If asked, I suspect most of us would say we want to be innovative leaders; however, when it comes to developing the requisite skills to be innovative leaders, we still have a ways to go. Much of that, I would guess, has to do with the fact that innovation is such a fuzzy word, oddly enough, for as much as it’s thrown around these days.

That said, there are at least nine qualities you need — or nine things you can do — in order to become innovative leaders.

Innovative Leaders Connect the Dots

Innovative leaders tend to connect the dots. Sometimes referred to as associational thinking, this happens when folks notice patterns and draw connections between things that may at first seem unrelated to one another. That’s exactly what innovative thinkers do. They see things — connections, patterns, solutions, ideas — within other things that most others see as unrelated.

Innovative leaders learn to look for connections between things that may seem unrelated at first . #leadership #management

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Are You Really Listening?

In order to connect the dots, and in order to be able to absorb and synthesize information from so many varied sources, listening is a skill that you simply can’t just be OK at if you want to be innovative. Poor listeners jump to conclusions; you can’t do that if you want to fully understand things, pick out connections, and so on. Poor listeners rarely come to full understandings of topics and situations; that doesn’t bode well for your ability to connect dots (or do any of the other things below, for that matter).

Listening is an overlooked, but very important, quality of an innovative leader. #leadership #management

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Innovative Leaders Understand Empathy and Motivation

This may seem an odd entry into a post about innovation, but hang in there. The ability to understand humans, their emotions, and their motivations is really important if you hope to understand what humans and consumers want and why they want it. It’s not enough to empathize alone; you must also gain insight into the cause of the emotion or reaction. That, in turn, is what allows you to begin understanding what’s motivating employee and/or consumer desires and behavior.

Innovative Leaders are Curious with a Purpose

Innovative thinkers are curious, but they’re curious with a purpose. They like — and frankly, sometimes need — to understand why things are the way they are and how they might be even better. You’ll notice there were two parts to that last statement: (1) why things are the way they are, and (2) how they might be even better.

That’s what I meant about innovative leaders being curious with a purpose. It’s not simply curiosity and questioning for the sake of questioning everything; it’s curiosity and questioning for the purpose of figuring out how to make things better. Actual innovators want to be about the business of doing something good. It’s not about complaining. It’s about doing good.

The best innovative leaders are curious with a purpose. #leadership #innovation #management

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Innovative Leaders are Observant

Innovative thinkers are always taking things in. They observe, reflect, and observe some more. You’ll need to resist the temptation of thinking they’re space cadets. They’re not. They’re looking, listening, understanding, making connections, and so on. Their observations are often the catalysts for future innovations.

Innovative Leaders Expose Herself/Himself to Ideas

Innovative thinkers proactively expose themselves to ideas, and not just ideas with which they might agree. Remember, since they thrive on connecting the dots, they often surround themselves with a variety of sources of information and ideas, often including unorthodox ideas.

Got Humility?

Again, this may seem a perplexing inclusion; but I’d opine that humility makes it easier to innovate because you’re able to more quickly and comfortably seek knowledge and information from others, which is a tacit acknowledgement that those others are more knowledgeable than you are about a subject or subjects. This is a good thing.

Humility enables leaders to seek information from more knowledgeable people. #leadership #innovation #management

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Innovative Leaders Exhibit Mental Flexibility

Another way to say this might be the ability to embrace seeming paradox. Basically, innovators are often able to consider both the whole and the individual parts simultaneously. This allows you to do what’s absolutely necessary when trying innovate — you need to be able to live in both the concrete and abstract worlds at the same time.

You’re always going to be faced with seemingly conflicting information or ideas at points; innovative thinkers learn how to not only be OK with the apparent contradictions, but to work them through and even glean insights from them.

How OK Are You With Failure?

Innovating leaders try things. It’s not enough to simply think about things; at some point, those ideas have to pushed from the abstract into reality. That’s why innovators will often test ideas, use pilot groups, float ideas by people, and so on. They learn from success and failures, both of which are helpful as they continue in their ongoing process of connecting and innovating.

So what do you think? What would you add to the list? Leave them in the comments!