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Leadership

What Does Leadership Look Like?

Years ago, I recall sitting in a conference room with a senior engineer.   He spent a great deal of time sharing with me and other junior staff that we could – and should – be leaders.  He went on to tell us that we did not have to be managers to be leaders.  The very next month, I was promoted to my first supervisory role. 

To be completely honest, I was devastated at being promoted.  I am not an emotional person (think Spock), but I went home and cried.  What did the company think of me if they were making me a supervisor?  Wasn’t I smart enough?  Why had I spent all those years working hard to achieve high ratings at the company?  Was my graduate research in chemical engineering meaningless?

Later, I came to realize that instead of thinking I was dumb, the company valued my ability to work with diverse groups of people.  They appreciated my aptitude to quickly understand data and make a logical decision.  I also learned that in a managerial role, I was naturally exposed to more technologies and opportunities to learn.  I have an insatiable appetite for education and learning, so being a manager was ultimately a good fit! 

Leadership Characteristics

While I was initially upset at my promotion, I have since (many times over) tried to evaluate what traits I demonstrated so that my boss trusted me with leading others.  I have also looked at all my bosses over time and other managers and leaders in lots of organizations since then.  There are several characteristics that help someone become a successful leader. 

Be A Good Listener

I know my husband would say I talk too much, but being a good listener is an important trait for leaders.  For those of us with technical backgrounds, we often jump to a conclusion early in the conversation and want to shout out the answer.  We also crave recognition for our clever and smart approaches to problem-solving.  Thus, we are excited to offer solutions.

Yet, great leaders don’t make judgments or put forth their own ideas first.  Great leaders listen to their team members.  We ask subject matter experts (SMEs) to present their technical arguments and opinions, including risk assessments before making a decision.  The higher up the ranks you go as a manager, the further away from the facts and data you get.  It’s important to trust (but verify) information from your staff. 

Demonstrate Compassion

For a lot of people, compassion comes easy.  As a kid, I would have called them “bleeding hearts”.  Just give me the data and let’s get moving!  But as a young supervisor, I learned that compassion is one of the differences between being a manager and a leader. 

While I still prefer clear, logical data and a simple plan of action, I now also recognize that other people do not live in a Vulcan world.  Some people make decisions based solely on emotion (eek!).  Some people will only process data when they understand how a decision will impact other people. 

One tool that has helped me comprehend the differences among leadership and teamwork styles is the DiSC® Assessment.  DiSC shows that people have different core working styles leading to various speed of decision-making and varying levels of “compassion”.  Please contact me at info@Simple-PDH.com for additional information on DiSC and a free one-hour work style coaching session. 

Weather the Storm

Finally, leaders must be prepared to weather the storm.  The big puzzle is that we cannot predict when, where, or what storm will hit.  This means leaders, especially innovation leaders, must be flexible, adaptable, and patient.  Understanding the risks and benefits of our decisions allows us to move forward regardless of the circumstances. 

Leaders will face setbacks and failures.  In innovation and new product development (NPD), technologies will fail and potential customers won’t like the final design.  The difference between a leader and manager is how we deal with the failure – e.g. how we weather the storm. 

43693592 – dollar boat in the bad weather

Innovation leaders recognize the opportunity to learn while a manager will entrench to a risk-averse position.  An effective innovation leader will evaluate the data and decide whether to redesign the new product feature or to abandon the project.  A manager will selfishly worry about his bonus and reputation if there is another product failure.  A leader rallies the team after a setback, but a manager punishes his staff for the failure

What Does Leadership Mean?

What does leadership mean to you?  Do you think there is a difference between management and leadership?  How do you view characteristics of listening, compassion, and failure?

Each day, week, and year, I hope I add wisdom with passing time.  Today, instead of crying and feeling disappointed at a promotion, I would ask what could I learn and what outcomes did my boss expect?  Leadership is a learning experience. 

Read more about innovation leadership in The Innovation ANSWER Book and in the recently released PDMA Body of Knowledge (2nd ed.) where I had the privilege to lead an innovative and diverse team.

Learn More

  • Check out where I’m speaking next (click here).
  • Get your copy of The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon (now available on Kindle).
  • Reference the new PDMA Body of Knowledge, available at Amazon.
  • Do you know your strategy?  Is it time to narrow your focus or expand to serve more customers?  Join me for the two-part Reset Your Strategy workshop on 18 and 20 August.  Register here – special discounts for the unemployed.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and speaking at great professional events.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Leadership is a Verb

Dictionary.com defines leadership as “the ability to lead” and “an act… of… guidance.”  The formal definitions of leadership are nouns-meaning it is something that acts or is acted upon. 

