Adaptive Leaders Drive Innovation Via Failure Forward

Innovative leaders know how to foster innovation and tackle tough problems in an increasingly complex economy. One key to success is to embrace trial and error, develop the courage to risk and know failure–and adapt from those failures with adjustments - Accept Risk of Failure.

Innovative leaders face some challenges in large organizations. Big companies offer an attractive machine for carrying out correct decisions, the power of a team all pulling in the same direction, and clear responsibilities producing a proper flow of information up and down the chain of command. But, every one of these assets can become a liability…the big picture can become a self-deluding propaganda poster, the unified team retreats into group think, and the chain of command becomes a hierarchy of wastebaskets, perfectly evolved to prevent feedback from reaching the top.”

Adaptive and innovative leadership focuses on accepting and tolerating failure. Here are three tips toward adaptive and innovative leadership:

Innnovation Quiz

Innovative leaders get out and proactively seek insight from their people about customer feedback, trend patterns and other critical organizational topics. They also have to allow a sense of autonomy within the ranks in order to encourage ownership of job responsibilities. This kind of autonomy allows for, among other benefits, a full- picture perspective of customer sentiment and loyalty to emerge.

How up to speed are you on the innovative ways of companies and high-profile leaders present and past? Take this quiz and find out.

Innovation Killers to Avoid

A lot of things can go wrong on the long journey between the birth of an innovative idea and its actual implementation. Potential breakthroughs fail for many reasons, with even worthy concepts falling victim to the hazards of the development process, a situation that is all the more perilous in this era of stripped-to-the-bone budgets and thin staffs.

The pitfalls for innovation are more likely the result of bad planning than a lack of creativity. There can be a failure to appreciate communications skills, or confusion about what exactly innovation is. In the end, a successful outcome is as much about people as it is intellectual brilliance.

Here are eight innovation killers to avoid:

Are you Engaged?

Only 3 of 10 employees are engaged by their work, according to industry research. While prospects of a future downsizing can certainly act as one type of motivation, workers need more than the threat of a pink slip to feel emotionally committed to company objectives. This is especially true when they’re asked to take on added duties without additional compensation and/or career advancement.

Here are five innovative leadership best practices to keep people engaged by their work:

Two Factors Essential to Leadership Success

David Gergen, author of Eyewitness to Power, The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton, a superb study of presidential power, is correct that the measure of a leader is the willingness to confront problems and seek solutions. That comes down to two factors that are essential to leadership success: