David Skudder on Becoming a More Innovative Leader

David Skudder
4 min readDec 22, 2022

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Leaders must have the necessary skills to be innovative in today’s fast-growing market. This can be accomplished through the development of new ideas and the willingness to take risks. Every leader should take a few steps to become an innovative leader.

Best Practices

Although there are many benefits to using best practices, it is not always the case that they are the best way to operate. Instead, they should be used as a tool to encourage the development of new ideas and improve the efficiency of your organization. One essential factor you should consider when it comes to using best practices is avoiding becoming complacent.

In addition to using best practices, you should also consider other factors, such as creating a culture of experimentation and open-mindedness to encourage the development of new ideas. This will allow you to implement new procedures and techniques without spending much money on “reinventing the wheel.”

Although you may lose money on your experimentation, it is still important to consider that it is a necessary part of the growth of your organization. You must make the best decisions when it comes to developing new ideas. It is also essential to remember that failure is part of innovation.

Fast-Pace Decision Making

An innovative leader makes daily decisions ranging from mundane to critical. Unlike most leaders, they are capable of making quick decisions and have the necessary trust and confidence in their team members to make these decisions.

Although they may only sometimes agree with the decisions that are being presented, an innovative leader can still rely on their team members’ expertise and experiences to make the best decisions.

Don’t Hinder Your Team

An innovative leader can get out of the way and let their team take the initiative.

One of the main barriers preventing innovation in the workplace is bad management. Before you can become an innovative leader, you must take a look at how you are managing new ideas and the way that you are focused on the process instead of outcomes.

If you and your team have done a great job in hiring the right individuals and developing them, then it is time for you to let them take on new responsibilities and work on their own projects. This isn’t easy, but it is very beneficial for your team as it allows them to develop new skills and take on new tasks.

Although you and your team must have the necessary tools and resources to monitor the project’s success, it is also crucial that you and your team put accountability mechanisms in place. Having a set of goals and milestones will allow you and your team members to track the project’s progress.

Leave Room for Failure

It is imperative to become tolerant of failure. This is different from accepting failure as a norm. Being an innovative leader requires a different approach to managing failure.

Despite the importance of being more tolerant of failure, it is also vital that you and your team can let go of the adverse effects of a project and move on. One of the most critical steps that you can take to prevent future failure is to let your team members learn from their mistakes.

After a successful project, successful teams will take the lessons learned from their mistakes and use them to improve their performance for the next iteration. Creating an environment that is afraid of failure will prevent your team members from taking the necessary risks to move the organization forward.

Being an innovative leader requires a different approach to managing failure. Having a culture that is not tolerant of failure will not allow you and your team members to be successful. It can prevent employees from developing effective and efficient strategies.

Reward Innovation

Rewarding innovation is crucial to encourage your team members to take on new risks and develop new processes and technologies. Having the necessary recognition and reward will allow them to keep pushing themselves and bring their innovations to life.

When an innovation works well for your organization or team, you and your team members must be recognized properly. This can be done through a public recognition process, which allows the team members to feel the impact of their work more fully.

Being an innovative leader can be a long and challenging journey. There are many habits that leaders have that they can use to keep track of their organization’s performance. By re-creating these habits, you can find new ways to inspire innovation in your team.

Originally published at https://davidskudder.com on December 22, 2022.

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David Skudder
David Skudder

Written by David Skudder

David Skudder is an agricultural commodities professional who runs pitchforkfarm.us in Stanton, TN. Read about David at his website, davidskudder.net.