Overtime, I have begun to think of leadership as a verb.  Instead of being acted upon, leadership is acting and performing a service for others.  Of course, I went to college to study engineering, so grammar is not necessarily my strong suit! 

Acting for Others

Regardless of grammar and proper English from high school, leadership requires acting on behalf of the best interest of others.  Leaders in organizations are there to lead others.  Leadership is a skill that demonstrates expected behaviors and rallies the team around a common purpose.  Leaders support the goals of the team and the project objectives. 

What’s important to observe about successful innovation leaders is that in acting for others they suppress their own egos and agendas.  I remember working with a team leader who spent hours gathering the data and consensus of the team.  Assigned to a “war room” to solve a complex problem, the team discussed and debated the scientific theories to address the issue.  Yet after these lengthy meetings, our manager would next present a deliverable that we had never discussed.  He was not acting for us; instead, it felt like he was acting against us. 

Performing Service

Another reason I view leadership as a verb is that leaders are servants to their teams and other stakeholders.  By performing service for the team, a leader demonstrates his or her strengths and confidence.  None of us is too elite or has too grand of a title to lend a hand to those working for them.  As we lift up the entire team, we lift ourselves and the organization. 

Performing service does not mean going whole hog to build an entire housing community for the homeless all by yourself.  Service as a leader means considering the needs of your team and your customers and then addressing those needs to the best of your ability. 

For example, I fondly recall my first boss out of college.  I had been tasked to run equations and an analysis of large amounts data from a pilot plant to correlate with ongoing operations.  To understand the data and to convert it to useful information blog I was plotting dozens of graphs charts, and tables daily.  (Read this blog on the difference between data and knowledge.)

Our group had only a shared printer per company guidelines.  As a leader, my boss observed me walking down three hallways and around the corner several times per day just to collect my printed documents.  He acted as a servant leader and presented me with my own printer!  His service was not just a nice thing to do, it saved the company money to recover my wasted time walking back and forth to the shared printer.  It also allowed other group members more access to the printer since my graphs and charts took a long time to produce. 

Innovation Leaders

Beyond acting for others and performing service, innovation leaders are responsible for strategic decisions and delivering results.  Innovation leaders both drive and support strategy through market interactions.  Working to design and develop new products, innovation leaders gain customer insights and translate this information into target product attributes for the design team. 

A key skill of successful innovation leaders is the ability to examine themselves and to model behaviors that are expected for creative technology organizations.  The fancy word for this trait is self-awareness.  Self-awareness allows us to identify and capitalize on our strengths, and also helps us as leaders to identify and grow the strengths of our teammates. 

Learn More

Watch the recording of a recent Q&A webinar on innovation leadership.  (Click here or type https://www.anymeeting.com/806-095-661/E959D78286463D into your browser.)  Grow your innovation skills through a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) and Innovation Best Practices course (available online or self-study).  Contact me for innovation coaching or to join a mastermind group of leaders who are passionate about innovation.  A great reference for all things innovation is The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon.  

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Entrepreneurial Leaders

Today, many companies seek out the skills of entrepreneurs.  Leadership candidates are encouraged to demonstrate entrepreneurial experiences to get hired or promoted.  And while entrepreneurial characteristics are important for an innovation leader, traditional supervisors are better suited with conventional management skills.  Let’s look at three areas of differentiating leadership for innovation success.

Watch the 20-second summary and then read on!

Complete Ownership of a Problem

Entrepreneurial leaders are motivated by the finished product.  They are visionary and adaptable.  In order to achieve their goals, they are willing to take acceptable risks and are comfortable with uncertainty.  Because they are intensely vested in the final product, an entrepreneurial leader exerts power and control as a way to completely own the problem. 

On the other hand, traditional managers in operations, finance, or logistics might be ill-served by a total ownership perspective.  Functional managers need to work across organizational boundaries and with both internal and external stakeholders.  Predictability and meeting expectations enhance the cost-effectiveness and quality of operations.  Collaboration and cooperation are appropriate skills for accomplishing day-to-day work.

Motivated by Uncertainty

Entrepreneurial leaders are not necessarily more risk-seeking than traditional managers.  But, they are more comfortable with uncertainty, knowing that the path to the final product might not be straight or narrow.  Exploring different alternatives and accepting failure for its learning value characterize an entrepreneurial leader’s approach to uncertainty.

In contrast, functional managers have stringent performance objectives and rely on predictable, trouble-free operations to meet commitments.  While these leaders also appreciate learning, it is used to streamline and improve systems.  Learning is experiential and based on data analysis.  Planning and delivering on the plan are the metrics of success for conventional management tasks.

