Innovation drives progress. It thrives in environments that reward courage and risk-taking. Leaders who value innovation create cultures that empower people to challenge assumptions, explore new ideas, and improve.
I have worked with teams specializing in technical innovation across several industries. It’s a privilege. This includes coaching many middle-management technical leaders at Apple. People have come to know Apple for pushing the limits of what’s possible. Yet I have witnessed that this is true only when the leader’s senior management inspires innovation as a way forward. Leaders must foster innovation by encouraging boldness, experimentation, and belief in the unimaginable.
Upleveling Innovation
Cultivating an Innovation practice is vital to being an effective leader. It amplifies others’ influence and drives business success. As a leadership influencer, the practice of innovation scales through six progressive impact fields: ignore, block, build, maintain, multiply, and source. Each increasing level of impact includes and transcends the prior levels of capability and engagement.
Each word pair below shows the leadership impact field (e.g., maintain) and the impact potential within the applied leadership practice of inspiration (e.g., ideate). The word pairs signal probable contributions and impacts in the field. Each field cites potential, not a definitive expectation of impact. Leaders can rise and decline at any moment based on various factors.
These impact fields are likely predictors of impact on business results, team engagement, and performance. To shift to a field of more significant potential takes an honest assessment of your current impact and a genuine willingness to create and engage in a development plan.
- Ignore and Boredom—Leaders can’t succeed through innovation in this field. They miss chances to take risks, seek and defend funding, and motivate their team. They have little trust in their leadership and the team’s abilities. In the ignore field, there is a sense of giving up. It has dulled the ability to create direction, passion, and drive. Survival instinct comes before the desire to explore new limits. The environment is stagnant. Employees become disengaged. They grow bored and lose their drive to innovate. Retaining good talent is a challenge.
- Block and Frustrate—Leaders hinder innovation in this field. They see it as irrelevant and distracting. They stop the natural flow of creative thinking to “get it done faster.” Leaders view innovation as competition to current production, processes, resources, funding, and agendas. Fanning the spark of imagination, creativity, and breakthrough solutions is challenging. The focus on pace and outcome limits the ability to assess the value of new ideas. Leadership views people as labor and liabilities rather than enablers of success. There is little passion to engage in risk and trust to foster brave curiosity. Teams are dependent, stuck, and lack self-motivated drive.
- Build and Experiment—Leaders in the build field of impact see innovation and innovative thinking as key to business success. They support funding and creative processes, like stage gates. They aim to help organizations compete better. They encourage experimentation, allowing their teams to test new ideas and take calculated risks. While build leaders support a “take-risks” culture, they value efficiency over developing people. In tough times or a reorganization, they often lack the fortitude to compete for resources and gain SLT champions to sustain a culture of innovation.
- Maintain and Ideate—Leaders generate and refine new ideas in this field. They ensure that creative thinking and risk-taking are part of their team culture. They are vigilant ambassadors of innovation. They see innovation as a pathway to gain an edge. It’s vital to justify the investment. They refine processes to ensure product solutions, like agile development, design thinking, and lean startup. Investing in people in creative ways is vital to growing a business. Yet, leadership often lacks a strong voice to promote enterprise-wide adoption. Teams can feel that they have a leader who fails to fulfill promises. Leaders feel victim to circumstances. They must revert to the status quo to avoid losing ground.
- Multiply and Reframe—Leaders believe innovation fuels business success in this field. They make creative thinking and risk-taking part of their culture. They see innovation as a strategic advantage. They fund and scale innovation management teams and processes. Investing in people in creative ways is critical to growing a business. Innovation is seen as an antidote and an ally. This reframing of change and creative thinking gives teams the power to see problems from different perspectives and unlock new solutions that drive exponential growth and enterprise impact.
- Source and Initiate—Leaders fuel action by fostering creativity, exploring uncharted territories, and empowering their teams to do the same in this field. They embrace risk and have developed a keen capacity to be with VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Decision-making is sophisticated and developed through the lens of probability versus cause and effect. (see Annie Duke’s book Think in Bets). They have a seat at the table, and their voice matters to drive crucial decisions.
Each impact field reflects real-world influence. A leader evolves from limiting their team’s potential to empowering them to reach new heights. To have a significant impact in an organization, all four applied leadership practices must be developed: wisdom, inspiration, innovation, and achievement.
Innovation in Leadership
A leader who creates a brave space for pollinating ideas creates fertile ground for innovation. This practice is born from experience, insights, and the ability to foresee potential challenges. When leaders share their creative ideas, they empower their teams to think critically, learn from the past, and make informed decisions while pushing beyond the status quo.
