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3. Set performance metrics and targets for innovation. For example,
targets could be established for generating new “prospect” activity
implementing new ideas. These targets would need to be substantial
enough to improve the organization’s lead generation performance.

Leaders can also set metrics to change ingrained behavior, such as the
“it wasn’t our idea” syndrome, by requiring a certain percentage of
all ideas to come from external sources. 104

Leaders willing to explore innovative processes are more likely to

experience setbacks. It is important to be prepared for failure as an
inherent component of risk but also to see the benefits to self and
organization if failure does occur. It is important to view setbacks, or failed
projects, as learning opportunities. A leader who successfully challenges
the process must be able to take a failure and ask what has been learned in
the process. Project post-mortems or after action reviews are essential for
this. A good project leader will look for cause and effect in failures to learn

what might be done differently in the future.

We don’t have enough people out there making mistakes. Thomas Watson,
former CEO of IBM.

Transparency

One quality valued in leaders is the ability to build an organization where
truth and transparency prevail. A leader tells the truth in a real and
genuine way that people can verify. He or she is open and authentic. The
operational premise is that hidden agendas are detrimental to
transparency. Information should flow freely within the organization and

be shared as much as possible. Being transparent means that the
leadership is telling its organizational members that they are being trusted
with the information they are receiving.

Leaders often think that they're overwhelmingly honest, but many

followers say otherwise. In leadership assessments, over 50% of almost
13,000 peers and direct reports felt their leaders could improve in being

104 http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/leadership_and_innovation.

David Kolzow 88