The first question I’m asked most often as an innovation consultant is: “What is your standard approach?” The people I meet are interested in knowing how other people have been successful with innovation, and in turn, they want to know how they themselves can be successful. It’s understandable, and it’s logical. Unfortunately, it’s also absolutely the worst question that can be asked when deciding how to change or improve. It’s a question that will lead you down the wrong path. It’s a question that will lead you down a path to someone else’s answer instead of your own.

The Inner Guide Post

Innovation is not a well-travelled path. It’s not a six-lane highway with a GPS route that will take you from A to B. Innovation is a journey that has only one compass: joy. For the seasoned business person, for the newly graduated student, or for anyone that has been indoctrinated in generations of organizational and business management, joy is a foreign word. Efficiency, productivity, competitive advantage, risk reduction, compliance – and so on, are all the leading words used to guide change. Unfortunately, these are all soulless guides along the path of innovation.

Joy on the other hand is something that we can all relate to, and is the inner driver of our lives. From falling in love to having kids, climbing a mountain or playing an instrument, joy is the music that starts playing when we’re doing something that is truly aligned with who we are. It’s an inner knowing that doesn’t need to be understood, analyzed, or discussed. Joy is a perfect realization that there is something truly right about what we’re doing in a given moment.

The Real Question

Now you may saying to yourself: “Andrew, this sounds great, but joy doesn’t pay the bills. If I focus on joy the whole time, my business and job are going to be eaten up by someone else that is focusing on efficiency, productivity, competitive advantage, risk reduction, and compliance.” You might be saying it, and you might be right. But the real question is this: Why would you spend your life on anything else? Your time is your life. How are you choosing to spend it?

I could tell you all about the countless scientific studies that show why people who are in tune with their intrinsic motivation (= inner joy) are more productive, effective, innovative, and successful. But who cares. The point is this: if you’re not happy and joyful, how successful are you really? If your customers, colleagues, partners, and community are miserable, stressed, and sick, how successful are you really?

The New Leaders

We’ve entered a new generation and time, and it’s leaders are starting to wake up. I write for organizational leaders, and yet many of you don’t realize who organizational leaders really are in the next generation of organizations. The days of top-down leadership are numbered, and a new era of personal leadership is upon us. We’ve entered a time of great networks of autonomous personal leaders, driven by joy, and filled with success.

Don’t waste another day of your life serving any other idea except for the highest idea that you have for yourself and others. Joy is the key to success, and it’s in your hands. Seek out others that share joy as their measure of value, and together we will all be leaders of a successful future.