The Leadership Mindset That Unlocks Breakthrough Innovation

If you want your team to come up with brilliant ideas, you can’t just tell them to “be creative.” You have to create a culture where people feel safe, happy and heard, because that’s when the ideas start flowing. A growing body of research shows that psychological safety is the secret ingredient behind innovation.

Employees who feel psychologically safe at work are significantly more likely to contribute creative solutions, especially at the team level: That’s what a meta-analysis of 94 studies with more than 19,000 participants found.

Similarly, a 2024 survey of 580 high-tech employees found that teams with more collaboration, open information sharing and a fair give-and-take achieved much higher levels of innovation. These studies are only two of countless examples proving the point. And it confirms what I experienced in decades of leading scientific teams: When people feel safe, they help one another and collaborate on real fixes.

Related: Why You Should Care About Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Empathy, openness and collaboration

In practice, leaders often struggle to apply these lessons, and I’d argue that’s especially true for leaders of technical and scientific teams. Having a talented team alone isn’t enough to drive innovation.

Over the years, leading teams in science-driven organizations, I’ve actually experienced how much true innovation depends on empathy, openness and collaboration. What keeps surprising me, even after years of doing this work, is just how influential that kind of leadership mindset is.

In the technical side of a business, it’s so easy to get caught up chasing the next result, always focused on the next experiment or deadline. But real progress only happens when we slow down enough to actually listen to each other. Making time and space for empathy and honest conversations isn’t a luxury. It’s the foundation everything else stands on.

Collaborative leadership isn’t just about everyone sitting around the same table (or ordering pizza together). It means giving real, thoughtful feedback and making sure every voice gets heard. I’ve lost count of the times a breakthrough came from a direction nobody expected — whether from another department, or from someone new who’d only just joined the team.

In my experience, innovation happens when people across disciplines and hierarchies feel encouraged to speak up and trust that their leaders will help move their ideas forward. I talk to anybody who has an idea and help them to formulate it, talk to others and see if it’s something people will want to do. Leadership isn’t just about vision or managing a project. More than anything, it’s about creating an environment where people articulate and develop their ideas with colleagues.

Related: 5 Key Ways to Create an Innovation Culture

Welcome the “bad” ideas

A culture that encourages even so-called “bad” ideas is a culture where real solutions emerge. I often tell my teams: You carry your bad idea book, you write down your bad idea. Then you try to turn it into a good idea. It’s not enough to just have that idea, try to formulate the thesis from it and talk to people.

Some of our best solutions started out as half-baked thoughts. By giving people the freedom to think their crazy thoughts out loud, things that may seem wildly impossible at first, we end up with creative leaps that wouldn’t have happened in a more judgmental environment.

In our team, we created this culture of transparency, providing feedback and cultivating ideas. We really promoted that. When people know their contributions are valued, they step up. They challenge assumptions. They take risks. And that’s the point at which innovation becomes the norm, not the exception.

Harvard Business School even did a case study on ICL’s BIG‑Big Innovations for Growth program that highlights how, by systematically listening to every employee’s ideas and nurturing them, the company sparks breakthrough projects and drives sustained growth.

Related: Why Leaders Must Encourage Their Employees to Explore Their Creativity — and How to Do It

What leaders must understand

Leaders need to think about what that actually means for them. Expecting excellence is one thing, but creating too much pressure, micro-managing or leaving no time for out-of-the-box thinking are prime innovation killers. The conversation about innovation in leadership is ongoing, but in my experience, it’s simple. Small, everyday choices that create an atmosphere of trust are what lead to breakthrough ideas.

Even with all the evidence, old habits persist in technical organizations. A 2024 study by Deloitte found that only half of workers report that their team leaders create the psychological safety necessary for them to be themselves at work. Being open is just that: Allowing people to be as they are. Not having a preconceived notion of the perfect team member and the right answer.

When you put your ego aside, amazing things happen. And naturally, the best ideas come from the most unexpected places. It’s something you witness more and more as you let go, let your team work and invite in all those different perspectives to build something together. It takes patience, and sometimes it means things move more slowly, but it’s always worth it.

If you want to spark innovation, start by building trust. Start by listening. Start by encouraging ideas, including those that seem rough around the edges. With the right leadership mindset, you can make your team’s innovation spirit skyrocket!