Volume 3, Issue 5, May – June 2024
Welcome to Volume 3, Issue 5 of The Root.
In order to support our growth, we require a strong network of roots. They anchor us and serve as a conduit for nutrients to help us develop and deliver on our goals.
I’m always learning new concepts in leadership for myself and my clients. This month, I learned about the unique abilities of Innovative Leaders — leaders who foster and embrace innovative tendencies.
I knew this had to be our theme this month!
Thank you for following along our journey to Aspire to Grow.
Stream On – My Podcast Pick:
Think Fast, Talk Smart: An Invitation for Innovation: Why Creativity is Found, Not Forced with Linda Hill
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business talks with Linda Hill, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Hill’s research focuses on the leadership and organizations that attain innovation.
Fostering Innovation
Hill begins by telling us that innovation is not just about coming up with new ideas.
“Innovation is the result of the collaboration of people with diverse expertise and diverse perspectives coming together, being able to collaborate, being able to experiment together and learn” – Linda Hill
I chose this podcast, because as I listened, I realized that organizations focused on productivity do not always foster the environments necessary for innovation – especially in current times of changing technology and scientific breakthrough. She differentiates those leaders that lead through change vs. those who lead for innovation.
Innovative Leaders
Hill says Innovative leaders realize that know that innovation cannot be achieved alone. It requires co-creation and collaboration. Here are her elements for innovative success:
- Collaboration – even if we see things differently
- Experimentation and learning – including mistakes and failures
- Talents + Passion – requiring us to bring our whole selves
- It’s challenging – innovation is not easy
The Role of Culture
Shared Purpose
An innovative team must begin with a shared purpose – the WHY behind their work. Not all Innovative leaders have a specific vision – where they are going is not always super clear yet (but they do have a specific purpose) – these teams may be looking to solve a problem, but are not quite sure what the future vision is. This is why the shared WHY is so powerful.
Values
In addition to purpose, the team must align on shared values. In most organizations, these values are placed on a website or framed in every conference room, but appear in a very implicit way. For smaller, more nimble, entrepreneurial and innovative organizations, these values are critical for alignment.
Rules of Engagement
Lastly, Hill mentions the importance of known and lived rules of engagement. These include the expected behaviors of team members. These include trust, respect, influence and also working through different opinions and creating open dialogue.
Including Diversity of Thought
Hill suggests that the differentiator for innovative organizations, is the ability to harness differences of thought from your employees and with each having a unique “Slice of Genius” to bring together a “Collective Genius”.
Part of doing this effectively is working through conflicting viewpoints and leaning into healthy conflict, including as a leader allowing the following:
- Creative Abrasion
- A leader amplifying differences for discovery purposes (not minimizing them)
- As a leader, being comfortable with differences to allow for the best innovative thinking
- Creative Agility
- Experimenting and learning together
- Testing, learning and iterating
- Creative Resolution
- Defining how we make the decision based on the information derived by Abrasion and Agility
Communication is a critical element for success.
And lastly, as many leaders from innovative areas will confirm, for innovation to occur, minimal structure is needed.
You must have the structure to allow for collaboration, experimentation and learning, but not the same amount of structure required for productivity environments that require consistency and predictability.
I hope you’ll check out the entire episode – she has great insight and great research to validate the need for collaboration, respect and culture for ideal innovation.
Off the Shelf – My Book Pick Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
In his book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, Gino Wickman talks about the key areas to focus on while growing or scaling your business. This focus is from an entrepreneurial mindset. He shares with the reader his entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) for success. As a coach to entrepreneurs and leaders, Wickman’s framework is straight forward and clear. It also parallels many of the research concepts highlighted by Linda Hill.
Six Key Components
The Operating System
Wickman begins by walking through the six key components of the EOS. These components simplify the focus and backbone of your organization.
- Vision
- People
- Data/Metrics
- Issues
- Process
- Traction
For the purpose of my summary, I’ll focus on Vision and People.
Vision
Unlike the Innovative leader presented by Linda Hill above, the entrepreneur/leader in Wickman’s model does have a Vision. The Vision begins with clearly understanding the following answers:
- Your Core Values
- Similar to Hill’s innovative leader, these serve as a NorthStar
- 3-7 Values
- Your Purpose/Cause/Passion
- This includes your reason for being AND
- Your Niche you serve
- 5-10 Year Target
- Where do you expect to be in 5-10 years (this helps with Vision)
- How are you unique
- How is your deliverable or your company different from others?
- What is your 3 year Target (helping to get more clear)
- What is your 1 year Plan – including annual goals
- What are you Rocks
- These are quarterly deliverables
- Including what, who and when
- Any Issues (or Risks) you foresee
- Including how to define, discuss and solve (or mitigate)
The idea behind this initial plan, is that all decisions you make as you grow or scale your business should be in alignment with your Values, Purpose and Target Niche.
If decisions or direction do not align with those listed above, most likely issues will follow. All members of your team will share these Values and Purpose (your WHY). If not, they may not be a good fit for your organization.
Case Study:
With a previous CEO coaching client, we determined that her goals were no longer consistent with her previous 1 year plan, and as a result, she was feeling her team was not consistent with her vision. It became clear that her vision needed to be updated and shared with her team. Once she was clear, we were able to determine that the employee incentives were no longer consistent with her current vision.
People
Wickman suggests that “the right people are the ones who share your company’s core values”. They will be a great fit for the culture you want to create. They will also feel aligned and valued.
Very similar to Hill’s concept of Slice of Genius, Wickman uses a concept of Unique Ability (defined by Dan Sullivan) as an employee’s unique skills that are valued by the company, and when used, offer the employee consistent improvement and energy. We should all want our employees feeling this way! A happy an energized employee creates value for the business and helps to fulfill the vision in alignment with the EOS.
While this chapter goes into much more detail, it’s important to see how employees fill their right purpose or “right seat”. It may be that an employee moves onto a new seat with new responsibilities, or no longer fits the needs of the organization or is in the “wrong seat”. The idea is to define the right opportunity for the employee and the business.
Case Study:
Working with a former client, it was clear that a current employee did not meet all the needs for the role they were hired for. They had the qualifications, but did not align with the Core Values and Purpose of the organization.
Having clarity in your Vision, Core Values and Purpose can help determine scripts for hiring new employees and may help you avoid hiring those who are not aligned.
There is a lot to offer in this book – a key concept is that Core Values are key to innovation and success, and play a huge role in congruency and alignment for leadership decisions and culture.
Continue to do great things 🌿
Thank you
My hope for you is that you find the importance of values and alignment critical to your business goals and culture.
Ensure you are living your values and your purpose, as well as offering those with a Slice of Genius to work together!