Why Leaders Must Champion Innovation

The Need for Innovation to Become Everyone's Business

A company-wide approach to innovation statistically drives the best results. Innovation can however only take place where people are committed to it. On one hand, this requires active champions who, from a leadership level, advocate for and support innovation, and on the other hand it requires committed employees and team members to engage in innovation.  

Here’s what many organizations still fail to see: In reality, many companies still embrace a top-down approach or a matrix structure – even if they might claim to have a flat or network structure. For employees to truly embrace innovation, top-level leadership must go beyond mere rhetoric and actively engage in the innovation process. For instance, when a CEO personally endorses an innovation program, it demonstrates a genuine commitment to fostering innovation. This inspires employees and reinforces the importance of innovative thinking across the organization. 

Current data, however, suggests that this is not the case. According to our recent research done on the involvement of internal stakeholders throughout the innovation process, upper management roles only account for a fraction of the overall involvement of these. While you could argue that this is indicative of a modern, decentralized approach to innovation in which leadership does not guide every minor detail, the very low level of involvement in fact points to leadership not being as involved as they should be. This presents the possibility of a missed opportunity for leadership to be involved in hands-on guiding of the direction of their business. 

What are the Benefits of Leaders Encouraging Innovation?

1. Unlocking an Innovation Culture 

There’s no doubt that when it comes to shaping company culture, leadership has an immense impact on this. This is the same when it comes to championing innovation culture. For employees to truly commit to and engage in innovation, a conducive environment and culture need to exist.  

Leadership needs to navigate the intricacies of their organizations and establish a culture of innovation that is suited to them by leading by example, setting clear objectives and giving everyone the opportunity to innovate. This ultimately helps to make innovation a company-wide reality, giving employees the freedom to innovate and showcase their creativity. 

2. Greater Adoption of Innovation  

It’s a no brainer that in companies with traditional structures, where employees have limited autonomy, they are unlikely to deviate from the directions provided by managers or leadership.  

This trickles down to innovation in the workplace as well. Where innovation is championed and celebrated among high level executives and endorsed or even stipulated in company policy for example, more employees will commit to taking part in innovation programs or initiatives. 

3. Establishing A Company Fit for The Future 

Innovation is crucial for a company to remain future-ready and embrace the constant change taking place in its industry. When it comes to innovating, employees are a company’s most valuable asset, since without their input innovation will simply not take place. Employees who constantly feel trapped in repetitive tasks are unlikely to contribute effectively, let alone be innovative in their work.  

Allowing employees to contribute to innovation not only empowers the employee by steepening their learning curve, but it can also play a vital role in determining the future trajectory of the company.  

Examples of Leaders Who Drive Company-Wide Innovation 

Some of the greatest innovations came because of visionary leaders allowing their employees to ‘take the reigns’ and giving them contained freedom to innovate: 

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft 

Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft's culture was transformed from a rigid, top-down approach to one that embraces innovation and creativity from across the board. He is known for encouraging employees to lean into curiosity, experiment and take risks, leading to innovations such as Azure and Microsoft Teams, for example. 

Shantanu Narayen, CEO at Adobe Systems  

In 2007, Shantanu Narayen became the CEO of Adobe. Since then, the company has seen continuous growth and become a leading force in creative software. Shantanu is well-known for pioneering the cloud-based subscription model for Adobe’s creative suite, which revolutionised the entire software industry at large.  

Adobe is known for its modern work environment in which employees are encouraged to explore new ideas and innovations. Narayen once noted that the intellectual curiosity which he was allowed to exercise when he was younger, is what inspired him to create an environment at Adobe where “people ask the right questions, are comfortable exploring the unknown, and where [the company] engenders a culture of experimentation." 

A Call for Greater Involvement  

For companies to unleash innovation and meet future demands with greater resilience, top leadership needs to champion innovation from the top-down and encourage employees to share their ideas and actively contribute. Innovative genius exists in everyone. Employees simply need the right circumstances and opportunities to unleash this.