Leadership in Innovation

I find the biggest barrier I have to writing a blog entry is choosing a title, and then it takes me so long to convince myself to just start writing and choose a title at the end that I end up with not enough time to write OR I forget what I wanted to say. Today it is having forgotten what I wanted to say.

On the bus to work, I often read a magazine called Engineering & Technology that we get because of my husband's membership in the IEE. In addition to interesting technology articles there are also articles on IT and Management. Today I was reading an article in the 8 - 21 Nov 2008 issue of E&T called "Leading the Way in Innovation".

The article included a list from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of 5 common characteristics that distinguish the innovation leaders:

The ability to tolerate ambiguity
The ability to assess and be comfortable with risk
The ability to balance passion and objectivity
The ability to change
The ability to command respect, even from sceptics

The list closely reflects the attributes I believe are essential for all leaders and ones I have worked hard to develop in myself. Have I been successful? I guess one would have to ask the people I have worked with in the past.