Podcast: Courageous Innovation with Cindy Solomon

We all want to be more innovative at work, but that’s easier said than done.

In this 30-minute talk, leadership expert Cindy Solomon takes us through the mechanics of courage and innovation, providing concrete examples and proven strategies to break through the barriers that stop us from taking meaningful risks.

Solomon’s team has interviewed over 5,000 people of all ages worldwide for their research into courage and innovation, and their findings can help you be a more effective leader at work today.

Key Takeaways:

– The biggest thing holding most people back from courageously innovating is a primal fear of risk. Risk of looking stupid, not having the right answer, losing your job. This kind of fear doesn’t respond to reason, but it can be controlled.

– Only one in three of us thinks we’re courageous. Only one in five of us consider ourselves innovative.

– There are four types of courage: blind courage (popular among successful entrepreneurs), crisis courage, role courage (most critical for innovation), and core courage (relating to your sense of purpose).

– Courageous innovation always starts within yourself. You can use the SNAP process to guide you. The second part is selling your idea and enlisting others in your quest for innovation.

– Learn the 6 steps to sharing your innovation ambitions—including the critical skill of storytelling using the language of leadership

– Our courage and innovation doesn’t have to be huge to be significant. Praise yourself for every small act of courage, every tiny innovation, to build those skills within yourself.

Listen to the complete session or read/ download the transcript below.

Cindy Solomon is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant and author who has traveled the world sharing her provocative, and often hilarious insights on business, customer service and courage with literally thousands. Cindy’s client list includes a who’s who of corporate and entrepreneurial America with clients as varied as The Mayo Clinic, Raytheon, Alaska Airlines, KeyBank, Oracle and Google asking Cindy to help their organizations create long lasting, profitable relationships with their employees, their leaders and their customers. Cindy’s two best selling books, The Rules of Woo: An Entrepreneurs Guide to Capturing the Hearts and Minds of Today’s Customers and Creating a Culture of Courage are available at www.amazon.com. Connect with Cindy and keep up the conversation on LinkedIn or Twitter.