Innovation stands and falls with leaders

Companies often think that they fall behind in innovating mainly because of a lack of talent or insufficient involvement of employees in terms of creativity. In fact, they have no shortage of new ideas and initiatives but they just ignore them or prefer short-term solutions to long-term ones.

Having the right processes and corporate culture is just as important as having the right talent and skills, as the Human Capital Exchange website explains.

Corporate culture and processes are based on the behaviour and decisions of leaders. So if you want your company to foster innovation, you should focus on leadership development and help your leaders overcome the following obstacles.

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Insufficient cooperation

The best technological experts often do not want to experiment and look for new ways of working. They also feel they do not need the help of others so much. If leaders ignore this, they can soon have companies full of the best but isolated professionals. To solve complex problems better, support groups of experts who will deal with the problems together. Make it easier for them to cooperate by creating the right environment and incentives.

Lack of vision and engagement

Things are changing very quickly today, which makes leaders worry about their companies possibly lagging behind their competitors. Then they rely more on proven practices and prefer short-term profits to long-term strategic projects. Innovation, however, requires not only technically proficient leaders, but also visionaries. Besides a clear vision, the ability to get others engaged is necessary too.

Fear of failure

People are easily impressed by opportunities to create something new and beneficial. However, it may also exhaust them and lead them into blind alleys. Then they start to doubt whether the innovation is actually needed, which leads back to the old proven practices. That is why they need a strong leader able to keep calm and having enough empathy to support their faith in the innovation and help them realise it.

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Article source The Conference Board - Human Capital Exchange - The Conference Board website
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