LEADERSHIP FOR INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL ERA
In this day and age, for your business to survive you need to learn your customers’ specific needs; this is what innovation is dependent on. It is the duty of leaders in any organization to put together the right teams and lead them to the optimal outcomes when it comes to business performance. An effective leader appreciates the fact that people are different, thus he/she connects these dots to foster an environment of continuous growth, innovation, and initiative. Such a leader understands that innovation is not a task meant for a single ‘designated’ individual, but one that cuts across the entire workforce of the company.
The best leaders know that it is through networks that the ball of creativity is set rolling. They encourage their teams to combine their different points of view and years of experience towards bringing something new to the table every now and then. Such strategic thinkers go beyond the product-and-service mentality; they consider new ideas for instance value chains, distribution channels, business models, employee engagement, customer satisfaction and functions of management. They understand the importance of putting all these tricks together for sustainable innovation. They foster a culture among their employees, whereby each team member feels valued and trusted by taking up ideas from them; not only from senior executives.
A creative leader doesn’t have to be the one behind an awesome idea all the time. He/she gives each player a chance to say what they have in mind. He/she then identifies which of the ideas is the best. This leader then carefully analyzes all the facts and presents the best way forward to making the idea a reality to the team and all other players. This way, the enthusiasm towards the idea is made mutual; everyone feels they have to give it their all. Undoubtedly, this leader needs to possess excellent communication skills, superb imagination and a lot of confidence. The tough part is knowing when to ‘quit’. A lot of time, energy and emotion may have been invested towards making a certain project a bad side of it outweighs the good. An excellent leader is one who realizes this early enough and makes the tough call. He/she understands the bigger picture in letting that idea go, rather than deal with humongous losses later, and they take their team through that frustrating moment.
Leadership is not as straightforward as most people deem it to be. In this digital era especially, it has to be strategic, innovation based and most importantly up to date with the changes in the market.