Unit 3 : Innovative Leadership and Design Thinking

 Innovative Leadership
Innovation leadership is a philosophy and technique that combines different leadership styles to
influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, and services. The key role in the practice of
innovation leadership is the innovation leader.

Innovative leadership is a style of leadership that involves applying innovation and creativity to
managing people and projects. Innovative leaders often inspire productivity in new ways and through
different approaches than have typically been used and taken. The ability to apply innovation is
especially important in times of uncertainty, ambiguity and risk, so companies and industries that
often encounter such situations can benefit from bringing on innovative and creative leaders.

Another element of innovative leadership is the willingness to consider a different concept or

approach, which can be challenging for those who prefer to stick to tried and true methods. You can
see innovative individuals who lead several major global companies. One example is Steve Jobs, the
co-founder and former CEO of Apple, Inc., who revolutionized the idea of the personal computer and
worked closely with staff members on the innovative “Think different” marketing campaign that led
to the success of the iTunes and the iMac, iPod and iPhone.

Innovative leaders do not necessarily have to be the people behind all of the creative ideas. They can
recognize greatness from their team members and work to develop paths and success from those
ideas. What really helps an innovative leader stand out is their willingness to adapt to change,
experiment with new concepts and envision the path forward for a creative idea.

 Skills of innovative leaders

Skills of An innovative leader must have certain skills, regardless of the industry in which they
work or the team they oversee. Some of the key skills required for innovative leadership include:

 Communication
The ability to communicate is an essential skill for an innovative leader. These leaders can
communicate in all directions, emphasizing the importance of each team member and keeping
everyone aware and involved. Innovative leadership also requires the ability to communicate
the vision and generate awareness and enthusiasm moving forward.

 Imagination
Using your imagination is a must when applying the innovative style of leadership. You must
be able to imagine and envision the future from a simple concept, as well as consider the steps
it will take to achieve a particular goal.
 Willingness to embrace opportunities
A willingness to embrace new ideas and opportunities is a unique way to approach your work.
It is an important skill to become an innovative leader, as it allows you to look for new
opportunities and embrace the chance to try them out. This willingness also allows you to see
concepts on a larger scale, rather than worrying about the details.
  Empathy
The ability to empathize with others is an important skill across all leadership styles, but in
this application, the skill involves empathizing with the end customer or the person who will
benefit from the innovative idea being developed. Looking for disconnects between the
organization and the target audience allows you to empathize with the audience members'
needs and identify ways to improve the offering to better accommodate those needs.

 Creative brainstorming
If you think back to your early educational days, you may remember brainstorming ideas as a
way to get creative and come up with new concepts. The ability to continue to develop and
apply this skill can benefit you as an innovative leader. It is easy to get bogged down with
day-to-day tasks, so set aside some time each day to think creatively and write down any
ideas you might have. You may also consider making your workplace more conducive to
creativity by closing your inbox for several hours each day or adding unique visual cues to the
space.

 Efficiency
Innovative leaders tend to be efficient workers and motivators, focusing on getting things
done.

 Concept of Emotional and Social intelligence

"We are wired to connect. Neuroscience has discovered that our brains very design makes it sociable,
inexorably drawn into an intimate brain to brain linkup whenever we engage with another person."
Daniel Goleman – Prologue – Social Intelligence.

Emotional and Social Intelligence (ESI) is defined as a set of competencies demonstrating the ability
one has to recognize their behaviours, moods, and impulses, and to manage them best according to the
situation. Having the ability to master ESI gives employees a distinct advantage in their positions. It
allows them to access their emotional center while managing their relationships with their team
members. Competencies associated with emotional and social intelligence are often what separate an
average performer from a great one. And, unlike our overall intelligence, emotional intelligence can
be learned and improved over time.

 Components of Social Emotional Intelligence

Social-emotional intelligence helps students feel good about themselves while doing positive actions.
Thoughts, actions and feelings about self are all intertwined, and socio-emotional intelligence
provides instructions in specific components, which include:

 Self-awareness – Instruction in self-awareness helps students learn to intentionally

build positive thoughts and positive behaviours.
 Self-management – Students learn to manage their time, energy, talents and money,
which can improve impulse control.
 Social awareness – Positive interactions with others requires the ability to empathize
with people who may have come from much different backgrounds or cultures.
Besides growing in personal awareness and empathy, students learn to be aware of
 the feelings and actions of people in their support system including family, friends
and community.
 Relationship management and social skills – Students learn to treat other people with
cooperation and respect, and learn how positive treatment of others can lead to
improved relationships.

