Three Elements in Innovative Leadership

Innovative leadership is essentially anchored on the leader's overall multifaceted resourcefulness and multidimensional competencies.

Leadership is a key success factor for any organization's success. Due to the characteristics of "VUCA"-Velocity, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity of digital age, innovation is no long a “nice to have,” but “must have” business capability to keep growth momentum and adapt to changes. And the leadership in any organization must have the ability to guide, inspire, innovate, and motivate a group of people toward accomplishing shared visions and goals. What are important elements in innovative leadership though?

Vision: Leadership is about future, it is the foresight to see the future needs of an organization, the commitment to provide whatever effort is necessary to move the organization in the right direction and the grace to do so because it is best for the organization. Visionary leaders spend the present preparing for what they believe they will be doing or needing in the future. They are good at making predictions by building accurate conceptual models that are based on their understanding of current affairs, coupled with their enhanced decision-making abilities, these predictions allow visionaries to create the future. Visionary leadership navigates the organization forward and prepares effectively and efficiently to absorb and accept changes in all its forms. Vision is to serve as a leadership enabler, to clear the path - whether that be the elimination of obstacles or to provide coaching and guidance. In such organizations, change does not disrupt and interfere with business as usual; because they have abilities to evolve, adapt and innovate.

Passion: Vision is driving you so you are more hardened to take the hits. Passion keeps you in the game longer as there is an end desire. We all have certain strengths and types of work that energize our minds and motivate us, as well as types of activity we dislike or that bores us. We are all different, so we should take the unique way to pursue the passions. Passion keeps you to be patient, patience relates to tolerance and tolerance gives one the ability to understand the other points of view, so patience is a key ingredient for innovation, until fulfillment or satisfaction of the inner self. Stamina might be a physical requirement to maintain this tenacity. Passion enables vision, determination, and creativity. If you do not have the passion for what you do, innovation, and strategy become HARD WORK which in turn DISABLES determination etc. From the leadership perspective,  this requires a clearly defined and inspiring purpose, but it also requires extending that purpose into the 'real world' with a vision that everyone is on board with. If the vision isn't connected to the purpose, your team will lack direction, lack enthusiasm, lack passion!

Progression: Leadership is about change and progression. Innovation is a progress, and progress itself is a change, either by individual or group efforts or induced by environmental and cultural tangible and intangible forces. Progress is impossible without change or innovation, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. If you choose to do nothing about it, nothing happens, but if you start doing something about it, something happens. Be a believer then everything will happen. Without change, one cannot even stagnate, she or he will be on a backward journey. What is considered progress for one, is not progress for another, so sometimes progress cannot truly be considered "PROGRESS" for humans as a species unless it is helping a very large group. The collective progress driven by innovative leadership leapfrogs human society.

The spirit comes from the top. Innovative leaders emerge to transform digital businesses. Innovative leadership is essentially anchored on the leader's overall multifaceted resourcefulness and multidimensional competencies to formulate creative (unconventional) alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances. By etymology, "innovare" signifies "to germinate seeds," knowing that, go ahead and innovate by inventing your future, and the one of your company’s.