Be a mobile manager
Innovative types have a reputation for being hard to manage, but it
doesn’t have to be that way. All it takes is a manager who will show
interest in what his or her innovators are doing, who can communicate well and who knows his or her stuff.
“They need to be technically competent in the arena they’re expected to lead because the staff values what you know, not your position
— except when they really need you to do something,” Kohrt says.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your best innovator should be put
in a leadership position.
“Unfortunately, the most technically competent person may not be
the best manager,” he says. “I don’t pretend to be the smartest guy in
this organization. The skills on how to communicate and how to sell
ideas and how to envision how individuals in an organization can contribute, those are abilities they need to have.”
Kohrt says he, himself, often underestimates the importance of good
communication in an environment filled with innovators.
“In any organization there’s a particular level through which
top-down messages and bottom-up messages just don’t seem to
penetrate,” he says. “Sitting at the top, I can preach, but often, I
don’t know what happens.”
That’s why he gets up and walks around.
“When a CEO maintains the right to talk to anyone in the organization, the quality of the information transferred is much higher,” he
says. “You know the boss is going to find out anyway.
“I’m very accessible. Some would say to a fault. This is effective
both for managing an organization and for innovation because it lets
the staff know at all levels what’s valued and what’s of value in an
organization. If, in the course of that, you’re wandering into a lab and
they’re doing something cool and you act like you’re at least interested, it’s amazing how that story gets out. Organizations run on stories — as much on stories as on fact.”