5 Traits of Innovative Business Leadership

Innovative leaders are not new. They’ve been around as long as humans have been progressing. But our current state of rapid technological advancements is new. It can be dizzying, and businesses can have a very difficult time keeping up.

That’s why it’s so important to develop innovative leadership, the kind of leadership that can steer a team or an entire business through the rapid changes and economic storms of our time.

The following are five traits of innovative leaders. When you see these traits in people who work for you, help them to develop their leadership skills, and your business will thrive.

1. Strategic Vision

The digital era can be overwhelming, but leaders with a clear strategic vision can keep a business on target and moving in the same, consistent direction. Sometimes it’s necessary for leaders to make decisions that don’t make sense in the short term but that keep them on course in the long term. This kind of vision is hard to find, but it can make a huge difference for your business as it finds its true north.

2. Strong Customer Focus

Can your leaders get into the minds of customers and find out what makes them tick? Innovative leaders not only spend time thinking about customers, but they do everything they can to understand them. They network with clients and ask questions about needs and wants. They develop relationships with customers—in person and online—and they always look for ways to expand their markets.

3. Attention to Employee Ideas

Innovative leaders believe that the best and most influential ideas bubble up from the bottom of the business. In other words, they know that the people who are working closest to the customers are the ones who are most likely to innovate—they’re the ones who are working where the action is. In order to take advantage of these good ideas, innovative leaders create a pipeline from the bottom of the business to the top.

4. Excellent Goal-Setting

Everyone works harder when they have goals to work toward, especially if those goals stretch them just enough but not too much. Great innovative leaders set goals for their businesses, but they also encourage individuals to set professional goals for themselves. Often, it’s these individual goals that really pay off as they help employees to advance their own careers. If each employee is striving to improve, the overall business is thriving.

5. Inspiration and Motivation Through Action

It’s one thing to listen to a motivational speech by your leaders. It’s another thing entirely to watch them as they work hard and innovate on a daily basis. Innovative leaders don’t just sit behind their desks and issue commands. Their energy and enthusiasm for the work are contagious. As they share their strategic vision, others catch that vision and want to see it come to fruition.

These are not traits that you’re either born with or not. Any one of them can be learned. If you’re trying to become an innovative leader yourself, think about which of these areas you’re currently weak in, and set goals to help yourself improve. If you’re trying to develop innovative leaders for your business, look for people who already excel in one or more of these areas. Tell them about the promise you see in them, and help them to further develop their skills.

As the leadership talent grows in your business, you’ll find that employees can mentor each other. This creates an atmosphere of real learning, which is invigorating.

To learn more about how an outsourced CFO can bring innovative leadership to your business, download our eGuide below.