Supporting Innovators: Trust, Purpose, Partnership

Michael T. Mitchell

• Publisher: CCL Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781604918755
• eBook ISBN: 9781604918762
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Education
• Index: Business

Innovation work is risky, stressful, and emotionally draining, and the only way to span this innovation gap, and address the needs of innovators, is effective leadership. By trusting your innovation team, keeping them focused on the purpose of their work, and becoming a partner rather than just a boss, you can provide the support your team needs to create great innovations.

TRUST THE INNOVATORS

One of the characteristics that distinguishes successful innovation leaders is their trust in their team to successfully innovate, and how they demonstrate that trust in concrete ways. Why is trust so important? Innovators are working to solve a problem for which no one knows the solution, and for which no one is certain to find the answer. Innovators will succeed only if they’re confident enough to stretch their abilities as far as they’ll go. And they’ll only do that if they feel their leaders trust them—even if they make a mistake, encounter failure, and experience the inevitable starts and stops of pursuing innovation.

Without this trust, it’s easy for innovators to decide, consciously or not, to play it safe. For instance, they may oversimplify an idea or take out unique and groundbreaking aspects of it. What was the last major innovation you remember that was a result of people doing something predictable and without risk?

Even before finalizing a new innovation, innovators explore many possibilities, with plenty of false starts. Their leaders, whether a manager or an investor backing a new venture, must trust them enough to work through those mistakes and false starts, even if they seem overwhelming. In a 2014 article for The Globe and Mail, James Dyson, who eventually built a multi-billion dollar vacuum cleaner company, wrote how he had the idea for a bagless vacuum cleaner in his 30s, but it took him more than 5,127 tries before he finally produced a working model.

Most innovators know their bosses are closely watching their work, and are acutely aware that their success or failure could have a significant impact on their careers. Knowing the stakes they face and that innovation is inherently risky and ambiguous, innovators must have enough grit, passion, and persistence to keep working. They must be willing to keep trying new ideas and exploring new possibilities. In this context, innovators need the trust of their leaders if they’re to continue putting forward their best work.

How to Demonstrate Trust

Although it’s helpful to innovation team members to hear their leaders say they trust them, words are not enough. In Leadership Trust, Christopher Evans writes that to trust someone is to make yourself vulnerable to their actions. In the case of innovation work, it involves making an active choice to risk failure in order to achieve innovations that may have a lasting impact. Trustworthy leaders demonstrate their vulnerability through what they do consistently and what they never do (or do rarely). Leaders should avoid behaviors that could signal they don’t trust the innovator and instead embrace behaviors that tell innovators “I trust that you have the ability to see this project through to successful completion.”

The Importance of Patience

The process of creating new and useful products, services, etc. is not always a straight and predictable road. There are twists and turns. Organizations that run out of patience too soon tend to get a less than ideal result or crush the innovation team’s momentum and commitment. Conversely, organizations that keep expectations high while also exercising patience get better results and maintain the commitment of the innovator/innovation team. For example, one innovation manager we know was working on a difficult product. The company, desperately in need for the potential revenue from this new product, was growing impatient with the difficulties and slow-downs in the development process. The innovation manager presented two options to the organization: The first option guaranteed a faster and reliable path to execution, but would result in a less than novel product. The second option would take longer and was riskier, but could result in a truly novel product. Seeing the wisdom of being patient, and trusting in the innovation manager, the company opted for the second option. Launching a few months late, the product exceeded even the most ambitious sales projections, demonstrating that the organization’s patience and trust in the innovation manager paid off.

There are three behaviors in particular that can harm innovators—signaling to innovators that their leaders don’t trust their ability to do the job. These untrusting behaviors are like giant psychological stop signs to innovators. They signal “I don’t think you have what it takes” or “I’m not certain you can make this project work out.” Facing those perceptions, innovators might slow their work dramatically or perhaps halt altogether.

Micromanaging. When leaders focus too much on unimportant details and are prescriptive in their instructions, it sends a clear message that they don’t believe the innovation team can do the job on its own.

Focusing too much (and too negatively) on the problems. If the leader finds and focuses only on problems, it erodes the innovator’s confidence. Although innovators must tackle the problems that arise, it’s emotionally draining for them to be constantly reminded of obstacles as they seek a way forwar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Three Pillars of Innovation Leadership
• Trust the Innovators
• Keep Innovators Focused on the Purpose
• Partner with Innovators
• Overcome Obstacles
• Suggested Resources