The leadership and Innovation

What actions does leadership need to take to improve the culture of innovation in its team and thus achieve better performance with innovative ideas and projects?

Various research has been carried out to bring a little of the dynamics of startups into companies in general. One of these characteristics is entrepreneurship. It is known that turning a good idea into innovation is an arduous path and a great challenge. Many great ideas die halfway through lack of internal articulation, lack of confidence that it can work, fear of taking on the risks involved. Several factors are independent of the team or the individual. However, companies have begun to realize that these ideas and projects need to flow at least individually or within a group. And for it to happen, employees need to be motivated to take their view forward, take risks, be proactive and start a network of convincing initially among their peers, within their team, with their leader (Ancona et al., 2019; Dodge et al., 2017; Neessen et al., 2019). This first step is essential for gaining supporters and employees with more significant influence, convincing middle-level managers, etc.

Ancona et al. (2019), studying innovative companies, observed that employees or leaders need to be self-confident and motivated to act. They must be resilient and deal with failure well. Besides, they must have the ability to attract peers to bet on their idea. These are characteristics very present in entrepreneurs. Neessen et al. (2019) understand that employees' intrapreneurial behavior has become of great strategic importance. According to the authors, individuals must demonstrate innovativeness, proactivity, be able to recognize opportunities, take risks, and create a communication network.

The entrepreneur cannot be afraid of failing. So it is with innovation. Not all projects will reach a result that will bring a product to the market. Many ideas and projects can succeed, but they can also fail. Therefore, when a group comes to believe in a project, including its leader, the best result's expectation and motivation are always desired. In this sense, the leadership must manage their team well and keep them motivated but know that the results may not be expected. End-of-project meetings are essential for drawing lessons learned. And they must happen regardless of the outcome. The leader must support the team and reflect when there is a success and when a failure occurs. All of this to avoid possible demotivation and lack of interest in taking on new risks.

Creativity and knowledge are also directly correlated with innovation and problem-solving. Studies have already shown that the greater the exposure of employees to internal and external expertise, the greater the chance of reaching a more creative solution (Reiter-Palmon & Illies, 2004). Researchers correlated an intense exchange of knowledge between the team and innovation, demonstrating the importance of transformational leadership for this to occur (Jiang & Chen, 2018). Hughes et al. (2018) shown that leadership influences creativity and innovation among its subordinates. That is a topic that has been widely studied by the scientific community, with 85% of the articles analyzed having been published in the last ten years. However, it is known that in a professional environment, the employee will not always be involved in a creative moment. Therefore, some studies understand that the leader must measure moments of implementation and moments of creativity. That model is known as ambidextrous (Zacher e Rosing, 2015).

Finally, the leader must be supportive. In other words, the transformative leader puts the group's interests above its interests. As a servant leader, this way of acting has a positive influence on the team's performance (Chiniara & Bentein, 2018). Therefore, the leader must make it clear that the team is more important than any particular interest. With this action, he can make members more comfortable sharing knowledge and innovative ideas, creating an environment conducive to the culture of innovation.

I am sure that we did not include all skills. In your opinion, which are the skills that a leader should have to create an innovative culture?

Share your experience!