Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” He was certainly referring to leading in terms of industry: if your company is innovating, it will generally lead the pack. But I think he was also referencing positional titles in the workplace. If you are a leader, you are expected to innovate. And if you are an innovator, you have the potential to be a leader.
But whether you have a leadership title or not, innovation begins with a position—a mental position. From this starting point, continual innovation is sustained by a set of mindsets: convictions of change, growth, and value.
If you look at innovators historically, they are people who wanted to improve others’ lives. Their mission was to solve a problem. Often that problem was bigger than just themselves. The innovators that we are familiar with solved issues that affected many.
Successful innovators think in broader terms than the average person and must be somewhat altruistic to achieve their objectives. Whether solving large-scale problems or creating incremental change, innovators who achieve success seem to have five mindsets in common:
Traits of successful innovators
1. A healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo
Innovators believe that life can be improved; a product, a process, a market—even a mindset or a culture—can be improved. Innovators are not satisfied with the way things are and are always looking for something better. They are not limited in how and where they look for their ideas. Their minds are without borders or limits.
Because of this, innovators are not satisfied until the world they see is made better. They are always working to expand possibilities—looking around to generate more ideas through observation, research, conversation, and study. They are driven and will often inspire others to help build the better world they envision.
These are the same people who are always generating ideas not only to make a profit, but to serve customers better, to improve efficiency, and to enter into—and even conquer—new markets. They are looking for opportunities for impact. They may gravitate towards changes in current products, processes, people, or other innovative possibilities that could make a difference.
2. A hunger to improve themselves
Innovators not only want to improve life for the masses, but they also want to be better themselves. This is based on a belief in self that they are agents of change, that they can be “agents of better.”
Their mindset tells them they can make a difference, but they know that the greatest change comes from first improving themselves. They are often dissatisfied with their own position and believe they can be better, be more, and do more. It does not matter which position they hold or where they are in life, they have the mentality that they can contribute more to the world—as business owners, team players, inventors, friends, parents, and so on.
They work to improve themselves through continuous learning, experimenting, and collaboration with others. Innovators seek feedback on the impact of their ideas and do not like complacency.
3. Successful innovators have a tendency for resilience
Innovation is a journey with ups and downs—and surprise outcomes. It’s not a straight line and never happens right the first time.
Because of this, innovators must be resilient. They measure what is working and what isn’t to make small steps towards betterment. They know those small improvements over time equal big innovation.
Innovators do not give up or succumb to failure. Instead, they embrace it as a way of making progress—innovators fail forward. Even Thomas Edison tried an estimated 10,000 experiments before creating a successful lightbulb, and in the process learned and discovered other products and knowledge that we use even today. Innovators don’t fail—their experiments simply move them closer to the right solution.
Resilience is not just about continuing to work on the problem. It becomes part of personal growth. Over time, innovators develop emotional intelligence to endure the different outcomes they receive along the way. They are tenacious in their pursuit. While some of their collaborators may give up and fall to the wayside, successful innovators are determined to achieve results. Lack of resilience is deadly for someone who wants to become an innovator.
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4. An attitude of resourcefulness
At the beginning of a project or idea, innovators might not have all the answers. They invest in learning, collaborating, and finding resources to help them become successful. Those resources may be in the form of people, money, supplies, time, and even self-reflection.
Having worked with many scientists who handle complex scientific endeavors, I have personally witnessed the many ways innovators can fund research and the multiple networks they can call upon to validate an experiment. This is a powerful component of resourcefulness—a willingness to share problems and reach out to others to learn and collaborate.
Even when lacking time, money, or supplies, innovators can be unstoppable. They look to their environments to support their ideas. When traditional paths are not available, they move toward their goal in creative ways: how-to videos online, experimenting after their regular workdays, making, modifying, or borrowing supplies, and more. Resourcefulness allows them to advance their concept despite the lack of resources. Results drive them, and woe to the innovator who lacks that level of engagement.
5. A penchant for truth
Innovators are guided by reality and data. This means the voice of experimentation and feedback is louder than opinions and assumptions. Innovators find ways to measure their contributions all the way from the impact of new ideas to the validation process to experimentation and outcomes.
It has been said you must measure in order to manage. This rings even truer for innovators, who seek facts using measurements. Innovators regularly seek others’ feedback to ensure that their own understanding of reality is indeed the truth. Innovators believe in measuring everything and measuring often. This search for truth results in optimal outcomes because feelings and suppositions are not guiding business decisions, the reality of the situation is.
Do you share the traits of successful innovators?
These five tenets are innate in some innovators, and they may have been developed over time in others, but they are all required for successful and progressive innovation.
