John Saunders | The Optimizer: Building & Leading Teams of Serial Innovators

“What do we want for our customers, our best clients? Strong, long term relationship that has mutually beneficial results, right? So why do we not think about our employees the same way?”, asks John Saunders, founder of Forward Advisory Solutions and author of The Optimizer: Building and Leading a Team of Serial Innovators. Today, John talks about how to optimize your team and be a leader for innovation.

People often think about innovation as needing to be something really big, but ultimately change in itself is innovation. By stepping back and celebrating every incremental step as its own source of innovation, employees feel safer about taking risks. Leaders can encourage innovation by having their teams work incrementally on something they are passionate about. This incremental mindset helps lower the emotional charge of change and makes it easier to celebrate both the wins and the mistakes made along the way.

Many people shy away from change, but ultimately change is innovation. By building trusting relationships with employees, encouraging them to try new things, and showing them that they will not be penalized for making mistakes, leaders can drive innovation to new heights.

• “As leaders, no matter what business you're in, you are tasked with leading change.” (5:18-5:22 | John)
• “Ultimately, change oftentimes is innovation in some way, shape, or form.” (5:30-5:33 | John)
• “If you get your whole team working on these things that they're passionate about, building incremental change, and sharing with each other, it can really drive results over time.” (8:21-8:28 | John)
• “The more we can think about solving that true problem, rather than bringing the solution to the world, the more we can drive results.” (13:47-13:54 | John)
• “What do we want for our customers, our best clients? Strong, long term relationship that has mutually beneficial results, right? Why do we not think about our employees the same way?” (16:07-16:18 | John)