6 Ways Founders Can Empower Teams To Innovate Independently
For startup businesses, founder dependence is often not even a problem, but rather the reality of a limited number of employees working to get a business off the ground. However, maintaining such a practice once the business has grown in size can have particularly negative effects on its success, scalability, and longevity. Founder dependence creates a single point of failure and makes it harder for your business to adapt to industry trends by making swift decisions. For these reasons, and many more, it is essential to shift the focus away from the founder and start sharing the responsibility with the rest of the workforce. In this article, we explore 6 effective strategies to foster innovation beyond leadership by empowering employees of all levels to take ownership of their work.
Fostering Innovation Beyond Leadership In 6 Steps
Foster Psychological Safety
Perhaps the most important factor in driving innovation and initiative within your organization is fostering psychological safety for your employees. You can't expect employees to take ownership of their work or experiment with new ideas and approaches if they fear being criticized or punished for every mistake they make. Experimentation and change often come through failure, which is why employees need to be given a safe space to try new things. Start by practicing honesty and humility and share with employees some past mistakes and how those contributed to future successes. Then, encourage them to challenge established processes and workflows, inviting them to propose innovative solutions that could have a significant impact on your organization.
Create Clear Operational Processes
Innovation is always the goal for organizations, but you must first create a foundation upon which the organization is meant to build. Beat founder dependence and encourage innovation across all levels by standardizing processes and workflows. When employees know where to find information about specific processes, they don't immediately rush to the founder for guidance. Instead, they are encouraged to actively search for information and take the responsibility of completing a task independently. Innovation can also be given a structure by integrating experimentation and brainstorming into employees' routines. This can be achieved by establishing regular cross-departmental meetings for idea exchange and collaboration, as well as implementing rapid experimentation cycles to provide employees with a clear framework to test new ideas quickly and effectively.
Encourage Problem-Solving Instead Of Task Completion
In founder-dependent organizations, it is common for employees to receive tasks to complete rather than problems to solve. This means that the founder has already analyzed the situation and is now asking employees to simply carry out the steps needed to address the issue. What is missing from this interaction is a clear explanation of the thought process behind the task and how it is expected to impact the problem. An even better approach than simply explaining the issue to employees would be to present it to them and invite them to propose and test their own solutions. Then, you can discuss the outcomes together, helping employees hone their critical thinking and problem-solving skills instead of giving them solutions. Ultimately, this method helps employees become more independent and capable of successfully solving problems without the founder's assistance.
Recognize And Reward Innovation
Recognition plays a critical role in fostering innovation beyond leadership, giving employees the motivation they need to become actively involved in projects instead of passively following instructions. To encourage employees to continuously strive for improvement and innovation, you need to reward them for taking the initiative. For example, you can publicly recognize and reward employees who participate in pilot programs or cross-departmental collaborative projects. Additionally, incorporate achievements in creativity, problem-solving, and innovation into performance reviews to show employees their efforts are being noticed and valued. If this recognition also leads to better career advancement opportunities, then taking initiative will become a common practice for more and more employees.
Invest In Leadership Development
What better way to drive innovation beyond the founder than by investing in the training and development of employees and middle management? Provide access to training courses, mentorship programs, seminars, and workshops that will support employees in building their confidence and knowledge, enabling them to take initiative and successfully lead projects. Moreover, this approach will help you create a succession pipeline of capable leaders who don’t need to turn to the founder for every problem and question. As a result, founders will be able to gradually remove their input from all meetings, tasks, and projects, so that the organization can continue its operations without disruptions in their absence.
Give Employees Space To Take Initiative And Drive Innovation
Speaking of gradually stepping back, founders who care about fostering innovation need to understand that they can't be indispensable to their organizations. While their experience and knowledge are valuable, it is essential that other employees "get their spot in the sun" to prove that they can also make a meaningful impact. For that to happen, founders need to take a series of steps, starting with reducing their involvement in daily operational decisions. This will empower other employees to take on more responsibility. It's important to do this slowly, gradually increasing the difficulty and significance of the tasks passed on. Founders can also allow leaders and managers to run key meetings, thus boosting their confidence. This shift will eventually extend to more projects and processes, allowing employees of all levels to be independent and drive innovation.
Conclusion
Driving agility and innovation is essential for businesses that want to remain relevant despite continuous advancements in technology and their respective industries. However, this is something that a person alone cannot accomplish. It is essential for organizations to foster innovation beyond leadership and trust their workforce enough to share responsibility and give them the freedom to take initiative without fearing the consequences. This can be done by fostering psychological safety, leadership development, establishing clear workflows, and rewarding innovation, among others. This way, founders can successfully transition their organization from being a founder-centric entity to a resilient and scalable enterprise.
