Leading through Innovation Date:   Tuesday , November 29, 2011 Innovate or perish – that is the single rule we live by. But how a company charts its course to success depends, in large part, upon the leadership of the organization. Leaders play a critical role in creating and living a culture that nurtures and values innovation. They are ambassadors of change. But the question for leaders today is not just how to drive innovation – but how to drive innovation and make it self-sustaining. That is why it is essential for every organization to build the leadership capabilities required for this. At Yahoo!, we believe our most important resource is our people. Our leadership standards –Show the Way, Innovate for Customers, Build Winning Teams and Deliver with Accountability – guide our leaders as they empower our employees to innovate and excel. Show the Way Before choosing your path, I believe it is essential to find your purpose in an organization. Along with passion, this becomes a powerful catalyst for success. As a first line manager – and this was my experience – there are two dimensions guiding your actions. The first is ownership of a project; you are completely focused on doing the best you can to make it a success. The second is your team. Your focus is on getting the job done, while balancing the interests of your team and motivating them to do the best they can. As a leader, step back to look at the big picture and arrive at your team’s purpose in the organization. When I relocated from Sunnyvale to India some years ago, Yahoo! in India was at the cusp of an opportunity. There was a strong talent pool to leverage. We were doing things right and executing well. But what was our purpose? It took some introspection with the team to discover how we could go from doing things right, to quadrupling our impact. To find a purpose that didn’t just excite us, but was also aligned to Yahoo!’s larger goals, taking us closer to what we were trying to achieve as a company. Sorting through the possibilities, we found our purpose in transforming the India center into a market-centric innovation hub. Keeping in mind the business landscape, we have since redefined our strategy to win in India, but always keeping it rooted in our purpose. Your team always looks to you for direction. This can come when you know your purpose and how your team can fit into the larger scheme of things. And remember, your purpose can be distinct from your immediate goal. Once you know what you want to do, reaching your goal can depend on how well you empower your teams, remain customer centric, build a culture that leads to the change you want to see and as importantly, show your employees the change they want to see. Innovate for Customers As a leader, demonstrate the courage to challenge the status quo, experiment and take risks with new ways to meet customer needs. You can not just ask customers for what they want and then try to give that to them. Be pro-active, foresee trends and bring the future closer. Help your teams look inside their customer’s environment and understand how they use products, where they spend their time and what their problems are. In conversations with employees, I reiterate alignment to our product goals and within that, ideas that solve “real life” problems. I believe this is the key to make innovation count. Build winning teams When you move into a role where you lead managers, you make one of the most challenging shifts in your career. As a leader, how do you ensure excellence in every one of your managers? A poor manager is the number one reason people leave a company and one of the biggest contributors to low performance and engagement. You can not afford to have technically brilliant people who are not focused on managing, or equipped to lead their teams. At Yahoo! one of our key leadership standards is building winning teams, and we guide our managers to do this. At the end of the day, everyone wants to be part of a high performing team. The onus is on you as a leader, to help them maximize their potential. We are enabling our employees to enhance their existing capabilities and gain domain expertise. As a leader, I see a dual responsibility. It does not stop at giving your people opportunities. You have to then equip them to successfully “convert” these opportunities into the desired results. An employee told me, “I have an idea, but will I get the support and help to take it forward?” Part of empowering your people is to create a support system for them. To foster this, we have a team dedicated to facilitating innovation and its adoption – the single point from which any idea can begin its journey at our center. They go by the name Yahoo! Entrepreneur Network (YEN), and for the past year, have worn multiple hats to spot innovation, nurture, track it, aide collaboration and break down silos within the organization. As a leader, encourage your employees to, to ask why, why not and what if? Great ideas can come from all levels of an organization, not just from the top. Be open to ideas and practices from anywhere in the company. Center-wide, we’ve ensured that channels of communication remain open across levels. We also want our people to be equal owners in innovation. We have designed programs that are inclusive – so innovation could flow in from anywhere in the organization. These have gone a long way in facilitating collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas. Deliver with Accountability A dedicated innovation program or culture change initiative alone cannot do the trick, unless they are backed by results. What we have chosen is “result-driven” culture change. When employees see team mates innovating with results to show, we are banking on it having a ripple effect, sparking the passion and hunger to succeed. This brings us to perhaps the most critical leadership standard – delivering with accountability. The final piece in the jigsaw is the promise and commitment that someone out there is accountable. I believe this has to begin with the leadership, before it trickles down. Set high standards for your own performance and accountability. As a leader, establish clear commitments with others so that “who, what, how well, and by when” is mutually understood. Innovation is formally tracked at our quarterly business reviews, not just on quantitative, but also through qualitative parameters. Where measures were earlier productivity and process centric, they are now “outcome based,” with the end goal in view. There are clear owners responsible for growing innovation at the center. Results have reinforced the organization’s vision like no amount of talk can. In the last four years, the Bangalore center has yielded a 50 percent average Year-on-Year increase in idea submissions for patent consideration. Actions do speak louder than words.