as creative. It is imperative to apply innovation in times of uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk. Hence, companies and industries that often face these challenges can benefit from hiring innovative and creative leaders.

But how do you foster innovation? The answer lies in how top innovative leaders approach it in contrast to business thinking. While business thinking is more logical and stems from the past, creative thinking is more intuitive and foresighted. Innovative leaders know exactly how to pick out the right ideas and follow through with them to success.

The most innovative and best empowering leader is the one who not only displays adaptability to change, experimentation with new ideas, and a vision of the future, but also creates three successful building blocks for the organization: innovation toolset, innovative skillset, and innovative mindset. Let’s look at them in detail and the actions that leaders can take to implement them.

Building Block 1: Innovation Toolset

The first building block for a successful organization is the innovation toolset. One can implement various tools and techniques that can help famous financial leaders enable the youth to develop unique ideas.

For instance, the two most common approaches of thinking self-imposed boundaries are brainstorming and mind-mapping. Another instance can be a straightforward prototype, which can execute and test ideas without considerable investment.

Building Block 2: Innovation Skill Set 

The second building block is the innovation skills that will foster innovation. At every level, organizations need to possess innovation to succeed. Managers at the lower levels manage their teams and the creative process. In contrast, middle managers facilitate collaboration between different groups, while top managers develop an innovation strategy and create a culture that encourages innovation.

To become a famous empowering leader in India, one must seek change proactively. A market leader, innovative entrepreneur, and fast-follower CIO can, thereby, drive significant change quickly.

Building Block 3: Innovation Mindset

Innovation mindset is the third building block. It is impossible to use innovation tools and skills without an innovation mindset: the attitudes and actions that encourage rather than inhibit innovation. Innovation mindsets involve being curious, optimistic thinking, and exploring perspectives.

Embracing these three building blocks is vital to the objective of the intention to become the best empowering leader. Famous financial leaders like Sanjiv Bajaj, who have been known to be inspiring and tech visionaries for their roles in fostering business innovation, can be followed. Sanjiv Bajaj is the visionary entrepreneur at the helm of affairs at Bajaj Finserv. His role in accelerating ‘digital’ in the banking industry has been built upon an innovative toolset, skillset, and mindset ethos.

As a financial disruptor, he has been able to foster a sense of ownership amongst employees – thus giving them the means, the encouragement, the environment, and the tools to innovate some of the best consumer banking products and services in the country. He is therefore not only an innovative entrepreneur but also a famous empowering leader in India who is known for inspiring people to ‘think like owners’ and ‘pursue differentiation’ to build unprecedented solutions to address the unsolved challenges of the market.

So, the question is, how do innovative leaders like him make it possible? Here’s a breakdown:

•   Make a change plan. This requires the development of a strategic approach to innovation at the senior level. As a lower-level manager, enlist the help of colleagues to champion change in your sphere of influence and approach decision-makers who can mandate that change be implemented.
•   Make a consistent model of the steps an organization needs to take to become more innovative. If, for example, you want to foster long-term innovation, then do not use day-to-day metrics as factors in your strategic decisions.
•   Strategic issues should be shared with the entire organization. It promotes collaboration and stimulates creative ideas from all levels of the organization.
•   To address strategic issues, form highly diverse teams. Having a variety of perspectives often results in fresh and unexpected ideas. You must, however, ensure that they don’t become bogged down in differences that limit their effectiveness.
•   All should have access to the innovation toolset. A wide range of tools, methods, and experiences should be available to those creating and implementing new ideas.
•   Create a system that fosters innovation. It is important to remember that creative ideas may originate from freewheeling brainstorming sessions, but they will require a structured approach for implementation. A good example is prototyping new solutions.

The Rising Importance of Innovative Leadership

With rising technology, businesses are evolving at the speed of light every single day. Innovation, therefore, has become perhaps the most essential component of ensuring business continuity and growth. It’s either be innovative or risk falling behind and losing.

Top innovative leaders have an eye on the future, not just in the short term but also in a long time. As such, employees are more likely to offer alternative business practices only if they trust their leadership. The success of an organization is a team effort, and the same is valid for fostering innovation.

Therefore, innovative leaders let the entire team take the forefront by implementing the right culture, systems, and resources and providing the chance to collaborate and the freedom to make mistakes. This ensures a stronger drive to achieve one’s vision without the risk of being left behind.

Summary

Innovative leadership has emerged as a new-age style of leadership that enables entrepreneurs and their teams to lay down the building blocks of organizations brick by brick. But this is not a run-of-the-mill style. Innovative leaders need to implement the right balance of innovative toolset, mindset, and skillset to encourage bright ideas and ensure they are pursued diligently. This blog teaches about these three innovation building blocks for every organization and how new-age leaders implement them successfully.