“A Great Idea Isn’t Enough”: 7 Emotional Intelligence Amplifiers to Build Your Innovation Capital • Six Seconds

3 factors that make up your innovation capital

In Innovation Capital: How to compete – and win – like the world’s most innovative leaders, the authors argue that it’s a combination of 3 factors that make up your innovation capital – who you are, who you know, and what you’ve done.

1. Who you are, or your vision. Can you frame the idea in a way that helps win buy-in? The pitch for your idea may be very different to a visionary CEO and a pragmatic engineer – everyone has different needs, fears, and motivations. Can you create a narrative about your idea and the problem it solves that entices others to want to follow you? And even more fundamentally, have you developed a clear vision of your idea, including its potential drawbacks?

2. Who you know, or your network. Can you build connections to the kinds of people who will help you get things done? It could be within your organization, outside of it, or some combination of the two. Have you cultivated relationships with the decision makers who ultimately decide how money and other resources are appropriated? Have you cultivated relationships with coworkers whose support you will need, and influencers who can help move your project forward?

3. What you’ve done, or your reputation. Do you have a reputation as someone who can handle difficult assignments? As someone who can navigate setbacks and find creative solutions to complex issues? If you want to develop your reputation as an innovator, lead a project or initiative inside your company or department. By leading visible, hard projects, you prove to others that you can get the job done, which infuses all your ideas with credibility.

These factors combine to make your innovation capital. What specific steps can you take to develop them?