5 Things Leaders Do That Stifle Innovation

 

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Kerry Goyette for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, obtain subscription information, and receive HBR email alerts, please click here.

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In 2018, the U.S. slipped out of Bloomberg’s top 10 most innovative countries for the first time. But this isn’t necessarily a hint of entrepreneurship’s demise; it’s a reflection of the tumultuous environment we find ourselves in — one that’s rife with unpredictability.

This type of environment is often referred to as VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. We have more knowledge and data now than ever before, but business analytics and performance metrics are not enough to come out on top. To be a serious competitor in the international market, companies must hire emotionally intelligent leaders who have the foresight to look ahead and develop strategies that will help them collaborate with their teams and adapt quickly to change.

As more companies recognize this, more managers are working to cultivate entrepreneurial mindsets among their teams. Many leaders have a natural inclination to hire employees who demonstrate characteristics they associate with entrepreneurship, such as creativity and resourcefulness. But in our study examining productive and counterproductive behaviors of 41 entrepreneurs, confirmed by a third-party statistician to be a statistically significant representation, we found that it’s far more crucial for managers to focus on what we call “derailers” when selecting and coaching their teams.

Derailers are the characteristics that impede innovation. We believe they result from unhealthy coping mechanisms that many of us develop in childhood and fail to shed as adults. They tend to fly under the radar because our fear of failure often spurs us to avoid confronting them. But if we don’t do the work to identify what our derailers are, they chip away at our effectiveness over time.

The most detrimental, and common, derailers we identified in our study are:

  • Unconscious neglect: a tendency toward carelessness and impulsivity, such as sending work before it’s ready or rushing to send responses that come across as uncaring.
  • Overprotectiveness: reserving your best work and being reluctant to share achievements for fear that your ideas will be stolen.
  • Overconfidence: leaning on your ego and willpower rather than asking for help, even when you need it.
  • Overexertion: pushing yourself beyond reasonable limits.
  • Devaluation: taking success for granted and under-appreciating relationships and resources out of an urge to pursue “the next new thing.”

On a small scale, these derailers are fairly unobtrusive. But when leaders exemplify or encourage this kind of behavior on a regular basis, it can have an avalanche effect. Our study reveals that derailing tendencies often result in failure on the individual level — no matter how many positive qualities someone possesses — which, if unaddressed, will eventually affect the performance of the team at large.

There are ways, however, you can mitigate derailers to foster innovation and entrepreneurial mindsets among your team members.

[Here is the first.]

Derailer: Unconscious neglect
Solution: Align projects with company goals, and hold people accountable for them.

The CEO of a midsized organization I worked with consistently entertained 700 projects on his dashboard. He bounced from one task to another and gave the green light to any and all employee initiatives, but he didn’t hold employees accountable. The constant churn resulted in team members who couldn’t complete a project, didn’t know their priorities, and experienced burnout.

If you work with someone who struggles with a habit of unconscious neglect, you have to call it out when you see it. If left alone, they will never see it as a problem or understand how it impacts the rest of their team. It’s vital for employees to pause and reflect on how they can accomplish their goals, as well as what has impeded success in the past. Then, and only then, will they be able to effectively move forward. If the CEO above had homed in on his top projects based on the company’s strategic priorities, for example, his employees would have been able to better focus their energy and see projects through to completion.

Making sure your employees are motivated and invested in the projects you green light is also essential. Employees are more likely to achieve goals that tap into their values and leverage their strengths. Take the time to assess your team members’ individual work styles, talents, and motivations. Then, use that information to direct them. Once you’ve helped them cultivate a passionate pursuit, work together to ensure it is a FAST goal — frequently discussed, ambitious, specific, and transparent.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Kerry Goyette is the president of Aperio Consulting Group, a corporate consulting firm that utilizes workplace analytics and implements research-based strategies to build high performance cultures. She is a certified professional behavior analyst, and certified forensic interviewer with postgraduate studies in psychometrics and neuroscience.

 

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