In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at an innovation lesson from nature, how innovation chooses you, and six steps to becoming a true thought leader.
Monarchs and Viceroys – An Innovation Lesson from Nature
From Innovation Excellence:
“Leaders that build a culture of innovation know that their actions will impact the way their employees work. As more organizations begin to rely on innovation management software to both engage and innovate, leaders need to begin using these two key ingredients to engage their employees. Others on your team or department are not only looking to you to make tough decisions, they also replicate your behaviours as well. Like the monarch and viceroy butterflies, your company will survive and thrive through adapting and learning from each other. Make a conscious decision to actively engage in innovative behaviours like collaborating with other teams, sharing ideas and adopt some risk to execute valuable ideas.
Just as it is important for management to be innovative, collaborative, and open, you must also recognize the potential in informal influencers. Informal influencers are respected colleagues that others go to for information, advice, or ideas. Commonly misidentified but powerhouses of driving change, informal influencers play a crucial role in helping your community adopt an innovative culture.”
Why Read It: Nature is the last place that business leaders tend to look for inspiration, but considering how innovative plants and animals have to be just to survive, that may be a big mistake. This article digs into different examples of innovation that exist in nature, and how organizations can benefit from following their lead.
Innovation Starts in the Belly of the Beast
From Wired:
“The journey of Jonah is the same journey of the true innovator. It starts in the belly of the beast.
Innovation chooses you. Sure, you cultivate your own sets of talents and interests and bring those to any project you join, but there is only so much agency you have over any given innovation initiative. If you want to change the world, you need to go where the world needs changing. This isn’t something that you decide. Innovation is greater than any individual who wants to achieve it. When we sign on to enact change, we also have to agree to go wherever it takes us.
This is the struggle that two radically different practitioners both trying to reach the same goal grappled with: they couldn’t see that, if they really wanted to make their ambitions a reality, they needed to go places where they didn’t want to be.”
Why Read It: It’s sometimes difficult for teams and organizations that are looking to establish innovation programs to figure out if they should start with a group, a point person, a particular department, or some combination of all three. This piece from Wired Insights discusses why an outside-in approach might be the best choice for your business.
Getting to True Thought Leadership in Six Steps
From Harvard Business Review:
“It’s gospel that you have to cultivate your personal brand, particularly if you have designs on the C suite. But because everyone has a brand nowadays (Tom Peters describes it as “your promise to the marketplace and the world”) simply having one is insufficient if you want to advance. You can’t just be known as “the guy who speaks Spanish” or “the programmer who can explain things well” or “that woman in legal who gets things done fast.” That’s nice — but there are a million of you, and in a globalized world, your company can find an alternative to you fast. That’s why you need to establish yourself as a thought leader. Good employees and good executives are nice to have. Thought leaders are irreplaceable — and indispensable.
So how do you build a reputation as a singular expert — someone who doesn’t just participate in the conversation, but drives it? In a word: leverage. No matter how brilliant and talented you are, you won’t be sufficiently appreciated within your organization or by your customers until the broader public recognizes you. This outside reinforcement becomes an echo chamber that brings money and respect. How to get it? Follow these six steps to jump-start your thought leadership. Not all avenues will be open to you at the start, but most will in time.”
Why Read It: There’s plenty of advice out there on becoming a thought leader, but sometimes it just doesn’t fit a person’s specific situation. This article works through the various steps that should exist as goals, and how to tailor them to your industry and needs.
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