Innovation Engineering 101 : Part 3
The Innovation Leadership.
This part outlines how you can use innovation leadership techniques to motivate your team and build an effective innovation culture within your organization or team. It also discusses some of the key challenges that leaders face when implementing an innovation program, such as balancing short-term tactical objectives with longer-term strategic goals and managing uncertainty during times of uncertainty.
The Innovation Leadership.
I believe that the most important element of innovation leadership is the ability to keep your team motivated.
The more motivated your team is, the more successful you will be. There are many ways to motivate people, but when it comes to innovation and creativity, there are two key factors:
- Knowing what motivates each individual on your team.
- Understanding how to best manage these motivations.
Be flexible
Innovation leadership is not about creating an environment where everyone on the team feels empowered to come up with ideas and implement them immediately. Instead, it is about creating an environment where each person feels empowered to come up with ideas and then manages those ideas through a structured process that ensures they have a high chance of success.
This requires a certain amount of creative control over the team’s idea generation process while still allowing for some freedom in how those ideas are implemented. This can be difficult at times because some people feel like they don’t have enough freedom while others feel like they aren’t being given enough direction. This is where the motivation factor comes in. Each individual on your team is motivated by different things and it is up to you as the innovation leader to discover what motivates each person on your team and then how to best manage those motivations.
As an innovation leader, you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each member of your team. You need to know what they are good at and what they are not so good at. You also need to understand their motivations, both short-term and long-term, so that you can encourage them in the right direction while discouraging them from going off track.
The first step in managing motivation is knowing how each person on your team prefers to be motivated — what motivates them and how much motivation do they need? Some people like a lot of positive feedback about their work while others prefer a more structured approach where they are given specific goals for accomplishing a project or task. Some people have trouble thinking outside of the box while others are creative geniuses.
The next step is to find out what each person fears most. Does the person on your team who is not good at thinking outside of the box fear that he or she will never be as good as the other people on your team? Is the person who always wants positive feedback afraid of negative feedback about their work?
What are each person’s strengths and weaknesses? What motivates them and how can you best manage that motivation? What do they fear? How can you use those fears to motivate them or prevent them from getting off track?
As an innovation leader, you need to know all this about each member of your team because it will help you manage their motivation in a way that will help them work better with each other, produce better results and be more effective in achieving common goals.
As a manager, you also need to understand how everyone on your team prefers to be motivated so you can encourage them in the right direction while discouraging them in the wrong direction.
For example, if you have a team member who is not good at thinking outside of the box and is afraid of negative feedback, but he or she is also a perfectionist, then your best bet would be to provide positive feedback and encourage them to be more open-minded.
You can also use their fears as opportunities for motivation. If you find out that someone on your team fears receiving negative feedback about their work, then you can use that fear as a way to motivate them to do better work.
The same applies for each person on your team.
Have your tricks
Now that you know what motivates each member of your team, how can you use these insights? Here are some ideas:
- Motivate individuals by using their needs and fears to motivate them in the right direction :
If one of your employees is not good at thinking outside of the box and they fear receiving negative feedback about their work, then start providing positive feedback about their work, and encourage them to be more open-minded. - Motivate the team by using the needs of the group:
If you notice that the group is struggling to come up with new ideas, then think about what motivates each member of your team individually. Then, use their individual needs to motivate them as a group. For example, if you have a team member who is very creative and loves receiving positive feedback, but another team member is afraid of failure, then you can start providing positive feedback to the first team member and encourage them to share their ideas with others (even if they are not perfect). - Motivate the team by using the needs of individuals:
If you have a team member who is afraid of receiving negative feedback, then you can start providing honest and constructive feedback to them in a private setting. - Be aware of how others motivate themselves:
If you know that one of your employees is motivated by making their parents proud, then be aware that they will feel less motivated if they hear negative feedback from their boss or colleagues. - Define what success means for your company:
If you know that your company is having problems with innovation, then define what innovation means for your company and how you want employees to measure it. - Make sure that the goals of the team are clear :
If your team members are not clear about what they need to do in order to reach those goals, then make sure that they know how their performance will be judged.
Track achievements to progress.
The Innovation Leadership is responsible for tracking the progress of the innovation team. They will use the information collected by the team to determine if they are on track with their goals. The leader will also be able to determine where they need to make changes in order to ensure that they get what they need from the team.
The Innovation Leadership will be responsible for tracking all tasks assigned by themselves and others. They will also be responsible for managing any tasks that have been assigned by others or by outside parties such as customers, vendors, and partners. This includes making sure that these tasks are completed according to the deadlines.
Achievements are a record of your progress. They are the result of all the work you have done in the past. The more achievements you have, the better your chances of success on any given project.
Track both your team’s and your own achievements. When you do something well, make sure to document it so that you can refer to it later on. Also, make sure that others know about what you have done ; a pat on the back goes a long way!
Track your progress in terms of both team and personal goals. As with achievements, it is important to track both what has been accomplished as well as what still needs to be done. This will give you an idea of where you stand in relation to your goals and how much more work you have to do.
Track your progress against specific milestones. This will help you stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Track the team’s members personal growth and development as an innovator through regular reflection, planning, goal setting and learning activities. Make sure that you are growing as a team and that this is reflected in your work.
You can track the progress of your innovation in terms of:
- Development
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Implementation
- Continuous Innovation
- Creating a culture of innovation
- New business opportunities
- Patents
- Licenses
- Know-how
In this part, I have tried to explain that innovation is not a random process. As in any other field, it also has a set of procedures and methods to follow. The main focus of innovation leadership is to look at the current state of affairs and identify the problems. By following the tips mentioned above, we can bring about change in our way of thinking and create innovative ideas.
This post is a contribution to the ongoing discussion of this topic. I hope it will be useful to you, and that you will share your views with me on the subject.
Part 1 : How to use open innovation for your team ?
👉 Here
Part 2 : The Innovation Imperative.
👉 Here