Persuasion

All of us can benefit from mastering skills of persuasion and negotiation.  But entrepreneurial leaders excel at selling their ideas to both their team members and sponsors.  They have an uncanny ability to demonstrate and convince others of the value in their concepts, obtaining funding to pursue these goals.  Entrepreneurial leaders are not hard-nosed salespeople, but use their passion, motivation, and charisma to convince others that their path of action is the right one.

Traditional managers in operations also need to use persuasion and negotiation skills, especially in budget battles.  However, their approach tends more to details.  Technical leaders, especially, find such negotiations painful and they are not optimistic in getting what they want.  Functional managers may convert the lack of a maintenance budget yet are not using their positive power or expert power to weave a compelling story.

Entrepreneurial Leaders Skills

Not every job needs to be staffed by an entrepreneurial leader.  Manufacturing, marketing, and accounting need conventional managers to lead these functions with a focus on operational excellence.  Quality, predictability, and cost-effectiveness are the focus.

Innovation programs do need entrepreneurial leaders.  New product development (NPD) projects are uncertain and involve inherent risks.  Entrepreneurial leaders are motivated to own the whole problem in order to generate a new solution.  Entrepreneurial leaders are adaptable and have a willingness to accept uncertainty, especially as a learning activity.  Finally, entrepreneurial leaders use persuasion to convince others that their ideas are valuable and beneficial.

How Do You Become an Entrepreneurial Leader?

Register now for a complimentary webinar on Innovation Leadership.  This interactive session is held Monday, 27 January 2020 at noon CST (1 pm EST, 10 am PST). 

You can also learn more about teams and leadership for innovation in our Innovation Best Practices and NPDP prep courses.  Check out the 1Q2020 schedule here.  You can also read more about innovation leadership and team development in Chapter 4 of  The Innovation ANSWER Book, available from Amazon here.  

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Innovation Leaders are NOT Teachers

I’m a disaster in the kitchen.  Beyond microwave popcorn, you are probably taking serious risks to eat something I have cooked.  Curiously, my mother was considered a good cook, so I don’t think there is a gene or DNA sequence that I missed to make me a terrible cook.  Instead, I blame my mother’s leadership style in the kitchen.  Leaders are not teachers. 

Every night, one of my chores was to set the table for dinner.  As my mother prepared dinner, she would tell me to watch her cook and she often told me to read the recipe.  Occasionally, she would have me help to gather ingredients and hand them to her.  “When you are older,” she would say, “then you can try cooking.” 

Leaders Mentor, Not Teach

Good leaders are mentors.  This means that after a short period of observation (and learning the safety rules), a leader lets the team member try out the tasks.  Starting small to minimize risk, leaders switch from doing and explaining (teaching) to watching and counseling.  A good mentor allows people to make a few mistakes so they can learn because tactile learning (learning by doing) is the most valuable lesson. 

Leaders as mentors can offer advice and share their own stories as learning tools.  Yet lecturing and teaching often falls short.  Innovation leaders, in particular, need to set boundaries for the team but then let creativity flow.  Flexibility is a hallmark of a strong leader. 

Too Much Coaching Fails Leadership

Today’s workers are lucky that coaching is a standard practice in most organizations.  Many leaders have been trained in the basics of coaching.  Unfortunately, many managers tend to overdo it.  Constant coaching is more like micromanaging and also hurts the innovation process. 

In certain situations, managers have learned that coaching is important but have not necessarily been given the right tools.  While coaching involves asking “why” a new product development (NPD) team made certain decisions or “what” the design pathway is, a constant barrage of questions destroys trust and autonomy.  Successful innovation leaders understand that a few well-placed why, what , and how questions can better guide and direct the team, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. 

Innovation Leaders Acknowledge Failure

Failure is a part of learning.  Teaching – by itself – does not allow someone to learn failure.  Watching my mother cook and add a pinch of salt or test baked goods with a toothpick only allowed me to observe her skills.  Without adding too much or too little salt to a stew and not finding out for myself what a “clean” toothpick means for bread, I never failed. 

Successful innovation leaders tolerate failure as an element of the learning process.  Of course, boundaries and constraints must limit the risk and cost of failure, yet mistakes and errors provide hands-on learning that is invaluable for a team.  Innovation should be expected to leave a trail of lessons learned to build the inevitable successes. 

Innovation Teachers

While I’m still not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination, I cautiously and continually try recipes and new tools to improve my cooking skills.  I understand the cost of failing in the kitchen is learning – and pizza delivery for dinner.  Without trying my own hand at adding spices to a soup or baking a birthday cake, I could never improve and learn new skills.

