A career in innovation is not always an easy road to travel, but chances are you haven’t been traveling it alone. You’ve taken inspiration from the leaders you’ve collaborated with, learned from the challenges they’ve struggled with, and added to the collective knowledge of your team by sharing your own fresh ideas and approaches.
Well-trained and supported innovation talent is one of the strongest assets any organization can hope to acquire. So, what one piece of advice would you give to the next generation of leaders to empower them to build on the successes you’re achieving today? It’s a question we recently posed to members of the Front End of Innovation Community, and their responses revealed a wealth of valuable advice.
We’ve collected their best tips and shared a sample of them below:
Tip 1: Communicate and set manageable expectations
Tip 2: Enlist the support of your colleagues and stakeholders
Tip 3: Celebrate the small wins you can build on
Tip 4: Familiarize yourself with operational conditions
Tip 5: Discover the art of “failing forward”
Tip 6: Invest in self-education
Tip 7: Make data-driven decisions
Tip 8: Focus on your customers’ “why,” before thinking about your “how”
Get involved in the Innovation community
This final tip comes straight from FEI: One of the best ways to sharpen your skills and accelerate your Insights success is to engage with experienced industry leaders and hear how they’re tackling their toughest challenges so you can discover more effective ways to drive your own goals forward.
Our Front End of Innovation Group on LinkedIn is the perfect place to do that. If you’d like to add your thoughts to our Insights conversations – or pose a question of your own – our community of industry experts is here to lend you their support.
About the author
Jodi Harris is director of content strategy at Informa Connect. Prior to this role, Jodi spent over a decade developing and managing content initiatives for clients in the entertainment, CPG, health care, technology, and biotech industries, as well as for agencies and media brands. Follow Jodi on Twitter @Joderama.