Foundations of Leading Innovation

Revolutionary changes happen through trial and error and a leader must embrace the challenges associated with it. So the leader will able to consider the error as a means of evaluation. In the case study 2-1 in Porter-O’Grady &Malloch, (2011), explains the changes Nancy created in the midst of chaos. She felt the pressure of staying within the budget, demand of change and staff satisfaction. But she took risky decisions in order to make changes. She assisted the team members to go through the challenges and shared the leadership with other directors. Nancy experienced the success of team work and risk taking and ultimately brought out the innovation the system demanded. As I look back at the innovation happened in my area of work in the last ten years, is amazing. There was a lot of hesitancy in moving to the electronic charting among the staff. But the leaders walked with the staff and assisted them through the difficult situation. There were a lot of in- service education and super users available in every shift and every floor. Finally the dream came true and now it is hard to think of going back to the old system.

Transformational leaders have the ability to take diverse talents and viewpoints in any organization and meld them together into a cohesive, focused and highly effective force to accomplish challenging goals and objectives. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate theories of innovation and change from a leadership perspective in the first section, followed by an analysis of experiences, and finally a self-assessment of leadership skills.

Eric Reis, a successful entrepreneur, stated that successful companies in the future is need to fast adapt by practicing continuous deployment of idea, planning and more experimentation, ie creating organizations that have the ability to cultivate, test and materialize new ideas (Heskett, 2013). So, in terms of the large scale innovations like what Apple went through, transformational leadership was necessary.

As changes occur he tries to be truthful and straightforward, for it is when employees are unaware of what is happening to the company that a leader fails. Pivotal to the success of a leader is communication, a human skill that is required at all levels of management.

Communication breakdowns within an organization may contribute to resistance in changing organizations. Managers must be prepared to talk candidly about the needs for change, otherwise fear and uncertainty will remain a prevailing element that can damage morale and prevent successful implementation of the desired changes at all levels of the organization. Employees need comprehensive information about the nature, processes, and consequences of organizational change.

Leadership is critical when executing a strategic change initiative. By differentiating leadership and management, leadership styles and the key factors of change we can better understand what should be done to successfully lead change. Success is not obtained through leadership alone but by developing a group of individuals from all levels of the organization who work together as a team. . (Leban and Stone, 2007)

In order to manage change a manager needs to understand innovation and change in an organisation

The importance of a leader’s ability to embrace and promote change can not be over stated. It is imperative for a leader to understand and manage changes in the work place in order to promote innovation and therefore creativity from the work force. A leader that promotes innovation promotes an environment of change and with it people that are encouraged to accept changes. The leader’s role is very important because they have a duty to create and atmosphere that promotes innovative ideas and changes (Huber, 2014).

In the article Bell, Powell and Sykes began by mentioning that a hallmark of transformational leaders are effective communication skills, and using a coaching and empowering approach to communication is a key component of a transformational leadership style. They went on to state that the transformational approach is increasing workers’ capability to develop and draw on their abilities and increase their confidence.

The required reading to describe the DNA of an innovator were great reads. Nayar’s article describes the DNA of innovator leadership not a leader. The article indicated how the Nayar’s used his leadership skills engaged his teams creating an environment that encourages, as well as, teach skill sets to team. Nayars believed if HCL would be successful it would take a team effort. Hitt, Takacs-Haynes, and Serpa article describe the DNA of a innovator leader. The article covers the needed skill sets to an effective leaders who focus on the organization’s goals and strategies to be successful.

Leading Innovation and change being part of managing human and organization behaviors is kind of a complex processes that include several factors, stages, models, perceptions and definitely outcomes. In this paper I will get a deep dive and close up view stating the various definitions, different related models, how they work in practical life and what kind of failures such models face in real life implementation; along with a self reflection to the applied experiences of such

It is essential for business leaders to have excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, as leaders are often a symbol of a company’s integrity and this affects not only how customers perceive the company, but also impacts the thoughts and actions of lower positioned employees. For example, a leader that speaks using improper grammar, or writes correspondence with spelling errors throughout it, could project a negative image that can be harmful to a company. Customers might conclude that the leader is incompetent and they might decide that they do not wish to purchase goods from a company that hires inept leaders. Furthermore, employees might become less apt to respect an authority that appears to be uneducated, as well as employees might feel that if the leader disregards using proper communication than it is not necessary for them to use it either. Business leaders need to know when to listen, when to talk, and how to share ideas effectively. Clear and concise communication states exactly how, who, what, and when and serves to guide, direct, protect, persuade, and to inform. Communication is essential for decreasing miscommunications and for increasing productivity, motivation, and efficiency. When someone uses effective communication, he or she is more apt to have favorable results and his or her requests will become granted more often. Furthermore, communication builds goodwill. Having excellent communication skills is

In order to move forward and keep ahead, I believe an organization need change leaders who have capabilities to have their workforce go from change avoidance to change acceptance. “One of the most significant strengths of an effective leader is the ability to create a positive work climate where people are energized to do their best work, free of unnecessary distractions” (Cronkite, n.d.). During this part of the change process I feel the change leader would have better success if he would be tactful and harness the skills of others by working in a collaborative rather than hierarchical way. Leadership in an organization involves instilling motivation and enthusiasm in the employees. An effective leader knows how to manage and tackle difficult situations and people. Many reasons can cause a force of change in organizations but I feel it’s up to change leaders to manage these planned and unexpected changes. (Word count: 548)

Leaders of innovation must imprint their DNA onto their organization to the extent that it resonates throughout the workforce. If a leader is able to successfully accomplish this task, the workforce will become an integral part of the innovative process within their organization. Former CEOs, Vineet Nayer of HCL Technologies, Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon are examples of leaders who were able to successfully utilize the five discovery skills described by Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen (2011) to develop an innovative culture throughout their respective workforces in order to boost the overall innovation of their companies. Specifically, Nayer, was able to quickly surmise that his IT company was at risk of losing market shares, struggling to keep up with their competitors and were not prepared to face the changes that here taking place in the IT services industry at the time. The following paper will explore the global trends that influenced the need for Nayar to create a more innovative organization and the relationship between the global trends and Nayar 's role as a leader of innovation. In addition, the article will analyze Nayar’s use of the five discovery skills as an innovation leader and finally explore recommendations for better use of the discovery skills.

Historically, most executives referred to innovation primarily with the development of new technologies or products. However, innovation is increasingly seen as the development of new service offerings, business models, pricing plans, distribution channels, or management practices. There is a greater recognition that great ideas can transform any part of the value chain and those products and services represent just a small segment of innovation. This broadening of focus has implications for those who are responsible to innovate. It used to be just a selected group of employees, usually within R&D: engineers, designers, or scientists, whose job was to generate and pursue new ideas. Nowadays, organizations are trying to induce an innovative culture across the hierarchy to achieve holistic transformations. Making innovation everyone’s business sounds intuitively appealing but is hard to implement. Employees face capacity issues, time constraints, and motivation issues that restrain them. There is often a lack of consistent follow-through of well-intentioned schemes. Additionally, there is typically some level of disconnection between the priorities of senior management and the efforts of those lower down in the organization. This becomes more evident in large corporations where established processes are already in place and leave very little room to innovate.