Characteristics of Successful Innovators
Sherlock Holmes has captivated readers for more than 100 years with his eccentric personality, logical reasoning, and ability to make connections that others cannot. Sneaking a peek into Holmes’ infinitely innovative mind, and the minds of others who are known by their innovative capacities, we would be blown by the animated words, sounds, mental connections and the sniff after a problem hunting it down to a solution.
According to research, innovative people need to be well-rounded professionals with a very specific set of characteristics:
1. Divergent Thinking
Where most people see an overwhelming galaxy of ideas, successful innovators see the individual stars and planets and can theorize on how they might relate to one another.
Innovative individuals do not search for one “correct” answer, they search for a multitude of answers, they are on a quest for possibilities. Innovative beings break down mental traditional structures. They do not operate out of a paradigm of right and wrong. This is how innovation is born.
2. Iterating Between Abstract and Concrete Thinking
Innovator thinkers are able to move fluently between conceptual and practical thinking, maintaining the connection between the two, are more prepared to identify uncertainties in the idea and design a good experiment setup.
3. Insatiable Curiosity
Highly innovative people are naturally curious, and they’re inclined to question many of the assumptions everyone else just accepts. The more you question, the more your imagination is stimulated to consider other possibilities. This is why creative people are constantly investigating and examining things, including their own products and the quality of their own services.
They aren’t afraid to ask why or why not. They are curious about customer needs, desires and motivations. They constantly challenge themselves to see things from a different perspective, including questioning the status quo, which opens them to new possibilities.
Yet, their curiosity is an unattached one. Meaning, that they are able to postpone fixation on an idea and stay open to exploring different possible directions before closing in on a single option.
4. Infectious Passion
Creative people tend to be intrinsically motivated, meaning that their drive comes from within. This internal desire spurs them to pursue their problems, and search for answers.
Innovative people are energized by challenging activities. Highly innovative and successful people aren’t necessarily the most talented of the bunch, but they consistently and persistently go after their goals.
5. Stamina
Innovative success is rarely instantaneous, innovators have an unshakable perseverance of a long-distance runner.
Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” was rejected 38 times before it was published, and Stephen King kept all his rejection letters (30 from “Carrie” alone) skewered on a nail on his bedroom wall.
6. Compelling Leadership
Innovation can be a solitary endeavor, but to be successful, innovators need to be able to rally a team around them. The best leaders get their people so fired up that they’re ecstatic to do their jobs. Their dream is adopted by others, and their team picks up the torch to make that dream a reality.
Just think of Walt Disney, whose empire has grown exponentially since his first sketch of Mickey Mouse. The collective passion of decades of talented artists, Imagine-ers, and operations personnel has kept his legacy alive and enabled tremendous company growth.
7. Respect for Other Innovators
It’s easy to get caught up in your own genius and disregard others’ opinions. But part of great leadership and success is respecting other people who can help bring an idea to fruition.
David Heyman, producer of the “Harry Potter” films, built a strong working relationship with J.K. Rowling during the production of the films through his leadership and passion. Heyman’s talent as a producer is evident, but his ability to respect Rowling’s vision ultimately allowed him and his creative team to deliver eight films that readers and film audiences worldwide could enjoy.
8. Courage
Putting ideas into action, bringing other people on board, and facing criticism takes an extraordinary amount of courage. In addition, Innovators are ready to face failure. With innovation there is lots of risk involved and possibilities of failures, innovators are ready to accept risk taking and failure as part of the innovation package.
9. Action Oriented
As Innovation is not about ideas, yet, about action taken to execute those ideas, Innovators have the capacity to push themselves and their teams forward from the idea phase to prototyping and experimentation.
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