Innovation-driven leadership allows for risk-taking because it provides a foundation of knowledge that reduces fear. It nurtures creativity because it encourages teams to explore new ways of thinking, supported by the lessons of the past. Innovation does not confine; it expands possibilities by combining what is known with what can be imagined.
Just as Apple disrupts industries by marrying technology with imagination, leaders who promote wisdom inspire innovation, leading their organizations toward breakthroughs.
Self-reflect on Your Impact
A leader can use innovation to shift and visualize their growth. Take an honest look at your leadership. Reflect on these three key areas: block, build, and multiply. Where are you now?
- Frustrate: In this detrimental phase, a leader may stifle innovation by blocking new ideas, fearing failure, or being too focused on control. There is little space for creativity, and teams may hesitate to take risks or propose innovative solutions.
- Experiment: Leaders in this phase start creating environments that support innovation. They encourage learning, provide resources for experimentation, and build a culture that celebrates small wins and lessons from failure. The leader begins to trust the innovation process and allows the team to grow and explore.
- Reframe: A pinnacle of innovation leadership. In this phase, leaders support innovation and multiply its effects throughout the organization. They create self-sustaining systems that encourage continuous experimentation and creative thinking. Leaders scale innovation across the entire organization by sourcing ideas and inspiration from various sources.
Why We Fail to Level Up
What is keeping you from growing in this crucial leadership practice? Here are three typical challenges I see in my coaching practice. Which one resonates with you the most?
- Fear of Failure: One of the most significant barriers to innovation is the fear of failure. Leaders who are uncomfortable with risk may avoid shifting from blocking to building. They may see failure as a personal or organizational threat rather than an opportunity to learn and grow.
- Comfort with the Status Quo: Leaders may resist shifting to the “multiply” phase because they are comfortable maintaining current processes. Innovation often disrupts comfort, requiring leaders to embrace uncertainty and push beyond the success of their current model.
- Lack of Trust: Some leaders find it difficult to trust their teams to take risks and explore new possibilities. This can result in micromanagement and a tendency to hold onto control, stifling innovation at its core.
How to Shift Influence
To help leaders shift their focus from blocking to building and from building to multiplying, they can follow this plan:
- Foster a Culture of Psychological Safety: Create an environment where team members feel safe sharing their ideas, experimenting, and even failing. Innovation requires vulnerability, and leaders need to model that behavior by admitting when they don’t have all the answers and celebrating the learning that comes from mistakes.
- Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration: Innovation thrives when diverse ideas come together. Encourage teams to collaborate across departments and disciplines, sharing insights and generating creative solutions from various perspectives. This brings new ideas to the forefront and multiplies the impact of innovation throughout the organization.
- Invest in Ongoing Learning and Development: Equip your team with the tools, training, and resources they need to innovate. Provide opportunities for continuous learning and foster an environment that rewards curiosity and experimentation. When teams feel supported, they are more likely to take risks and push boundaries.
- Measure and Celebrate Small Wins: Shifting to a multiply mindset doesn’t happen overnight. Recognize and celebrate small steps forward in the innovation process. Even in small increments, acknowledging progress encourages continued risk-taking and builds momentum toward more significant breakthroughs.
- Think in Bets: In Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke emphasizes that decision-making is not about certainty but managing uncertainty and probabilities. By treating decisions like bets, we can focus on making choices based on available information rather than outcomes, understanding that good decisions can lead to bad outcomes and vice versa.
The Master Wisdom Key
Innovation is not just a competitive advantage—it’s a necessity. Leaders who nurture courage, risk-taking, and the ability to push beyond what is believed possible unlock the true potential of their teams and organizations. By evolving from block to multiply, leaders can create an environment where innovation thrives, empowering their teams to break new ground and achieve unprecedented success.
A powerful quote that encapsulates the importance of innovation-driven leadership comes from Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple:
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Leaders who champion innovation drive progress and inspire others to believe in the impossible. By fostering environments where wisdom, inspiration, creativity, and risk-taking are encouraged, leaders elevate their teams, pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved and setting the stage for transformative success.
What’s next? Explore the following post to dive deeper into the achievement practice: A Leader’s Guide: Practicing Leadership through Achievement.
Questions? Let’s Connect Now.
Duke, A. (2018). Thinking in Bets: Making smarter decisions when you don’t have all the facts. Portfolio/Penguin.