Here you are, you’ve made it. A leadership role at an innovation powerhouse. You’ve put major sweat-equity into vetting and hiring the best employees to not only grow your business, but to also make your company a household name.
Now, what? You have your dream team assembled to your specifications. How are you going to encourage them to be a team? How will you encourage them collectively, as well as individually, to be their most creative, imaginative selves? Innovation does not happen in a vacuum. Innovation requires exceptional leadership. Many times, the best new knowledge asset in your company’s hierarchy will come from the least likely source!
Transformational leadership has become the touchstone for encouraging creativity and imagination within your organization. Transformational leadership is a method of powering on your own traits in order to develop and maintain a corporate culture that is purpose-driven. The purpose-driven leader will encourage an atmosphere of motivation and trust for his or her employees. Following are some leadership tips that encourage imagination and creativity, based on the transformational leadership concept:
- It’s not about you; power trips get you nowhere with employees.
- Know thyself; transformational leaders are so passionate about what they do that they need very little advice as to the direction of the organization.
- Taking the right risks with trust in your team gets you great rewards.
- As with everything, there will be difficult decisions; make them and move on.
- Embrace the unique qualities and nuances of your organization and your team.
- Take the time to understand what motivates your team members so you can reward/encourage them appropriately.
- New ideas are wonderful, no matter who they come from.
- Be ready to change course quickly as your market’s environment evolves.
- Corporate vision is key, but keep it realistic and achievable and always communicate your vision clearly.
Nimble, effective, transformational leadership calls on your innate agility. Given that you have reached your personal goals thus far, furthering your organization is as simple as carefully reaching out to the best resource available to you if you feel at all uncertain about how to lead your team to the next level. There are proven, research-based models that deliver actionable insights, and they are are just a few mouse clicks away.
