Innovative Leadership Opens The Windows to New Realities
August 24th, 2008Innovative leadership throws open the windows, doorways and
portals to reality. The act of being an innovation leader
involves a search for, identification and recognition of
some innovative opportunity.
What most innovative leadership teams fail to appreciate is
this one simple fact - if you do not “see” the context,
timeframe and cacophony of data associated with reality, you
will never find an abundance of opportunities to innovate.
Your success in innovative leadership depends on following a
few guidelines for finding, deciphering and discerning the
clues hidden in your realities.
When you learn how to peer around, peek in and perceive
through the multitude of circumstances comprising a
situation, you will see your reality for what it truly is.
Peer Around Events With Curiosity!
“To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.”
- Anatole France
Being curious is the hallmark of history’s greatest
innovators. You should broaden and develop a healthy
curiosity about life’s challenges, situations and
problems.
You can read books covering biographies, histories,
spiritual or psychological matters and even economic
developments to increase your perspectives on life’s most
important matters.
When it concerns innovation, being inquisitive about a wide
range of life’s subject matters is a crucial innovative
leadership attribute.
Peek Into Event Horizons!
Every event has a leading and a trailing edge. When you
progress beyond looking at an event, you are accomplishing a
key innovative leadership task.
“We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question
which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a
chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not
crazy enough.”
- Niels Bohr, major contributor to the field
of Quantum Mechanics
Innovative leadership means looking for and delving into
trends, patterns and tendencies. The following questions
show the kinds of inquisitive actions taken by legendary
innovation leaders.
What is being represented by these trends, what is behind
this pattern of behavior, what tends to happen when a
certain type of event appears?
Perceive Through The Veil of Reality!
“He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Innovative leaders always attempt to pierce through the
darkened veils of reality. They are not satisfied with
knowing how some circumstance came to be, they are more
interested in learning why the situation occurred.
Inside the why is the secret reason for the event’s
existence - what was the causal factor, what need was
satisfied, what hope prompted the human action?
As Nietzche, the philosopher, explained, the stronger your
reasons why and the more evidence of reasons why you
possess, the better your chances of knowing how to
successfully perform.
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To the innovative leader all reality is viewed via open
windows. Innovative leadership uses broad knowledge of
various human-related subjects, fanatical curiosity and
intense explorations into causal factors to discover new
opportunities to innovate.
You can easily apply the guidelines provided above to
improve or sharpen your pictures of reality. Use a few
minutes of each day to become the eagle-eyed
reality-perceiver you were meant to be.
“By three methods we may learn wisdom:
- Confucius
There are numerous examples of innovators who used these
exact practices to achieve outstanding innovations in their
products and processes.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, used the trends indicated in
GE market standings to formulate a new strategy for all
their business units.
Steve Jobs of Apple computer understood the need for people
to be connected to their music, content and videos using
their computers in more flexible ways [thus the iPod was
invented].
Thomas Edison used the event of an electric power system to
look for and find a long lasting lamp bulb, so that people
could light their homes and businesses cheaply and
reliably.
It’s now up to you to put these lessons and examples to use
in your own practice of innovative leadership.
Copyright © 2006, Mustard Seed Investments Inc.,
All rights reserved.
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About the Author:
Bill Thomas energizes your innovative leadership & innovations
via Imagination Age methods - his books, software & training
programs empower business skills & processes, improve strategic
advantages, produce tangible value & deliver powerful results!
See how his Executive Briefings, Management Handbooks,
Professional Guides & Innovation Workshops:
“Super-Seed &
Sustain Your Innovative Leadership Power!”
http://www.leadership-toolkit.com/innovativeleadership.php
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