Improved communication and responsible decision-making skills can have a positive impact on
learning. Students who may have been fearful or anxious before learning social-emotional intelligence
often become able to learn more quickly. Social emotional awareness can help set students on a path
for success in school and ultimately in their adult lives.

 Social Intelligence vs. Emotional Intelligence

Although social intelligence and emotional intelligence are related, they aren’t exactly the same thing.
Emotional versus social intelligence can be thought of as the difference between the way you or your
students relate to yourselves versus the way you relate to each other.

When comparing emotional intelligence and social intelligence, emotional intelligence involves self-
awareness, self-regulation and self-control. Social intelligence is less focused on one’s own emotions
or reactions and more focused on sensitivity toward the feelings, moods and motivations of others and
the ability to interact with others as part of a group.

 The Mayer et al. Model of Emotional and Social Intelligence

ESI as a theoretical concept was generally the product of personality psychologist John D. Mayer in
association with social psychologist Peter Salovey and management psychologist David R.
Caruso (the latter to a lesser extent) during the early 1990s.

These researchers coined the notion of ESI, and their work laid the foundations for subsequent
conceptual interpretations. Prior to their work, many considered emotion to be detrimental to work
and life.

However, they envisaged ESI to be another form of higher cognition, separate from general
intelligence (IQ), whose importance had not at the time been considered with regards to functionality
and achievement in people’s lifestyles and careers.

The definition of ESI given by Mayer and Salovey in 1997 was that:

"Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to
assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate
emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth."

The Mayer-Salovey model consists of four interconnected abilities (or branches):

 Perception – perceiving emotion in yourself, others and your environment

 Facilitation – using emotion to interpret the world and changes in different ways
 Understanding – conceptual knowledge of emotions, how they change and their impacts
 Management/Regulation – the ability to steer your emotions and those of your peers
Though these are all interconnected processes and abilities, they suggest that there is perhaps a
hierarchy and higher levels such as regulation (where emotions and thinking are interconnected)
require a greater level of emotional intelligence than the lowest level, perception.

Studies such as Lane et al. (1990) supported this concept by suggesting that those who were strong in
one branch of the Mayer-Salovey hypothetical model generally were also very competent in others.

 The Goleman Model of Emotional and Social Intelligence

Science journalist Daniel Goleman was the one to put the psychological theory of ESI on the map for
the general public. He wrote three bestsellers on the topic to date and emphasized the importance of
ESI to a functional life.

He also defined four main components involved in the functioning of emotional and social
intelligence, a few years after Mayer and Salovey put forth their research:

 Self-regulation.

This consists of an ability to think prior to acting, and also to suspend emotional judgement on
occurrences. In addition to this, it involves having control over mood swings and impulses, and thus
not allowing them to disrupt one’s quality of life. Its trademarks include openness to change, integrity,
reliability, and an ease in accepting ambiguity.

 Self-awareness.

A person that is self-aware understands what drives their behaviour, as well as the effects that it has
on others. The most common trademarks are self-deprecating humour, realistic assessments of one’s
conduit, and a healthy dose of self-confidence. It is the ability to not take yourself too seriously, while
at the same time understating your value.

 Relationship skills.

When you possess strong social skills, you effortless form relationships with your peers, as well as
manage them correctly. The trademarks of this characteristic consist of team leadership capacities,
managerial aptitudes, and persuasiveness.

 Social awareness.

