Leading Innovators
Leaders are often judged by how much innovation they bring to the marketplace—yet almost all innovation is created through the teams they lead, not by the leader alone.
How well we lead our teams, especially the innovators among them, ultimately determines our success.
Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the product of a culture that encourages curiosity, rewards experimentation, and values collaboration. The most successful leaders understand that their primary role isn’t to have all the answers, but to create an environment where others feel empowered to ask bold questions, take smart risks, and turn ideas into action to become innovators. This calls for leaders to have emotional intelligence, patience, and the humility to step aside and let others shine. It means recognizing talent, coaching through failure, and cultivating trust so the team knows it’s safe to challenge the status quo.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Self-Assessment:
Leading Innovators
Please take a few moments to contemplate the following self-reflection questions. Where can you identify opportunities for personal growth in your leadership approach?
1. Do I create an environment where people feel safe to share bold or unconventional ideas without fear of judgment or punishment?
2. Do I actively seek out and support diverse perspectives, even when they challenge the status quo or my own thinking?
3. When team members propose innovative solutions, do I respond with curiosity rather than immediate skepticism or control?
4. Am I willing to take calculated risks, and do I support my team when experiments or new approaches don’t go as planned?
5. Do I consistently recognize and celebrate creative contributions from my team, not just final outcomes?
6. Do I allocate time and resources for my team to explore, test, and refine innovative ideas?
7. Am I open to changing course when new information or ideas suggest a better way forward?
8. Do I model innovative behavior myself by learning continuously, asking provocative questions, and challenging outdated assumptions?
Take your time and reflect upon these questions honestly. Going forward, use your responses as a tool to assess your ability to lead innovators effectively.
A successful, well-timed innovation can change the course of human history. The Gutenberg press, penicillin, electricity, and the mass-produced automobile have all made vast improvements in our lives. These innovations, along with many others, were brought into existence by individuals who pushed the boundaries of knowledge and creativity. At their core, innovators are defined by their ability to challenge the known, expand the limits of creativity, and bring something new or improved into the world.
While it’s common to associate innovators with advanced technology, they are everywhere in the workplace. You’ll find them on the sales floor, in the classroom, on the production line, and in the marketing department. Since innovators exist across every function, it’s essential to understand what drives them—and how to lead them well.
“All innovation activity can be traced back to the behavior of employees.”
So, what makes an innovator tick? How do they engage with others? Here are a few common traits of innovators:
They have a clear vision of possibilities that don’t yet exist and improvements that can be made to what already does.
They are open to—and often advocate for—change.
They are highly competent in their area of expertise, yet curious and confident exploring ideas beyond it.
They create and leverage social networks instinctively, using them to advance ideas and influence progress.
They possess strong creative instincts and skills.
They are effective and persuasive communicators.
They are entrepreneurial in mindset.
They understand that real innovation requires bringing ideas to market—not just generating them.
They are self-assured and resilient.
With these traits and skills, innovators often emerge as natural leaders. They rarely need close supervision, but they do benefit from a different kind of leadership. They need support that’s personalized, responsive, and designed to unlock their potential.
Great leaders of innovators focus less on control and more on clearing the path. They remove roadblocks, connect innovators to the right resources, and trust them to challenge the status quo. By understanding what makes innovators unique and giving them the space and support to thrive, leaders become the spark for breakthroughs that can transform teams, industries, and even history. If innovation drives progress, then leadership is the fuel that sustains it.
Very early in the founding of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos posted a job listing for a computer programmer in which he stated that the right person for the job would need to be able to build systems “in about one-third of the time that most competent people think possible.” He was looking for an innovator—and as we all know, he not only found the right person for that role but has continued to lead many more innovators since.
What are the best ways to lead and influence innovators?
Have a deep, natural respect for your innovator and their innate abilities.
Because of their natural leadership traits, it's often more effective to treat your innovator as you would a fellow leader. A typical leader-to-leader relationship is built on mutual respect and a desire to establish trust. Even if your innovator holds a different title or rank within the organization, think of them as a partner—someone whose ideas, insights, and contributions you actively seek and value. Listen attentively when they speak, and show appreciation when they’re helpful. While you may be the boss, your relationship with them should carry more weight than your place on the organizational chart.
Excellent leadership is built upon excellent relationships.
