#innovationmandate Disruptive leaders are brave. Their bravery is revealed by their absolute willingness to lean into their own executive development by accepting and even driving the changes occurring both with in their organization and outside in the markets and...

Today’s innovation leaders develop a core competency around future trends. They don’t need to understand the endless minutia of every little emerging technology, consumer behavior, or economic shift.

As with any concept, to understand disruption, and its power to either help you or damage you, it helps to break it down into manageable chunks. In the business marketplace, we see disruption emerging as an increasingly powerful force in five key areas.

You’re already very good at what you do. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be in the race. All you have to do is take your good performance and step it up a notch. Squeeze out just a little more speed.

In a recent survey, we first asked thirty executives if they thought “leveraging disruption” was critical to the success of their organization. Twenty-nine of the thirty executives indicated that leveraging disruption was critical to their success. Not bad! At least they recognized the concept.

#innovationmandate Remember BlackBerry? In the first decade of this century, you either had a BlackBerry or you knew someone who did. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, co-CEOs of the parent company RIM, guided the BlackBerry to the top of the...

As the race intensifies, for innovation leaders to stay one step ahead requires more speed, more agility, and more stamina than ever before. The technology that was cutting edge yesterday will be obsolete tomorrow. Employment practices are evolving with lightning speed. New rules, new goals, new threats are emerging more quickly than many innovation leaders can handle them.

#innovationmandate People often say that in today’s business environment where innovation is accelerating, competing in business is like running a race. True. In a race and in business, there are winners and losers. Actually, to be more precise,...

#innovationmandate Many economists say that because of the Internet and global digital communications, we live in a “connected economy.” Although it’s true that we have more fibers of digital connectivity than ever before in human history, sociologists argue the...

#innovationmandate To stay ahead of the innovation curve, as a leader it’s imperative that you give your employees and stakeholders a reason to get up in the morning, come to work, and dedicate themselves to quality, innovation, and total customer satisfaction. It’s...

#innovationmandate Today’s winning innovation leaders know the first step towards leveraging disruption is to recognize the world as it really is and not as they’d like it to be. They know that wishful thinking will put them on the road to disaster. I once had the...

#innovationmandate Ask the typical CEO if he or she is connected to the company’s top stakeholders—the executives, board members, big shareholders, and vendors—and they’re likely to reply, “Of course I’m connected to them! What a ridiculous...

#innovationmandate Our family pet is a French bulldog. His name is Lucky. In their behavior, dogs of this breed are somewhat like houseplants: They don’t like to be too hot, too cold, or really too anything. They are known for range of common ailments, and as a result...

#innovationmandate No matter how you seek to inspire through communication—with words, your appearance, or even with art or music—you need to address what people really need. People will respond most powerfully to what they value right now on the deepest level. This...

#innovationmandate Words are things – Maya Angelou There is perhaps nothing I find more surprising than the fact that many leaders are incredibly careless about the way in which they use language, particularly when it comes to innovation and new ideas. In its most...

#innovationmandate We don’t make mistakes. We just have happy accidents - Bob Ross Not everyone who innovates—and makes a difference to peoples’ lives—is an entrepreneur or chief innovation officer of a high-tech company. Here’s a true story that showed me just one of...

#innovationmandate Here are a few examples of innovation leaders who consistently have stayed, or did stay, one step ahead of their competitors by inspiring those around them. They’re all very different people! Some are “high profile,” while others are low key. With...

#innovationmandate Notice in the title I used the word “earn.” I did not say “deserve,” or “are entitled to,” or “should expect.” Any leader who struts around and expects to be respected just because of the nameplate on their door, or the view from their corner...

#innovationmandate H.G. Wells once wrote: “Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” The renowned science fiction author may have been talking about the future of humanity, but winning leaders understand exactly what he was saying. In business,...

#innovationmandate There are three key attributes that innovation leaders know and practice. They are Access, Action, and Authenticity. 1. Access When it comes to team engagement, providing access goes far beyond the so-called open-door policy. Having an “open door”...