Possessing empathic traits does not necessarily involve feeling compassion for others, but rather
understanding their emotional makeup and treating them according to subsequent reactions.
Trademarks consist of customer service skills, the ability to recruit talent, and sensitivity to
sociocultural factors` such as gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

Goleman also emphasized the value of internal motivation. Professionals that are internally motivated
excel at their job for reasons that go beyond status, money, and other material benefits. They find joy
in their actions and have an immense thirst for knowledge that surpasses the satisfaction that comes
from external rewards. Their trademarks qualities involve optimism, as well as a desire to achieve
greater things each day. Goleman also posits that the higher someone rises within an organisation, the
greater their social skills are required to be. Therefore, senior directors and managers are required to
be competent in social intelligence.
  The Bar-On Model of Social and Emotional Intelligence

The most comprehensive definition is perhaps that outlined by Israeli psychologist Reuven Bar-On, in
various publications since 1982.

In his perception, the term ESI embodies:

“A cross-section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators that impact
intelligent behaviour.”

There are five main markers of emotional and social intelligence as defined by Bar-On, namely:

 Interpersonal
 Decision-making
 Self-expression
 Self-participation
 Stress management

They are divided into 15 representative subdivisions:

 Interpersonal relationships, empathy, social responsibility

 Problem-solving, reality testing, impulse control
 Emotional expression, assertiveness, independence
 Self-regard, self-actualization, emotional self-awareness
 Flexibility, stress tolerance, and optimism

In addition to this, he outlined a method of quantifying and measuring ESI; a self-report measure
known as Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i). This system aims to identify and predict ESI markers
and their influence on one’s managerial aptitudes. The 15 sub-divisions listed above form the 15 sub-
scale scores which together produce a representative EQ-i, on a scale similar to that used by IQ tests.

All of these scales coalesce to forming the motivation behind every instance of human behaviour and
the relationships we form during our life. Bar-On has been continuing his studies of ESI since 1982,
and his EQ-i has been revised, updated, and improved countless times since the initial iteration of
1997.

When applied correctly, the model has been posited to predict factors such as academic performance,
career path, didactic and organisational effectiveness, occupational performance and leadership, and
even psychological/physical health and wellbeing.

However, its validity has been debated over the years (for instance, some have suggested that it
correlated with personality traits which render it ineffective as a measure) but it remains one of the
most accepted analyses of ESI to date.
  ESI and the Development of Leadership Skills

The three aforementioned theories on emotional and social intelligence discussed the influence of the
concept in an executive setting. So, what exactly about this characteristic makes people good
managers?

According to the Harvard Business Review, possessing the aforementioned qualities modify the brain
chemistry of both leaders and their followers.

Simply put, leaders are neurologically wired to handle the tasks that correspond to their position.

Their intrusion is much sharper, their decision-making process relies less on second-guessing and
more on immediate action, and they intrinsically possess the necessary tools to convince others to
follow. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that you should be born with this type of behaviour deeply
ingrained into your synapses. In fact, ESI-based leadership can be coached into people, as emphasized
by a 2017 study conducted in South Africa and published in the South African Journal of Economic
and Management Sciences. In a nutshell, the markers or characteristics described in the
aforementioned ESI models put together by renowned psychologists and scientific experts alike can
be awoken in any of us with the right coaching. This is why a successful manager should always rely
on feedback and request assistance when necessary.

Understanding the emotions of the people around us can improve our relationship skills, and therefore
our ability to influence and communicate with others.

This comes through an ability to read others’ feelings and reactions more accurately and
effectively and to thus adapt our approach and employ appropriate skills to handle the situation. Ways
we can develop our ESI include:

 Team-building exercises
 Coaching
 Training in negotiation and networking

 Synthesis of Human and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence, due to being heavily researched and funded, reaches new peaks of performance
by the hour. In his new book, Gigerenzer (2022) addresses the predominantly positive perspective on
AI with an advocacy for the uniqueness of the human intellect. He outlines strengths of human
intelligence and the failures as well as dangers of AI. While the book presents an enlightening case for
human intelligence, the author misses out on exploring a more productive approach: The synthesis of
human intelligence and AI.
Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence is based on human insights that can be decided in a
way that can machine can effortlessly actualize the tasks, from the basic to those that are indeed
more complex. The reason for manufactured insights is learning, problem-solving, reasoning, and
perception.
This term may be connected to any machines which show related to a human intellect such as
examination and decision-making and increments the efficiency.
AI covers assignments like robotics, control systems, face recognition, scheduling, data mining, and
numerous others.
Human Intelligence: Human intelligence or the behaviour of the human being has come from past
experiences and the doings based upon situation, and environment. And it is completely based upon
the ability to change his/her surroundings through knowledge which we gained.

