The Role of Leaders in Innovation
Assignment Overview
Explores the role of leaders in creating organizations that innovate. This requires an understanding of the skills of the leader, as well as the global context of leadership. In this assignment, you will analyze leadership practices in innovative organizations and your own strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
Assignment Instructions
Review your completed Discovery and Delivery Skills self-assessment from pages 38-40 in The Innovator's DNA. Use this assessment to generate insight regarding your own discovery and delivery skills. Specifically, summarize the results and reflect on how your own strengths equip you-and how your weaknesses hinder you-in supporting innovation in the global context.
For the paper, select and explain at least two leadership practices (see Leslie's white paper) and how they support innovation in organizations. Explain the relevance of these practices to either one of the case studies for this course (Intuitive Surgical or Procter & Gamble), or to your own work context.
You will be evaluated on how well you communicate your insights and analysis. It is expected that you will communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions. To aid you in doing this, follow these guidelines:
Carefully organize your paper so that a section is labeled with a heading and devoted to each of the following topics. Make sure that the reader can easily find:
A section that explains how at least two leadership practices support innovation in organizations.
A section that analyzes the role of discovery skills (see The Innovator's DNA) for their support of innovation in organizations.
A section that analyzes the role of delivery skills (see The Innovator's DNA) for their support of innovation in organizations.
A section that explores your own strengths and weaknesses in the discovery and delivery skills, and how they help or hinder your ability to support innovation in organizations. (Be sure you address both discovery and delivery skills).
Graphs or diagrams may be included in appendices, if they are well-explained and applicable.
Each section of the paper must be supported using the course readings, and additional scholarly resources or reputable industry publications may be used, if needed. One to three supporting resources are recommended.
Your assignment will be scored on the following objectives-see the scoring guide for details:
-Explain how established leadership practices support innovation in organizations.
-Analyze the role of discovery skills for their support of innovation in organizations.
-Analyze the role of delivery skills for their support of innovation in organizations.
-Assess strengths and weaknesses related to leadership skills and an individual's ability to support innovation.
-Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Describing the DNA of Innovators 250 Words
In the Hitt, Takacs-Haynes, and Serpa article you read in this unit, the authors made a compelling argument for what will be required of leaders in the future. The future competitive landscape for organizations requires new forms of strategic leadership. Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, described his own strategic leadership in preparing his company for the future.
For this discussion, discuss how the ideas from these authors are similar to and different from those in The Innovator's DNA. Compare and contrast the concepts presented by The Innovator's DNA, Nayar, and Hitt, et al. What insights can a leader of innovation glean from these resources or ideas as a whole? How can these be applied to an organization, or what effect might they have on an organization's culture?
Response Guidelines
Post a substantive reply to at least two other learners. Be sure to reconnect your thoughts to the discussion topic and readings. Your replies should demonstrate clear links between the discussion topic, readings, and the content in the posts.