Likewise, great innovation leaders go beyond teaching and learning.  Being a mentor to serve as a guide and to govern the NPD process makes innovation leaders approachable and builds team skills internally.  Coaching your team includes a few well-intentioned “what” and “why” questions, but not peppering them with advice (pun intended).

Build Your Innovation Leadership Skills

To be a successful innovation leader, you must allow your team members to learn by doing and accept failure.  Join me for 20 Days of Innovation in 2020 to grow and develop as an innovation leader.  Starting on 6 January 2020, you will receive a short daily email tip, tool, or technique for 20 days.  You’ll learn about applying strategy for more success with time-to-market and how to improve your NPD processes.  It’s free!  Register here for 20 Days of Innovation in 2020. 

About Me

I am passionate about innovation and inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me great joy to help you build innovation leadership.  I am an experienced innovation professional with a thirst for lifelong learning.  My degrees are in Chemical Engineering (BS and PhD) and in Computer and Information Decision Making (MBA).  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact Teresa Jurgens-Kowal at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Changing Innovation Performance

Innovation has a dark side.  While everyone wants to be “more innovative”, new products fail at alarming rates.  When your business is to create new ideas, new technologies, and new markets, failing more than half the time is troubling indeed. 

On the bright side, however, innovation is more accessible today than ever.  Industries share their product development processes openly and companies partner with suppliers, distributors, and even competitors.  We have learned to integrate customers into the development cycle with open innovation and Design Thinking.  How do organizations continue to move forward, making progress with speed-to-market and changing internal performance?

The Purpose for Change

Read on or watch the 20-second summary to learn how you can change your innovation performance.

As senior managers present an argument to increase innovation performance, we have to explain the need for change.  Many people in the organization see only a narrow slice of the business.  R&D professionals, for instance, view their daily work and can see frequent, small gains in knowledge.  Marketers identify new insights from customer focus groups when they are held.  Project management professionals view small successes in meeting deadlines and milestones.  From each individual or functional perspective, things appear okay. 

Leaders inspire innovation and significant performance improvements must first demonstrate that a change is needed.  Teams build cohesion around a common purpose in the threat of competition.  New product development (NPD) teams can accelerate performance in time-to-market by uniting behind a common goal with a tight deadline.  This is especially important for virtual teams. 

Simplify Work Processes

A friend was recently telling me a story of bureaucracy.  She didn’t call it bureaucracy, but her frustration was obvious.  To implement a change that sped up the process and was a change that operations desired, she had to obtain approvals from her boss’ boss, the operator’s boss, and a person in the IT department.  To submit the change order, she needed to get access to an antiquated computer system for which the organization had no internal training. 

If you want to improve innovation performance, you need to simplify your processes and procedures.  Agile processes, like Scrum, offer the advantage of focused teamwork and quick feedback from customers.  The Agile Manifesto, commands us to emphasize people and interactions over paperwork and bureaucracy.  Let your NPD teams work on what they do best – designing and developing new features and technologies. 

Measure What Matters

Human beings are programmed to perform our best against the metrics by which our behavior is measured.  If your dad gave you a dollar for every hour you were quiet on a road trip, you could manage to be silent for hours on end.  If your boss measures efficiency to award your bonus, you will strive to eliminate waste. 

Innovations take time to pay off.  Short-term metrics drive short-term performance resulting in mundane, incremental products.  Developing new technologies and new markets are long-term investments and innovation rewards must recognize learning and growth as a purpose of new product development research, as well as product profitability.  Building effective, cross-functional teams is a stepping stone in the journey of improving innovation performance. 

Improving Innovation Performance

Innovation is important in every organization.  They say if businesses don’t innovate, they die.  Customers demand new and better products and services, and companies no longer have the advantage of geographical or technological monopolies.  To improve innovation performance, we must share the driving purpose and strategy.  Innovation requires change and as flagship innovation leaders, we must communicate the need for change. 

Next, innovation succeeds when creativity is unhindered.  Simplify your processes and procedures and let the NPD teams be free to do their work without complicated bureaucracy or reporting authority.  Finally, measure what matters.  Innovation is a long-term adventure where learning is paramount.  Experimentation often results in short-term failure yet innovation leaders value knowledge above short-term stock prices. 

Do You Want to Improve Your Innovation Performance?

If so, what are you waiting for?  Check out our 20 Days of Innovation in 2020 to receive a fresh innovation tip in your inbox daily during the month of January.  It’s not spammy and it’s free – sign up here.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Innovation Leaders Build Team Diversity

We are all taught that innovation and creativity increase when there is diversity in team membership.  We are told that teams with representatives from different groups and that interchange members frequently will outperform teams that have long-standing members.  Yet, leaders intuitively know that familiar teams are more productive and efficient than groups with more fluid memberships.

