My brother recommended a wonderful little book to me. It's called Aspire and is written by Kevin Hall, who my brother knows personally. In the book he explores the meaning of different words. One that stood out to me is the ancient Hindi word Genshai, which means to never treat others, or yourself, in a way to make them feel small. For example, rather than throw some coins to a beggar, you get down on your knees and offer it to them in a way that recognizes that they deserve respect and that they are your brother or sister.
So what does this have to do with innovation strategy? My experience both as a manager and with being managed in high tech is that you have to respect and care for those that you lead. There are so many books out there that in their essence attempt to teach you how to manipulate others in order to convince them to help you reach your personal goals. I think that is a frustrating path for a manager (and their employees) to follow. My experience is that it's much more enjoyable and effective to love and respect the people that work for you and to help them achieve their goals while also working together to achieve the companies goals.
If you are focused on contribution rather than achievement this becomes much easier. Those that are focused on achievement and recognition will often climb all over others to get there. Those focused on contributing as much as possible will quickly realize that they can do this best by enabling great people around them and letting those they lead get most of the credit.
