As we all know, every successful innovator makes mistakes, learns from those mistakes, and then 
moves forward until the innovation is right. As Thomas Edison once famously said:
"I have not failed once. I've just found 10,000 ways that didn't work."
In today’s complex business world where leaders struggle just to survive until Friday let alone lead successful and innovative teams, one of the greatest challenges they face is how to lead in an environment of expected innovation.
It is very rare to develop a new innovative solution right away and have everything work perfectly. In software development for example, the concept of the “Minimally Viable Product” (MVP) is a fancy way of saying we can get this to work but there’s going to be a lot of learning from mistakes before we have it perfect for full release.
Unfortunately, too many people have forgotten that innovators make mistakes in their quest to find new solutions to existing and future problems. Many times, the people who are doing a lot of the forgetting are business leaders in positions of authority who create an environment of the “Blame Game” when things do go entirely as planned.
Business leaders who work for companies that leverage innovation to enhance their value proposition must understand that mistakes are going to be made and being the jerk who yells and screams at the innovator’s mistakes are just being counterproductive and simply just poor leaders. But we’ve all been there and we all know the pressure to succeed is intense.
Based on research, years of observations, and working with large companies, here are five suggestions for things you can do immediately to become a better leader in an innovative environment where people makes mistakes:
Be grateful people are trying
As Wayne Gretzky said, “I miss 100% of the shots I don’t take.” If people in your organization are waking up every day and taking shots, be grateful. There are millions of workers out there who work 9-5 and don’t care about doing a good job let alone being innovators. If you have innovators, thank them and encourage them regardless of how many mistakes they are making in the process.
Be more grateful they aren’t making same mistake over and over
Being grateful and showing appreciation is a basic leadership skill. However, it’s very hard being an effective and positive leader if your people are making the same mistake repeatedly in trying to be innovative. If you see someone learning from their mistakes and not repeating them, give them even more acknowledgement.
Provide nurturing and coaching
When people make a mistake, our tendency as leaders is to “let them figure it out.” Well guess what, if they made the mistake in the first place, they may not have the skills to fix it. So jump in and provide positive nurturing and coaching because at the end of the day, that is really the role of a leader.
Provide support and resources if you trust them
Innovators on your team need real support and resources to be successful. Leaving them on their own to fight the wars on resources will leave them with little energy to be innovation. But going to war for your people requires a deep level of trust so if you trust them, you have to do whatever you can to get them the resources to do what they need to do.
Trust them or cut them
If you don’t trust them now, when are you ever going to trust them? After they make more mistakes? Probably not. Giving trust is a lot harder than earning it but it’s critical for you are a leader to give it no matter how hard it is for you. Unless it is impossible because the person is not trustworthy. If that’s the case, then you have only once choice and that is to cut them.
In summary, being a leader in an organization trying to create and environment of innovation is extremely hard. The temptation and natural instinct is to use the “blame game” as a leadership tool which is the worst thing you can do. It requires effort and a reasonable approach to be an effective leader and these five tips can help you get there.
