The EQ Leader

Chapter 14Pillar IV: Developing Innovation

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

—ANTOINE DE ST. ÉXUPERY

Innovation

Innovation Definition:

1. Foster ingenuity, imagination, and autonomous thinking:
2. Understands the importance of taking risks, spurring ingenuity, imagination, autonomous thinking, values knowledge, and challenges seen as learning opportunities.

What does it take to be an innovative leader? How much impact can you have as an innovative leader on the organization? In a series of studies, the McKinsey Institute looked at the gap that exists between the leaders who want to innovate and their actual ability to innovate.¹ They report that, according to their surveys, 70 percent of senior executives claim that innovation will be one of their top three drivers of growth for their companies over the next few years. They also found that 65 percent of senior executives were somewhat or less confident about their decisions in this area.

While there are no accepted best practices to foster innovation as yet, there is near unanimous agreement among top executives that people and corporate cultures are the drivers of innovation. McKinsey identified three key people-management building blocks of an innovative organization. The first, and some would say most important, aspect of innovation is to include it in your company's strategic ...