When you promote innovation at work, you can open the door to increased productivity. Many leaders fall into the trap of thinking they have to have all the answers, when questions arise. It’s a practice that can rob you of time and make you fall behind on your work.
In this week’s video, in our ongoing leadership productivity series, we talk about how you can avoid this situation and turn your employees into active problem solvers.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- How can I prevent coworker interruptions?
- How can promote innovation with my employees?
- What’s a good employee engagement strategy?
- Should leaders make every decision at work?
Video Transcript for Promote Innovation and Save Time
Let’s talk about an easy way to encourage innovative thinking in your organization. It can be a trap, to think that as a leader you have to have all the answers. Now I know, you probably know most of the answers. But having to give them all out, think of them, takes a lot of time.
That time might be better spent on other things. For instance, your big picture goals.
So what do you do when people keep coming to you with all these questions? I have a simple tip. And it can encourage innovation in your organization.
Here it is: you let it be known to employees that if they bring a problem to you that needs the solution, they are responsible for also bringing along one or two courses of action. Possible answers.
This way, you are having to make decisions from a pool of a couple of options. And you always have the option to research it yourself. But some of the homework has already been done.
It’s like if you were proofreading a paper. It’s easier to proofread something that’s already been written, then to write it from scratch. See the principle that we’re talking about there?
You make sure that your employees think about the problem, come up with some solutions, and present them to you as defined options. It saves you a lot of time. Can make your decision making that much better. And it gets the people who work with you thinking in a different way.
Try it out. You want to empower people to think big picture and not just always turn to you whenever they have a question.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.
