3 Ways To Nurture Corporate Innovators

Let’s talk about ways to nurture intrapreneurs within your company. When you have long-standing employees who are passionate about what they do and the company itself, the smart thing to do is to keep those people around and foster an environment in which they can innovate from within.

Fact: The average working individual holds 12.4 jobs between the ages of 18 and 54.

So, how do you keep employees interested and nurture their entrepreneurial spirit? By allowing them to innovate from within.

As a serial entrepreneur of over 20 years, I am consistently working to improve my companies and inspire my employees to participate in innovation and sustained growth. 

Here are 3 strategies I’ve learned that help me nurture corporate innovators within my companies:

1. Allowing time and space for innovation to occur—As I’ve said previously, innovation does not happen in your spare time. You need to carve out time for it regularly. I encourage my employees to leave space in their calendars each week to brainstorm ways in which they can evolve in the company and ways that the company itself can evolve as well.

2. Leading by example—My employees are not going to be passionate about their work if I’m not passionate about my work. Part of my job is to inspire and cultivate passion and a thirst for innovation. If I am excited about what’s to come for the company and I am brainstorming ideas for the future, my goal is to spark excitement in them and get the wheels turning as a team for even better outcomes.

3. Regular company-wide brainstorming sessions—When running companies where everyone is working remotely, staying connected to your team is crucial for success. I gather my teams on group calls regularly to check in on progress and encourage them to share ideas about how they can perform optimally in their role and innovate from within. I take a genuine interest in what teams are collaborating on, asking questions and helping out in any way I can as a leader.

You can’t expect to have forward-thinking employees if you aren’t setting goals for the company yourself. Nurturing corporate innovation as a CEO means fostering open communication and implementing strategies to empower your team to think creatively and position themselves and the company for long-term success.

Important Question to Ask Yourself This Week:

How can I create an environment that cultivates innovation in the workplace?