Watch the 20-second summary and then Read On!

What is an Innovation Team?

Innovation teams are groups of individuals seeking a common goal to create a new “something” that brings value to both users and producers.  Typically, innovation teams generate new, improved, or enhanced products and services within known markets.  Often, new product development (NPD) involves new technologies or new applications; occasionally, NPD means business development to create a new market.

NPD and innovation teams are usually small with membership of six to ten people of various skills.  The best NPD teams are cross-functional and involve all the necessary disciplines to transform an idea into a commercial product.  Ultimately, success of new products is defined by revenue and sales volume.

Team Diversity

Innovation teams do need diversity to be successful, but many companies misinterpret what “team diversity” means.  It is not uncommon for uninformed managers to define diversity purely along lines of gender and ethnicity.  Team diversity for innovation means creating a team with a wide range of technical experiences, educational backgrounds, and industrial exposure.  Again, each function necessary to transform the idea into a realistic product or service must be represented on the team.

Team diversity also means that members have different styles of thinking and working.  If everyone on the team – regardless of function – bases decisions on detailed statistical analysis, the emotional needs of customers are neglected.  Conversely, if every team member is people-oriented and sympathetic to independent consumer needs, a single product can never be designed for profitability or ease-of-use.  This type of diversity goes well beyond skin color or gender identification.

Familiar Teams vs. Changing Members

Robert Huckman and Bradley Staats argue that familiar and intact teams offer advantages to project outcomes in the areas of quality and efficiency (Harvard Business Review, 2013).  Familiar teams can predict actions and needs within their membership, and therefore, can outperform teams with frequent changes in membership.  

The standard argument against keeping innovation teams intact for lengthy periods is that they would become stale and isolated.  Such teams are assumed to have built-in biases and assumptions that prevent them from recognizing new opportunities and from being creative.  Instead, familiar teams are better able to identify knowledge gaps and can be more flexible when unexpected project changes emerge.

Your Role as an Innovation Leader

Innovation leaders wear many hats.  One is to compose and manage the innovation team.  Successful innovation comes from being able to transform ideas into commercial products and services.  Profitability derives from getting to market first (or fast) and maintaining market share.  Customer satisfaction is built on quality of products and services and customer loyalty is generated when firms release new products that meet their needs.

Designing an NPD team focused on a common purpose (such as commercial success, profitability, and customer satisfaction) requires a leader who can manage diverse team members over the long run.  Team member diversity means more about functional experiences and identifying with the customer than race and gender.  Successful innovation leaders value cross-functional and multi-disciplinary teams that know one another well enough to adapt to change.  A continuous focus on the team’s common goals is the most important message a leader sends.

Your Next Steps

Learn more about teams and leadership for innovation in our Innovation Best Practices and NPDP prep courses.  Check out the 1Q2020 schedule here.  You can also read more about innovation leadership and team development in Chapter 4 of  The Innovation ANSWER Book, available from Amazon here.  Also, be sure to check out our complimentary webinar on Transitioning from a Technical Role to Management on Friday, 13 December 2019 at noon CST (1 pm EST, 10 am PST).  Register here.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Questioning for Creative Leadership

We are always told to be good listeners.  Our moms and grade school teachers often told us to “shush and listen.”  And as adults, as many of us think we are good listeners as we think are good drivers.  (By the way, that’s a lot more than 50%, leading to an irrational conclusion.)

Active listening is more than just hearing what someone says.  Listening involves silencing our own thoughts and opinions, connecting empathetically with the speaker, and providing feedback.  The best way to provide feedback and to gauge if you really, truly understand what someone has said is through questioning.  I’ve observed that there are two general forms of questions:  transactional queries and questions for reflection.

Transactional Questions

In a market economy, we exchange money for a product.  Just as in a commercial exchange, conversation and dialogue can be transactional.  If there are multiple product choices with comparable features and functions, a rational consumer selects the least expensive product.  The decision is based on logic and the transaction is designed to minimize time, effort, and resources.

Some conversations are transactional in nature and should be.  “What time does the meeting start?” and “Where is the restaurant?” are responsible transactional questions that allow us to increase our efficiency and productivity.  The responses are typically used to complete the exchange, just as handing money to a cashier completes the purchase.  “The meeting starts at 10 am” and “The restaurant is at 123 Main Street”.

