By Kelley Reynard

Organisations who seek to create a culture where innovation thrives in every corner, are those who experience success, ensure a competitive advantage, and have satisfied, productive, and engaged employees. The culture, environment, and people provide the foundation for innovation to occur; and it is essentially the leaders of the organisation who shape the culture to drive innovation. Organisations that are innovative, encourage new ideas, improve existing services, create more efficient work processes, and have better productivity and performance; and it is these organisations that are leading experts in their field. Linda Hill, Harvard Business School professor, explains how leaders can drive innovation throughout the business and gain the competitive advantage that all organisations strive for.

Leadership is not about position, telling people what to do, or about knowing what should be done. It’s about inspiring people to act, creating an environment in which employees feel comfortable proposing radical ideas, and being able to challenge long-held corporate beliefs. As a leader, applying the same tools and systems to yourself that you apply to your organisation, ensures that for every value, system, or attribute you are looking to develop in your organisation, you are making sure you develop the same in yourself. This responds to the well-known cliché ‘walk the talk’. Hill puts forth that to motivate employees to do what innovation requires; a top-down approach will not work. The best way is to tap into emotions employees already feel, lead with the heart, and show the human side to leadership. Knowing where employees feel these emotions; whether that be in a product’s quality, or in the overall role a company plays on the world’s stage, is one of the most important things a leader can do early on.

One leader in particular, who grew the company’s brand and reputation was Luca de Meo, CMO of VW Group. When commencing in 2010, the brand differed from market to market, and de Meo played the role of the collaborative leader and performed an emotional discovery process to immerse himself in the organisation and culture. He engaged with employees at all levels of the organisation, learnt German so that he could communicate with his team, and learned about the many cultural strengths embedded at VW. Instead of a top-down approach, de Meo directly involved employees in major decisions, and took a ‘hands on’ and collaborative approach to fully utilise his people’s talents.

Hill attests that one of de Meo’s strengths as a leader was his ability to provide his people and the organisation with purpose. Engaging employees on a personal level and finding out what was important to them was something de Meo did with every employee. He attributes this approach to the culture of innovation and ‘real’ change that occurred at VW. The importance of purpose cannot be overstated, and a good leader like de Meo is able to see the purpose behind every task, and more importantly, engage with employees to convey that purpose and drive innovation.

To access the full article by Ilan Mochari, senior writer for Inc Magazine, please click the following link: http://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/linda-hill-purpose-driven-leadership-innovation.html