Bonnert

For workers who want a promotion, don’t lead with a demand or even a request. Lead with this instead...

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you seek opportunities to be seen as a source of innovation:

Your ‘day job’ still needs to get done. New ideas aren’t received quite as positively from someone who isn’t doing their “normal” job responsibilities. Managers don’t appreciate the employee who has lots of new ideas but can’t execute their current role. Don’t be that employee. Make sure your performance is up to par, and take notes about anything you see that you think could be done differently or better. When you feel you have the respect of your manager and you’ve met expectations for your performance, then it’s time to share.

Ideas don’t need to be fully formed. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and great ideas aren’t formed overnight — they take time, insight from multiple parties and the right person/people to execute them. If you see an opportunity to do something differently or better, think through the possible obstacles or objections to doing it that way before you approach your boss. But don’t feel like you need to have the idea fully baked to discuss with a superior.

New ideas boil down to two things. Typically, leadership has a few main goals for the year. Two almost always revolve around saving money or driving revenue. Keep that in mind when you bring new ideas to the table. Ask yourself, “How would this drive revenue?” or “How will this cut costs?” If you can’t answer one of those two questions, it may not be a great idea … yet. Oftentimes, it just takes a moment to reframe the idea with the end goal in mind to come up with something even more impactful.

Realize not all leaders want to innovate. Some managers are old school. They like the way things have always been done and are reluctant to change. You know if you report to someone like this, and if you do, you will need to find another avenue to vocalize ideas to someone who is more receptive. It’s not about going behind your manager’s back — it’s about finding another advocate at the company who will value your perspective and ideas. Oftentimes, it ends up making your current supervisor look good because someone on their team brought new ideas to the table that drove revenue or resulted in cost savings.

So find the ear of someone who is open. And if you find that your organization as a whole is resistant to new ideas, you might want to find a new job, because your company may soon be out of business.

If at first you fail, definitely try again. David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands, spoke at a conference I was at recently and mentioned an innovation flop he had after he became chief operating officer of Pepsico in 1992. At the time, there was a rise in the buzzwords of “pure” and “clear” for all types of products. He saw an opportunity to lead Pepsi into this market and introduced Crystal Pepsi, a colorless soda. Fast forward, and once the product was ready, it didn’t taste much like the Pepsi many consumers know and love.

Novak went to market anyway. He felt the product would take off and customers would love it. You probably know how this story ends — Pepsi doesn’t have any colorless colas in the market. He pushed hard to execute an innovative idea and it flopped for a number of reasons. His mistake cost the company a lot of money, and he had to answer for it. Yet today, he has continued to climb the ladder and is the CEO of Yum Brands. He didn’t let that setback derail his career. He continued to voice new ideas. He continued to raise his hand for new projects. And most of all, he learned from his mistakes and factored them into the new ideas he was bringing to the table.