We use transactional queries to obtain data.  Remember that data and information are different.  Information allows us to make decisions, create opportunities, and to expand our knowledge of a given situation.  In a transactional conversation, we exchange impersonal data and the individuals may translate that data to information on their own.

For example, if I know that the meeting starts at 10 am and is held at a restaurant on Main Street (data), I will plan to leave my office at 9 am since I also know it is a one-hour drive.  Converting the transactional conversation to information also tells me that I need to take dimes and quarters with me to put in the parking meters on Main Street.

Reflection

While my decision to leave at 9 am and carry small change with me is not necessarily creative, it does explain another level of communication.  Questions for reflection use “right-brain” thinking to analyze the conversational feedback, to draw conclusions, and to offer alternatives.  For instance, I could have countered the restaurant location with a suggestion to meet at a different place that allows me to take a shorter drive.

It is through questions for reflection that we build creativity.  Innovation is enhanced when we look at things from a different perspective and try to envision a unique outcome.  Transactional queries normally limit the participants from seeing alternatives but can support incremental improvements and operational efficiencies.

Leadership Questioning Skills

How do you know if you’re asking transactional or reflective questions?  As an innovation leader, you want to drive creativity and encourage alternatives in new product development (NPD).  You want to empower your team to listen and to learn.

Transactional questions, potentially hindering radical innovation, are easily rephrased to “yes” or “no” inquiries.  We could easily have said “Is the meeting at 10 am?” instead of asking what time the meeting is scheduled.  This gives us a strong clue that the question is purely transactional.

Another indication is that the response to a transactional query is quick.  The meeting time is known so there’s no hesitation in providing the answer to the question.  At most, people will need to check their calendars to confirm the data.

On the other hand, reflective questions introduce a pause in the pace of the conversation.  A person has to stop and think about how s/he might respond.  The response provides information and not just data.  And, information allows us to take on different perspectives and to generate alternative solutions.  An indication that a question is designed for reflection is that a “yes” or “no” answer would be totally inappropriate. 

Creativity is driven by viewing problems from different perspectives.  Those viewpoints should include all potential stakeholders, including designers and developers, functional organizational representatives, customers, and end-users.  Understanding the entire ecosystem of innovation lays out the scope of a new product development effort.

Customers and Open Innovation

When customers are involved in innovation, we call it open innovation.  While customers cannot tell us what features and specifications they want in a new product, they can answer our questions and we gather both data and information.  It’s important, however, to focus customer interactions on qualitative data, such as that gathered through reflective questions.  Market research and open innovation are driven by understanding and empathizing with customer needs.  And only when this information is collated, can a development team go into the labs and pilot plants to design a new product or service.

While questions for reflections are best used in gathering customer impressions and feedback, there is a place in innovation for transactional questions.  Of course, these are often limited to setting pricing parameters and in A/B market testing.  You’ll also want to collect and analyze demographic and geographic data about potential customers since this can frame future marketing efforts.

Questioning for Innovation Leaders

Leaders set the tone for the culture and climate of an organization.  Restrictive, distrustful environments hamper creativity and are often characterized by strict boundaries and constraints.  In these situations, questions are largely transactional.  Managers are tracking directives for scope, budget, and schedule metrics.

In open, creative cultures, leaders provide freedom and autonomy for innovation teams.  Questions seek knowledge building and deeper understanding.  Open-ended questions without right or wrong answers can stimulate perspective-taking and novel approaches to solving problems.  Involving customers and end-users in creative questioning can improve innovation exponentially.

Summary and Learn More

Learning to ask good questions and to fully listen to the response are skills that can be honed and grown through training and coaching.  We can each practice creative leadership questioning by converting transactional queries into questions for reflection.

Learn more at our complimentary webinar on 13 December 2019 at noon CST (1 pm EST, 10 am PST).  We will discuss the Transition from a Technical Role to Leadership.  Register here.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching to build innovation leaders.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.  I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

The 3Cs of Innovation

Innovation is both easy and complicated.  The easy part of innovation is focusing on customer needs and the complicated part of innovation is … focusing on customer needs.  Customers vary and our ability to serve them depends on three key aspects of a company’s strategy:  choice, collaboration, and competency. 

Read on or watch the 30-second summary below.

Choice

Firms have many choices in innovation.  First, a company can choose to serve a broad customer base or a narrow market segment.  In choosing a broad market, companies often look to cost competency for a leadership position.  However, when products compete on price, customers lack loyalty to the brand.  Serving a narrow market segment, on the other hand, allows a firm to create products and services that are differentiated.  Typically, these markets allow the firm to charge a premium and generate significant revenues.  But, of course, there is no utopia.  Choosing a narrow market segment for innovation ties a firm to a specific pattern of development and technology.  If an unhealthy marketplace matures, it can be disastrous to revenues. 

