Sometimes I think there is a tendency to equate innovator skills with entrepreneurial skills with leadership skills. While some of the qualities may overlap, I do believe that they are distinct “roles”. That said, just as everyone from parent to CEO can benefit from using and applying sound coaching skills, both entrepreneurs and those in leadership roles can benefit from applying certain innovative skills.
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A major new study involving some 3,500 executives has highlighted the key skills that innovative and creative entrepreneurs need to develop. These simple, but not easy skills are the fundamentals. The good news is that these skills can be developed through habits and practice. Read the article (download the PDF version too) and listen to the video interview from Insead here: The innovator’s DNA
The 5 core skills to develop your eclectic innovating are:
- Associating
- Observing
- Experimenting
- Questioning
- Networking
Their study demonstrates that five “discovery skills” distinguish the most creative executives: Associating helps them discover new directions by making connections among seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas. Questioning allows innovators to break out of the status quo and consider new ideas. Through observing, innovators carefully and consistently look out for small behavioral details – in the activities of customers, suppliers, and other companies – to gain insights about new ways of doing things. In experimenting, they relentlessly try on new experiences and explore the world. And through networking with diverse individuals from an array of backgrounds, they gain radically different perspectives.
In upcoming posts, I will be looking more closely at these five talents and discuss how and why they are so important to change and to our own way of dealing with the world.
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Thanks Roberta for the summary and map to the study. I want to learn more about the study because the five skills identified resonate so well with me as essential. They all somewhat fall under the category of curiosity…which I think is the most important attribute for a full life.
Paul, there is a whole article in the last issue of HBR. I haven’t got my hands on it yet but will be reading it in the future with interest. I am inclined to agree with your about “curiosity”. In my previous post, (Mary Poppins as Change Agent) I put curiosity as a number two skill for eclectic change agents and in my next post on the use of metaphors, I actually equate questioning to curiosity. I would be interested in your own observations.