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Leading Innovation

Innovate on the run: The competing demands of modern leadership

Published September 2007

Innovation is at the heart of discussions about competitiveness and sustainable success. Despite the hype and continuous dissection, innovation remains a mystery to most organizations.

What is it? Who owns it? How can an organization reap its rewards? How can individual leaders nurture it?

This report focuses primarily on the last question. As organizations rely on leaders at all levels to execute strategy and manage the day-to-day business, they also task them with innovation – sometimes as a core part of their job, most often in addition to their many other duties. To explore the challenges and best practices for leading innovation, we reviewed multiple BlessingWhite workplace studies, analyzed leadership assessment data from a wide range of clients, spoke with experts, and conducted interviews with line and HR leaders from a diverse mix of industries.

This report summarizes common barriers to innovation, innovation pitfalls and presents best practices for shaping and sustaining an organizational culture that encourages innovative thinking and fostering innovation. It also details 5 steps individual leaders can take to remove innovation barriers to encourage the creativity & risk-taking required to deliver the specific business innovation that drives commercial success:

1	Align their teams.
2	Inspire action.
3	Coach the right behaviors for employee innovation.
4	Trust and build trust.
5	Swim, in some cases, against the cultural tide to build a culture of innovation.

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In the course of the report we also discuss lean innovation, innovation pitfalls, innovation at work, innovation creativity training, innovation culture, innovation in business, innovation skills, innovation training, leader risk taking, leader risktaking and workplace innovation.