Next, new product development (NPD) choices also involve the degree of innovativeness.  Are products simple line extensions or are they radical departures from existing competition?  These business choices reflect investment, risk, and global economic conditions. 

Finally, innovation choice includes decisions matching product development with strategy.  Some firms are more risk tolerant or cash poor than others.  These choices reflect strategic decisions to grow the business or to expand in existing markets.  One of the most frequently cited failures of NPD is a lack of strategic alignment; therefore, choices of product and service development efforts must closely align with growth objectives for the company. 

Collaboration

Cross-functional teams that work together from idea to launch are proven to be most successful in NPD.  Collaboration means more than naming individuals from different functions to be part of the “team”.  It means sharing ideas and problem solving with various perspectives, including the customer’s view.  True collaboration crosses departmental barriers and external boundaries.

Collaboration also means the team shares trust.  Trust requires sharing vulnerability and a social contract among innovation team members.  New products will be “ho-hum” if team members do not trust one another enough to share crazy ideas and so-called “outside-the-box” thinking.  The more risk involved in an innovation the more trust is necessary for the team. 

Competency

Quality in design and competency of execution differentiate the best companies from average ones.  To always consider the customers viewpoint and what service means is a hallmark of a firm delivering high quality.  Such companies hire, train, and nurture innovation competences in all of their employees.  And competency feeds back in a continuous loop to customer intimacy – understanding needs and wants. 

Training is the starting point to build competency for a quality-driven innovation organization.  Sustaining best practices through coaching can take an organization to even higher levels of success.  In the Flagship Innovation Leadership program, we recommend both individual coaching and master mind groups for senior leaders.  Both opportunities increase accountability and accelerate learning. 

The 3Cs of Innovation

Innovation should be simple, yet in practice is often quite challenging.  The 3Cs of innovation help teams and leaders to focus on what is most important to create success for new product and service design.  First, the company must choose who the customers are.  Innovation takes different forms, risk, and investment for broad markets or narrow customer segments.  Customer choices align with the organization’s strategic growth goals. 

Next, innovation teams must collaborate across functional barriers and with external stakeholders to be successful.  Collaboration is built on trust and trust is essential for taking on disruptive innovation.  Finally, successful innovation requires competency to deliver high quality results.  NPD team members build competency with customer interactions and training in innovation best practices (check out our 1Q2020 innovation training schedule here).  Organizational leaders grow their competency through coaching and sharing with others in master mind groups.  Join us for an Innovation Master Mind pilot on Friday, 22 November at noon CST (register here). 

Your Next Steps

Consider how NPD project choices are effectively implementing strategic goals.  Then, ensure your teams are cross-functional and collaborative.  Finally, implement training to sustain quality through competency.  Read more about innovation best practices in my new book, The Innovation ANSWER Book, available from Amazon here.

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Making Decisions

I told Siri, “Thank you,” twice yesterday.  Of course, I know Siri is not real and can’t hear me and doesn’t care if I say thank you or not.  But Siri gave me a route through traffic in an unfamiliar neighborhood where I was driving.  And I was grateful when “she” pointed me to the nearest Starbucks!

Siri is really a form of artificial intelligence and AI is a form of digital transformation.  We are using AI in our personal lives as consumers a lot.  We use Amazon’s recommendations, track package shipments around the world, schedule haircuts from our cell phones, and, of course, let Siri guide us to Starbucks. 

One of the ethical questions I hear at every presentation on AI and digital transformation is:  “How far does technology go into our private lives?”  Banks, credit card companies, doctors and dentists, and even hotels have an obligation to keep our private information secure and confidential.  Yet, all institutions need access to aggregated data to better serve us as customers. 

These organizations use algorithms and software to make decisions, and these decisions range from simple to complex.  “Where is the nearest Starbucks?” is a simple analysis.  Predicting the optimum time to pull a pump from refinery service to do maintenance based on vibration logs is a sophisticated decision. 

Read on and watch the 30-second summary video.

People Decisions

My feeling is that no matter how good Amazon gets at recommending new books or products for me, my decisions will always reflect my human nature.  On Star Trek, Data’s emotion chip could make him “feel” but even his robotics were not sophisticated enough to replace logical decisions with “gut instincts”. 

Gut feel is a decision parameter based on our experience, intuition, and emotion.  Often, we talk with friends, family, and colleagues to gather information before we make decisions.  Our best decisions are logical and rational, yet they also consider our thoughts, feelings, and dreams. 