The stronger your relationship with an innovator, the greater your shared potential for success. Prioritize the relationship first, then move toward accomplishing goals together. Innovators are remarkably perceptive when it comes to sensing a lack of respect. While they may respect their team leaders, they especially admire leaders who genuinely respect them as innovators. It’s a reciprocal relationship—and one that cannot be faked. To lead innovators effectively, you must earn their trust and respect by first showing them yours.
Remove unnecessary obstacles from your innovator’s path.
Few things frustrate innovators more than bureaucratic constraints on the creative process. Innovators often interpret excessive limitations as a lack of respect for their capabilities—and these constraints also drain their creative energy and networking potential.
Take a hard look at the systems and structures that shape your innovator’s workflow:
Are too many decision-makers involved?
Is funding difficult to access?
Are communication breakdowns frequent?
Are non-essential personnel weighing in on the innovation process?
Whatever the issue, your job is to remove unnecessary barriers.
Set high expectations aligned with business goals—and equip them to meet them.
Set clear, ambitious goals that connect directly to your organization’s priorities. Then provide the tools, talent, and equipment your innovator needs to succeed.
Be careful here: if your expectations don’t align with meaningful company objectives, your innovator will notice, and likely resist. If you set high goals without supplying what’s necessary to achieve them, you risk alienating them altogether.
Challenge your innovators while also empowering them.
As innovation expert Rebecca Bagley notes, innovators know they “must continuously reach above and beyond what they have done before to stay competitive.” Encourage them to do just that. Never let them settle. Keep the challenge in front of them and give them the autonomy to take on the leadership roles necessary to bring their ideas to life.
Break down innovation silos.
Innovators exist at every level of an organization, but they often operate in isolation. A marketing innovator may rarely connect with someone in R&D or operations. These missed opportunities are the result of innovation silos—barriers that limit cross-functional creativity and collaboration. Break down those walls. Map out where innovators are in your organization and assess whether hierarchy, tradition, or misalignment is preventing them from collaborating. Innovation thrives when bright, curious minds can connect freely across teams, departments, and disciplines.
There’s no doubt that the best innovation emerges from groups working together, not individuals working alone. The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled Together We Innovate, affirms this:
“The truth is most innovations are created through networks—groups of people working in concert.”
Since innovators exist at every level of an organization, breaking down innovation silos unlocks idea flow and collaboration across functions. Innovators, who are naturally inclined to network, can connect across teams, surfacing potential breakthroughs that elevate the entire organization.
As mentioned earlier, innovators often have a clear vision of what doesn’t yet exist or how to improve what already does. That means your vision, as a leader, must be even stronger: more expansive, more forward thinking, and inspiring enough to rally innovative minds. This is, perhaps, the most challenging part of leading innovators.
The most innovative teams are often guided by leaders with the vision to see what their teams are capable of and the ability to mobilize resources and motivation to help them achieve it. Companies like Apple, Alphabet, and Tesla have maintained long histories of innovation because their leaders embedded visionary thinking into the culture. These leaders made innovation part of the culture—woven into the way work happens every day.
“Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea.”
Let’s return to the example of Jeff Bezos. Amazon is widely admired as an innovation powerhouse because Bezos cast a bold, consistent vision—not because he personally invented its technologies. As Annie Palmer writes for CNBC.com, Bezos instilled a mindset he embedded early in Amazon’s culture, which he called “Day 1”:
“I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades,” Bezos wrote in his 2016 letter to shareholders. “I work in an Amazon building named Day 1, and when I moved buildings, I took the name with me. I spend time thinking about this topic.
Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”
Bezos didn’t just talk about innovation. He structured Amazon’s culture around it. You may never lead at his scale, but you can follow his model by placing a clear and compelling vision at the center of your team’s work.
Set goals that exceed what your innovators might envision on their own. A team is only as strong as the clarity and conviction of its leader. To lead innovators well, build trust, remove barriers, and offer direction that inspires them to move boldly forward.
Your ability to lead high-performing innovators is critical to your long-term success. To improve your effectiveness in this area, reflect on the following:
How deeply do I respect the innovators I’m responsible for leading?
How thoroughly do I evaluate their work environment, and how committed am I to removing obstacles from their path?
Is the vision I have for my team clearer and more powerful than the one any individual innovator might hold?
Elevate your understanding of Leading Innovators by taking flight with the following resources. Use this opportunity to navigate, uncover, and expand the horizons of your leadership influence.
Innovation by Working Together - WSJ