Innovation only survives and thrives with leadership buy-in, support and direction, without this, innovation with wither and die.

Our team in Cisco ensures that our leaders can lead for innovation. They do not need to have deep knowledge and practice with innovation methods and tools, but they must understand their role in creating the right environment for innovation to be successful.

Innovation can be an uncomfortable and potentially scary place for a leader, as they will not know the answers. They must lead by example and demonstrating the behaviours they seek.

If you want your people to be innovative, what are you doing to change your behaviour? You cannot expected a different result or outcome if you do not change yourself. To help leaders to understand these behaviours, we penned a four-part blog series to explain our views:

Part 1 – Innovation May Not Grow on Trees, But It Can Be Cultivated

Part 2 – Others Will Follow if You Effectively Lead from the Front

Part 3 – Collaborate, Celebrate, Innovate: How to Build an Innovative Culture from Within

Part 4 – Successful Innovation Begins and Ends with Effective Leadership

The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organisation is going to blow away the competition.

Walt Wriston, CEO, Citigroup Corp (1967-84)


Credit: Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

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