Better Decisions

Wouldn’t it be great if we could harness the power of gut feel and couple it with the logic of a robot?  In Life Design Master Mind, we explore personal and professional opportunities using Design Thinking tools.  Design Thinking is a creative and collaborative problem-solving methodology that builds on awareness and curiosity.  Design Thinking tools capture our “gut feel” to help lead us through brainstorming solutions and prototyping to find the optimal, rational answer.  Used broadly in new product development (NPD) and innovation, Design Thinking focuses on the whole problem and generates optimum solutions without pre-supposing a solution.  You can read an excerpt of my new book, The Innovation ANSWER Book, on Design Thinking here. 

Learn More

Life Design Master Mind (LDMM) is a place to explore career, product, and other life challenges.  We use Design Thinking tools to capture our feelings about work tasks, hobbies, and passions to identify the next best step in life.  A trusting peer advisory board both gives and receives help in each session.  YOU bring YOUR challenges to LDMM and YOU set the agenda.  As we embark on the master mind journey together, I will share Design Thinking tools that you can immediately apply to find joy in your job, career, and family life.  Register now.  Space is limited!

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Leader A and Leader B

I just finished reading “The Leader You Want to Be” by Amy Jen Su.  She paints a vivid picture of two leaders – one who is firing on all cylinders and is content and another who is spinning his wheels and feeling frustrated.  She calls the first person “Leader A” and the second “Leader B”.  

What is startling is that all of us are both Leader A and Leader B.  Some days, we are engaged in productive, building strong relationships with clients, customers comment and suppliers.  We can see our legacy in the teams we build and the innovation projects we complete.  These are Leader A days.

Other times, we spend all day in seemingly pointless meetings, fighting fires, and refereeing personal conflicts.  At the end of the day, we feel spent and exhausted.  We are too discouraged to work out and bury our resentment.  These are Leader B days.  “The Leader You Want to Be” gives tips on how to increase the ratio of Leader A to Leader B days. 

Self-Awareness

In her book, Amy Jen Su discusses the importance of self-awareness.  Of course, we have to know when we are in Leader B mode to take steps to move away from it.  Yet, Leader B is as addictive as chocolate or alcohol.  It seems that if we just do a little more we can escape.  But just like having another sugary snack or glass of wine does not help the problem (and might make it worse), trying to do more with less time just makes more Leader B days occur with more intensity. 

Self-awareness means we can look at ourselves as leaders from the outside in.  We can certainly ask our trusted advisors for honest insight to our behavior and performance.  We can also observe our team interactions and results.  Missed product development deadlines and project budget overruns are symptoms of Leader B mode. 

Life Design Master Mind

Design Thinking is a set of problem-solving tools that rely on collaboration and empathy.  Design Thinking does not necessarily offer a better solution than other problem-solving methods, but it does offer an opportunity to increase our self-awareness and to utilize our network of trusted advisors.  Life Design Master Mind applies Design Thinking tools to identify the best path forward to fit personal and professional passions.  You learn how to creatively analyze situations so that you don’t let the temptations of Leader B mode derail you and maximize Leader A days.

A master mind group is a peer advisory board that meets regularly – either in person or online.  Nothing in the master mind discussion leaves the room so we are all safe to explore and learn.  Master mind group members are pre-screened to match experience levels so that everyone both gives and receives help. 

For example, in my master mind group, I recently learned tips to improve PowerPoint presentations from another group member who has expertise in digital technology.  Our facilitator has over 20 years of experience and offers valuable sales and marketing tips.  In an upcoming master mind group meeting, I am going to share my own presentation on Building Effective Cross-Functional Teams. 

In this way, all of us in the master mind group both give and receive help.  We learn from one another and, importantly, hold each other accountable to reach significant business goals and objectives.  When we do meet a goal, we all celebrate and share the sweet pleasure of success. 

Increase Your Leader A Days

All of us want to increase our Leader A days when we feel productive, efficient, and successful.  Design Thinking tools that build self-awareness (like mind mapping and customer journey maps) help us to recognize patterns of destructive Leader B behavior and pursue activities that support Leader A mode.  When we combine Design Thinking tools with a board of trusted peer advisors, the power of Life Design Master Mind results in life changing Leader A transformations. 

Learn more about Design Thinking tools with hands-on practice at the Institute of Management Consultants conference.  I’m speaking this Sunday in Dallas on how to Enhance your Consulting Skills with Creativity. Next, join me on 21 October at noon CDT (1 pm EDT/10 am PDT) for a free Q and A webinar on Life Design Master Mind.  You don’t want to miss this chance to grow your professional insights!