Be an Innovation Champion

Innovation champions tend to be one-of-a-kind in their organization. It’s therefore critical for these folks to look outside their companies for advice and mentorship. Dev Patnaik, Founder of Jump Associates, an innovation strategy firm based in San Mateo, California, offers some key lessons for managing corporate change:

1. Avoid the Innovation Title -- Calling a new team the “innovation department” is a good way to get everyone else in your company to hate you. After all, if you’re all about innovation, what does that make the rest of us? Some of the most successful innovation groups flew under the radar by using innocuous-sounding names like Ancillary Services or Platform Development. Pick a name for your group that doesn’t induce hostility among your co-workers; you’ll need them on your side.

2. Use the Buddy System -- The most successful innovation leaders often have a partner in crime to help get the job done. Sometimes it’s a subordinate; other times she’ll actually share the same title. These duos compensate for each other’s strengths and weaknesses. For instance, one might be a relative newcomer to the organization with outside know-how, while the other is a trusted insider.

3. Set the Metrics in Advance -- Innovation teams often find themselves producing new business ideas that can’t possibly survive the hurdles of corporate scrutiny. That can be because companies measure success by focusing on incremental ideas. Successful innovators have been able to establish different sets of funding, testing, and performance criteria for incremental, experimental, and potentially disruptive innovations. Set these metrics up as soon as possible to ensure fair judgment of your new ideas.

4. Aim for Quick Hits First -- Too many leaders set off to create the platform that is going to save their company, only to discover that the organization’s patience runs out long before that new venture can come to fruition. That’s because game-changing initiatives can take a few years to develop, while most new leaders have only a short window of time to prove themselves. Spend your honeymoon period on quick hits, easy ideas that demonstrate to your CEO that you know how to get things done. Then switch to bigger initiatives before those base hits start to box you in.

5. Get Data to Back Up Your Gut -- How do you know if you have a good idea? The overwhelming majority of successful innovation leaders sum it up two words: your gut. They often rely on years of experience to be able to recognize when they’re on to the big idea. They then use quantitative measures as a way to justify their intuition to the rest of the organization. That doesn’t mean that testing isn’t an important way to get feedback and improve an idea. It’s just rarely the final go or no go.

Originally published in Business Week.

Stressed for Success

Usually promoting an employee is cause for celebration and pride. But for some, it’s a source of deep anxiety. What can you do if a promotion leaves your employee plagued with anxiety?

There are several ways to understand why a promotion may paradoxically be undermining your employees’ confidence. For one thing, they may feel, correctly, that no one has prepared them for the new role. That’s fairly common. Someone in the organization has judged them as qualified and ready – and pretty much left it at that. To get the support they need, the staffers are going to have to set pride aside and ask for it directly. In a face-to-face conversation with the person who made the promotion decision (not in e-mail, which can get passed around), they should express that they are excited about the new opportunity and that in the interest of living up to expectations, they’ll be asking for help.

It’s also helpful for to understand the complex emotions that can be stirred up by success. The more these anxieties are acknowledged and normalized, the less they will interfere with the transition to a new position. For instance, it’s important to admit that along with the gain, promotions involve losses. Employees lose the comfort of a familiar role and the relationships that went with that. They may also harbor fears of being exposed as an imposter. It’s not unusual for the newly promoted to worry that their inadequacies were just hidden before and that they will now be suddenly revealed. Another common reaction: guilt. A promotion means becoming boss to former peers, or defeating other contenders, after all.

These strange, uncomfortable feelings will pass with time. That’s another thing to remember. Meanwhile, since some of the old buddies might now be your direct reports – or because they might not want to reveal vulnerability to anyone at the office – they should be advised to share their feelings safely, with an external confidant: a professional or a trusted former colleague. One of the worst mistakes executives make on being promoted is to compensate for the stress by denying their feelings and believing they know everything they need to know. Such denial is a good way to undo their one step forward with a step backward.

For more tips, Click here for a site that provides six helpful steps to easing the promotion transition.

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