It gives diverse sorts of information. It can provide data on things related to a particular aptitude
and knowledge, which can be another human subject, or, within the case of locators and spies,
diplomatic data which they had to get to. So, after concluding all it can give data on interpersonal
connections and arrange of interest.
Here is the table of differences between Artificial intelligence and Human intelligence:
S.
Feature Artificial Intelligence Human Intelligence
No.
AI is an advancement made by human On the other hand, human
insights; its early improvement is credited to creatures are made with the
1. Emergence
Norbert Weiner who theorized on criticism intrinsic capacity to think,
mechanisms. reason, review, etc.
Human intelligence seeks to
Artificial intelligence (AI) strives to build adapt to new situations by
machines that can mimic human behaviour combining a variety of
2. Nature and carry out human-like tasks. cognitive processes.
The human brain is
3. State Machines are digital. analogous.
Humans use their brains’
AI-powered machines rely on input of data memory, processing power,
4. Function and instructions. and cognitive abilities.
As compared to people, computers can
handle more data at a speedier rate. For
occurrence, in the event that the human
intellect can solve a math problem in 5 In terms of speed, humans
Pace/Rate of AI minutes, AI can solve 10 problems in a cannot beat the speed of AI
5. and human minute. or machines.
As machines are unable to reason abstractly
or draw conclusions from the past. They can Learning from various
only acquire knowledge through information events and prior experiences
and frequent training, but they will never is the foundation of human
6. Learning ability develop a human-specific thinking process. intelligence.
Human choices may be
AI is profoundly objective in choice making affected by subjective
because it analyses based on absolutely components which are not
7. Decision Making Accumulated data. based on figures alone.
For human insights, there’s
more often than not room for
AI frequently produces precise comes about “human error” as certain
because its capacities are based on a set of subtle elements may be
8. Perfection modified rules. missed at one point or the
 other.
Energy The modern computer generally uses 2 watts On the other hand, a human
9. Consumption of energy. brain uses about 25 watts.

Human insights can be

adaptable in reaction to the
changes in their
environment. This makes
Modification of AI takes much more time to adjust to unused individuals able to memorize
10. AI and Human changes. and ace different skills.
The human judgment skills
AI can as it were perform fewer assignments underpin multitasking as
at the same time as a framework can as it proven by differing and
11. Versatility were learn duties one at a time. concurrent roles.
On the other hand, as social
creatures, people are much
way better at social
interaction since they can
prepare theoretical data,
Social AI has not aced the capacity to choose up on have self-awareness, and are
12. Networking related social and enthusiastic cues. delicate to others’ feelings.
It does optimization of the system. It cannot
be creative or innovative as humans can
13. Task only think and machines cannot. It is innovative or creative.
  Why does culture matter for today's global leaders?

An organizational culture, a nation’s culture that plays a very, very important the way leader reacts
and responds and that has to be considered unless and until you do not consider the surrounding
culture whether you are into a small group or into a large group then definitely there are the chances
that leadership may not be effective.
Culture is a tacit social order of an organization. It shapes the attitudes and behaviours in wide-
ranging and durable ways are there. So, whenever we are talking about the PESTEL political,
economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. So, when we are talking about the social
dimension then the culture is becoming part of those social dimensions.

So, these attitudes and behaviours are there will be the different ways as per the society norms. So,
cultural norms define what is encouraged, discouraged, accepted or rejected within a group. So, those
practices some people may admire your practices so you are encouraged and some practices will be
discouraged. So, therefore in that case it is the essence of an organization culture is innovation and
risk checking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation,
aggressiveness and the stability is there.

So, seven primary characteristics seem to capture an organization’s culture is there. So, whenever you
have to decide on the organization culture first find out these seven dimensions and then you will
come to know that is whenever you are working what exactly the orientation is working.

For example, in some organizations, it might be innovation and risk checking. So, that is
creative organizations, knowledge-based organizations, and KPOs are there and if there is research
then that will be working.