Tag Archives: innovation skills

Are You Indispensable at Work?

This is a guest post by Robert B. Tucker

In a time of economic disruption, unprecedented downsizings, budgetary cutbacks and the constant pressure to outsource more and more routine functions (and the employees who perform them), advice on professional survival always seems to convey the same tired message: Be visible. Don’t make enemies. Brown nose the boss. And work even harder.

In reality, you are already working hard. Simply working harder will not be enough, and may lead to a burnout. Relying solely on your functional skills and expertise will not be enough to make you difficult to replace. And your years of experience on the job may not have the cachet they once did either.

The good news is there is something you can do to take charge of your career if you’re willing to consider it. Based on research and interviews with 43 standout employees whom peers, bosses and colleagues identified as indispensable, I believe the only way to become more valuable to your organization – and have incredible job satisfaction in the process – is to focus on mastering a new set of strategic skills.

Remove the associative barriers that hinder new ideas

Model of hydogen bonds in water in English.

Image via Wikipedia

Last week I mentioned that the is the ability to free associate, to make connections between dissimilar things. I just stumbled into post on the where she probes further into the concept to which I left a comment:

The no. 1 innovation skill you need to master

A friend of mine who recently visited this blog made the observation that I make a lot of reference to sports. I thought this was kind of cool because he noticed it, and understood what I was trying to convey. This is an important observation, because as we’ve mentioned before, one of the key skills that distinguishes innovators is the ability to ‘associate’, to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas.

How the Innovators DNA works

The Innovator's DNAWhat are the personal characteristics of successful innovators?

Anyone can change his or her behavior to improve creative impact in a company, according to some new research by Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen which included a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews they found five ‘discovery skills’ that distinguish them: