Why leadership is the secret to innovation

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I spent the past two days at the World Business Forum in New York—an annual gathering of executives and firm owners to learn from renowned leaders in the business world. This year did not disappoint. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, detailed why investing in people is your best bet against uncertainty. Productivity expert Kory Kogon divulged her best tips for how to get your day back. 

Ian Williamson, dean of the Victoria Business School in New Zealand, focused his address on how leadership—not technology—is the key to innovation. I sat down with Williamson ahead of his speech to get his take on how leaders can create a safe environment that encourages their employees to experiment, and what the future of leadership will look like as the workforce continues to involve.

My key takeaways from the conference, including Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s recession prediction, are further down, but first, an excerpt from my chat with Williamson:

There’s a lot of anxiety about what the future holds. How can leaders manage this anxiety within their own teams?

I can appreciate where the anxiety comes from, but I think leadership in this story is about creating space for individuals and understanding what are the things I can actually control. We’ve seen a transition from a certain type of leadership, which in the past was about pre-determining what was to be done. I would tell you what we’re going to do, you would go do it, and then I would reward you. It was a very transactional approach. 

Now we have an environment where that has changed quite dramatically. It’s really impossible for any one person or even a team of individuals to understand all of the information. The leader’s job is not to have all of the information, nor necessarily have the path as to how we’re going to achieve this. It’s to identify the resources that people might need, give people a lot of discretion and manage risk. Going forward, I think we’re going to see a greater emphasis on leaders who have the people capability as part of their professional development, not just an individual skill set to do the job. 

You’ve talked about the importance of experimenting and creating a space for your employees to do so. How can leaders create a space where employees feel safe to experiment and fail? 

It starts at the very beginning when you’ve identified the challenges that the organization faces. We’ve all had that meeting where the leader’s job is basically to tell someone the bad news that boils down to “this is what we did in the past and we cannot continue to do that.” And there’s always a moment of silence because everybody is thinking “it took us a lot of effort to get to that point.” In that moment, the leader’s job is to create a sense of meaning and direction.

This is when leaders have to say “listen, this is real and it’s going to mean some differences for us, but let me also tell you what’s possible.” That’s when you create the experiment. You make it clear that you’re allocating some resources and that the expectation is not that everything will work. The other aspect is providing updates, giving support and providing periods of reflection when things don’t work and then explaining why they didn’t.

For the first time there are three generations working in the same offices. What advice do you have for managing this on teams that are comprised of people from all three?

I live this myself. The youngest employee on my team is 18 and the oldest could be 78. They all show up to work for completely different reasons. It’s something we’ve never had to deal with before. For a leader, you’re going to have to think a lot more about the customized way in which you connect with those individuals. Everybody wants to do a good job but none of them want to do it for the same reason. The reward you need to provide them to make it worth while will be completely different for each and every one of them. It makes your job more difficult, but it also means if you can be creative about that, you’re going to get a much higher performing workforce. Those who do this really effectively take the time to work with those individuals. They accept that they can’t also be monitoring them. The better bet is to develop a sense of trust and create an area of reciprocity because they felt like you listened to them. 

How do you encourage your employees to experiment? What tips do you have for creating an environment where new ideas are embraced and it’s ok to fail?

Insights from the World Business Forum

Recession won’t hit in 2020: Former Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said she doesn’t expect a recession during the next year. But Yellen, who led policymakers at the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, added that she thinks “the odds of a recession are higher than normal and at a level I am frankly not comfortable with … so there is reason to worry.” The central bank cut rates for the third time this year in September as trade battles between the world’s biggest economies weigh on business investment globally. Yellen also gave tips to business owners on how to prepare for a recession. | Here's what people are sayin

Productivity 101: Rule your tech: Productivity expert Kory Kogon shared her tips on how to stay focused amid the ever-present distractions of technology. Act on the important, she suggests, and rule your technology—not the other way around. | Share your best productivity hacks

Your people are your best bet against uncertainty: Author Jim Collins touched on the importance of a company's employees: “We can’t predict what will happen in the next five years, so the biggest hedge against uncertainty are your people," Collins said. | Join the conversation

Other news to read

Has Detroit’s comeback stalled?: Downtown Detroit has undergone a dramatic transformation since the city filed for bankruptcy in 2013, but the neighborhoods surrounding it have largely been left out of the recovery. Philanthropic organizations and the government are betting that small businesses can change that, one neighborhood at a time. But the auto industry shrunk for the first time since the financial crisis, and there are signs of an impending recession. Will the gains made so far be enough to sustain the city? | Here's what people are saying