Do You Have an Innovator’s Spirit?

This past year has been “unusual”, to say the least and yet there are some business owners who have embraced the challenges and looked for creative ways to approach these challenges. How are you creating successes from the challenges you have faced?

Remind yourself that design is a problem solving business by nature. Look at this past year and any future challenges as opportunities to become innovators. Often businesses become complacent and may not keep striving for innovation, yet when you develop an innovative spirit within your company you will be more likely to remain focused on problem solving and creating value for your clients – key elements for separating you from the competition. It not only will help attract your ideal clients but it will create enthusiasm within your team. But you need to be willing to push forward and be that leader who has a positive attitude and remains proactive when challenges arise. Your team will more willingly follow a leader who has the courage to be proactive rather than reactive and stays positive, determined and looks for the opportunities offered by the current problems.

You also want to be sure when you are interviewing possible additions to your team, that you look more at how they will fit the culture of your firm. Among the things you want to look for: do they have a problem solving mentality; do they have a positive attitude; are they coachable Just as you want to encourage yourself to work outside your comfort zone, as the leader of your team, encourage them to do the same. Their resume is informative but the interview can tell you so much more, and remember – hire for attitude – you can train for skills.

Learn to embrace problems and be inspired by constantly looking for solutions – solutions that create value for your clients. Develop an innovator’s spirit and you will become energized by challenges – you and your team will find that the more challenging the problem the more exciting that challenge will be. When there doesn’t seem to be a solution, you are given the opportunity to experiment and try something new and different. After all, if the expectation is that there is no solution, you have been given a path to possible new discoveries. There is true excitement when you come up with a unique solution that offers great value.

In times of crisis, suddenly the way we used to do things may no longer work. Do you have the ability to keep your team inspired? Do you have what it takes to embrace change and to embrace problems, even if it means challenging some of your own beliefs in order to succeed? If you start to backtrack into what you see as “safe” territory – the way we have always done it – remind yourself of the advice of Chuck Swoboda, author of “The Innovator’s Spirit” and former chairman and CEO of Cree: “There is always a better way.”