Encouraging Innovation: Three Things Leaders Should STOP Doing

Trying to create a work environment that allows innovation to flourish? Discover three common leadership behaviors that can stifle innovation and creativity within your finance team and learn how to foster a culture that encourages new ideas and solutions. No matter your business, survival depends on the ability to respond, reinvent, and renew—all part of the innovative process. Find the financial all-stars you’re looking for with the help of our team at PrideStaff Financial.

Stop stunting employee growth:

Constraints set the stage for a lack of growth. Innovation is critically important, but for innovation to thrive, the conditions must be right. Multiple behavioral studies found organizational culture was the most important variable for successful innovation. Leaders are key to cultivating culture—through the behaviors they reinforce and the outcomes they reward. Unfortunately, knowing how to nurture innovation may not be automatic, and leaders make assumptions and mistakes. You can quickly stifle innovation by showing employees that “thinking outside the box” isn’t welcome.

Understand what creativity means:

Too often, leaders assume the ability to think outside the box is a static trait, but in actuality, it is something all humans possess—and even more—something all humans can develop. Creativity isn’t reserved for the musically or artistically inclined, and people regularly express plenty of novel thinking in all kinds of places. The most effective leaders should lean towards creative and innovative thinking from all their team members and empower them to apply it to any task or responsibility.

A barrier you might not even be aware of:

According to a Forbes article, one of the strongest and most infectious barriers to innovation is the unconscious bias against creativity. Despite outwardly communicating their desire for outside-the-box thinking, many leaders subconsciously reject novel ideas, especially when their innate motivation to reduce uncertainty is triggered. Why is this a problem? Because it reveals the very human discomfort associated with the unpredictability and perceived impracticality of new ideas, something many leaders are uncomfortable with. This then leads to a preference for safer, more familiar solutions. Creative ideas require a leap into the unknown. Try to squash the bias that will significantly stifle innovation. If what you want is to grow, beat competitors, and hire the strongest job candidates, then create a work culture of creativity—don’t be scared by it.

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