As a business owner or CEO, creating an environment of innovation and creativity in your organisation, can be the key differentiator between success and failure, or even worse…mediocrity.

Creating a strategy for success involves you identifying which roles are vital in delivering and exceeding your customers’ or clients’ expectations, in turn growing loyalty and advocacy. Giving those role holders the permission to perform their roles to the best of their ability is easier if they know what the overall aim is. What’s the gameplan? How does their role fit into that? Who are the competition and how do they operate? and what does winning look and feel like?

These are the questions you provide the answers to. Once you’ve done this, you need to trust your people and give them the space to perform - which means not just succeeding, but failing and crucially, learning.

It’s a critical factor when it comes to winning, engaging and retaining the best talent in your business.

However, these good intentions can be undermined and stifled by your, or your senior leaders’, desire to get involved in; to show the talent how you’d do it and how great you are at doing it. Afterall, you are often the most experienced.

Imagine, if you will, a game of playground football, whether you’ve played it or watched it, you’ll recognise these behaviours: everyone rushes around in a gaggle, focused entirely on the ball, desperate to get a touch. No one's looking up to see the bigger picture—whether they're advancing towards the goal or even where the goal is in the first place.

As touched on above, as a business owner or senior leader, it's tempting to see yourself as the most experienced player, the one who knows the game better than anyone else. When you spot the ball, the instinct is to dive in, show off your skills, and maybe even take control of the game. After all, wouldn't everyone admire your ability to dribble past problems and score?

But if you're serious about growing your business, that’s where restraint comes in. Rushing in and taking over may feel satisfying or the safest option, but it's not sustainable. Success in business is a team effort, just like winning a football match.

You need players on the field who know their roles, who understand the strategy, and who can be trusted to make decisions on their own. Your job is to be the coach, guiding and mentoring from the sidelines, not running around the pitch chasing every opportunity.

Leadership is about creating space—letting your team operate in their positions, including being having a capable on field captain who encourages everyone to play their part. When you resist the urge to control every move, you give your team room to innovate, to score goals, and ultimately, to win the match for your business.

Obvious analogy now stretched to breaking point, it’s time to close by reiterating – as a business owner or senior leader, your role in building an environment of innovation and creativity is not to show everyone how to be innovative and creative. IF that’s what you want to do, then running a successful business may not be for you. Your role is about creating the space and conditions to allow innovation and creativity to grow and thrive.

So next time you feel like charging in, pause and consider the bigger picture. Ask yourself: Am I playing the long game, or just chasing the ball?

Creating Space

Creating Belonging