INNOVATOR is the other name for LEADER

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

– Steve Jobs

In our VUCA[1] world, multiple disruptions (the pandemic is only the latest incarnation of such global disruptions) challenge the purpose, the mission, the processes, and even the survival of our organizations. They also challenge the way we see, think, act, and lead. And because almost everything must be reinvented or changed, sometimes radically, we can say confidently that the organizations that succeed now and will thrive in the future are those led by and populated with innovators. 

How do innovative leaders see and think?

What is their relationship with knowledge and novelty?

How do they act to make their organizations a great place for innovation?

Great leaders are innovators by default.

They innovate in their views of the present and the future and in the ways they lead their organizations towards the future. Great leaders’ innovation derives from and results in seeing differently and having different perspectives. It also has a different ground, a different relationship with the knowledge and the certainties it engenders. 

Innovators are leaders by default.

They lead the new ways of seeing and thinking. It takes courage and leadership to dare to question the status quo, to see differently, and to open up new pathways.

Great leaders and innovators:
– See differently
– Think differently
– Approach data and knowledge differently
– Act differently

Innovators observe and see differently.

They explore and connect perspectives from different fields: they are not afraid to transgress the rules of disciplines and their boundaries; they acknowledge the conditionality of disciplinary-based seeing what we have named ‘science’, ‘art’, ‘design’, etc. They know that these boundaries have been created by the limits and the limitations of our knowledge and by our methods of observation. And they challenge these limits by enriching their methods of observation and by creating new perspectives. Leaders are inspired by nature’s lack of walls, by its masterful design of seamless and harmony. When the innovator’s different seeing crystallizes into a unique, distinctive and inspiring outlook of the future, we call it a visionary leadership.     

Innovators question differently. 

They know that novelty starts with questioning and defying the status quo. Innovators have their questioning mechanisms always ‘on’. They are better equipped to capture the changes in their environment and to look for new perspectives and solutions. For innovative leaders, the questions are more important than the answers and the certainty of knowing. They focus on the questions because the questions bring openness while the answers too often bring closure. Therefore, for the innovators, the questions always outnumber and are at least two steps ahead of the generated answers. However, innovative leaders do not only question the status quo; they go further and explore the knowledge and the certainties that led to its reign. 

Innovators think differently by approaching data and knowledge differently.

They don’t succumb to linear or discipline-based models of thinking that have been engrained in us by our education. They prize the importance of the questions that lead to new knowledge and to informed ignorance because they know that innovation is grounded in knowledge but knowledge is not its territory.Innovation travels the lands of the unknown as much and as often – if not more – than the lands of the known. True innovation emerges in and from the gray zone between the known and the unknown: this is its genuine territory. Great leaders and innovators operate from this gray zone, with different from the common mortals’ approaches to knowledge and learning. 

Innovators act differently.

Innovative leaders do not innovate for themselves. They are connected to a higher purpose and they innovate for the common good. Innovative leaders also do not innovate by themselves. They innovate in and through their organizations and the people they lead. They inspire innovation and creativity in others. They promote a culture of innovation in their organizations. They learn unceasingly and continuously invest in developing themselves and their people.  

Great leaders don’t manage people. 
Great leaders inspire people and their vision, creativity, originality, and search for meaning. And thus, they ignite people’s contributions.

How do innovative leaders do this?

  • They recognize that there are multiple perspectives on everything; they refuse black-and-white visions and navigate the ambiguity of the grey zones.  
  • They stimulate diverse thinking and views.
  • They operate not within but from the edges of current knowledge.
  • They challenge organizational culture of compliance. Compliance is not the innovators’ cup of tea. They acknowledge its limits and the risks of withering imagination and creativity. 
  • Where others see errors or problems, innovators see opportunities to learn and act. 
  • They lead with courage. They take risks. They know that smart risk-taking is what too often distinguish a leader from a manager.
  • They reveal the colours in others and preserve the colourful birds in their organizations. 
  • They promote experimentation and creativity by linking people and ideas and by creating interactions that inspire new thoughts and designs.
  • They stand by ethical leadership grounded in humanistic values and they are always conscious of the impact of their actions on their people and communities.

True leaders are – like no one else – aware of the biases in their organizational data and knowledge. Swear by the data available today is to ignore a basic rule: every bit of progress builds on the revision of the facts and/or of the exploration tools used yesterday. Innovative leaders know that changing the methods of data collection and/or examination leads to new observations and therefore to new perspectives and findings. Seeing one’s seeing is – for innovative leaders – a door opener to new worlds and new opportunities.   

Genuine leaders build resilient organizations. They achieve it by constantly developing and innovating. Their fields of innovation for resilience include organizations’ mission, structures, processes, people, and relationships. The pandemic crisis has demonstrated once again: organizational resilience goes hand in hand with innovation. 

In our VUCA context, innovator is – like never before – the other name for a genuine leader. The one that dares to see, question, think, and act differently. In ways that draw the line between a leader and a follower. And most importantly, that create new meaning and positive futures in people, organizations, and communities’ lives. 

Is your organization a magnet for innovators?

Do you want to populate it with leaders-innovators?

Contact us to engage in discussion and action to achieve this goal and to learn about our program Innovator is the other name for Leader.

©Blagovesta Maneva-Sleyman. All rights reserved.

[1] VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.