Leadership Matters: Innovation Isn't Optional

There is a common saying that, "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got (sic)." I don't believe this is true anymore. I believe, if you do what you've always done, you will eventually become obsolete in the marketplace and will eventually disappear. Innovation is no longer something that should be defined by Google (GOOG Quote), or Zappos or Apple (AAPL Quote), but instead needs to be an integral part of your business and leadership approach. It is a necessity and, as such, we need to move it from the corporate-speak of "breakthrough ideas", "think outside the box" and "ideation" (one of my favorite hated words right now), and make it a strategic part of business planning and execution.

There are some specific challenges to innovation for you as a leader:

You can't do this alone:

For one thing, it is unlikely that you can innovate for your team or organization very well on your own. Innovation requires new ideas and perspectives and in order to get these, you need input from engaged and empowered followers. In this case, followers may not only be employees, but your customer base or even the world at large. Procter & Gamble(PG Quote), for example, has created an open-source innovation strategy called "connect and develop" that opens R&D to a wider community of interested parties. Of course this approach is worldwide, but there is nothing keeping you from adopting a smaller scale approach on your own, looking for inputs from employees, suppliers and customers. No matter how smart you are (and you're reading this, so that's a good sign), you must have others involved to create the real synergy of ideas necessary for innovation.