A company’s ability to innovate and make striking changes repeatedly keeps it in the game for a long time. To tap the fresh value-creating ideas of creative employees and those of its partners, customers, and suppliers beyond its boundaries is the true difference between normal and game-changing organizations.
Innovation has become a core driver of growth, performance, and valuation. Managers often misunderstand the difference between a creative team and an innovative team. A creative mindset can lead to a “different” outcome sometimes. Still, an innovative perspective opens the curious doors of the mind every time, resulting in fresh conceptual products every time.
How a leader reacts to situations sends powerful messages to their subordinates. Change is naturally connected with innovation, diverting attention and resources away from efforts to meet short-term performance targets. Innovation, more than any other project, may necessitate executives encouraging employees to win their hearts and minds. A company needs innovative leaders in its fold to steer the wheel of growth onto an innovative side. A positive leader automatically transforms the team forcing team members to innovate and create daily.
Networks further create a cycle of innovation since fresh ideas appear to inspire additional new ideas. Furthermore, effective networks enable people with various types of knowledge and approaches to problem-solving to share and cross-fertilize ideas. Leaders extract value from current resources by focusing on getting the most out of innovation networks rather than undertaking a large-scale change management effort. Innovative companies use social-network analysis to diagnose existing networks and determine their characteristics, such as the frequency of collaboration and cross-functional connections among members, as well as identify persons who pay attention to information and expertise. By clarifying the mindsets of individuals and groups, this type of knowledge can also play an important part in building effective, innovative results.
A recent survey observed that companies that encourage and promote innovation are much happier and more productive. When innovative leaders are at the center of things, it is beneficial for innovative employees to express their ideas and suggestions smoothly. This naturally leads to teams being effective, employees being productive, and the companies being profitable. This ripple effect of innovation is observed in most companies that are change-makers in their respective fields. These companies dare venture from the usual standards into the unknown lanes of innovative ideas. This approach may or may not lead to a successful outcome but sets an innovation culture in the organization. That is the only thing that matters, “Mentality Over Results.”