This blog post is about earning the respect of your colleagues and subordinates. The clueless leader may assume that the best way to get his people to respect him is to be “tough” and “push them hard.” He thinks bosses who are “soft” are not respected.

It reality, this isn’t exactly true.

Yes, it’s good to set high standards.

It’s good to aim high.

But the innovation leader must be able to show how success can be achieved.

The innovation leader must work just as hard as the team to achieve that success.

A good analogy is to professional sports, such as the NFL.

The best NFL coaches—I won’t name them, but you know who they are—do not rule by fear or intimidation. They do not make demands on their team that cannot be met. The top NFL coaches know the individual capabilities of each member of the team, and create their game strategy accordingly.

For example, let’s say Lucas is a wide receiver who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.60 seconds. The coach knows Lucas will be covered by defensive cornerback Roger, who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.25 seconds.

Will the coach say to Lucas, “In this play, I want you to outrun Roger and catch the pass”?

No. It’s simply not going to happen. Stats are stats. They don’t change overnight. The coach will not make a demand on Lucas that can’t be fulfilled. He needs to find some other strategy.

Innovation leaders are like great NFL coaches who know their players and what they can do, and craft their game strategies accordingly. That’s how they earn respect.

Innovation Leaders Know…

The fastest way to lose your team’s respect is to ask them to do things that are unreasonable, inconsistent with their job scope, or just plain dumb. Be very careful and thoughtful, as innovation leaders are very judicious about what they ask of their teams.

Remember that as an innovation leader, you’ll be asking people to do jobs that you may not know how to do. You’ve hired experts in their fields, and when they say, “We can’t do this within the budget or time frame you want,” you have three choices: 1) Replace them (usually a bad choice), 2) Do it yourself (another bad choice), or 3) Believe them and work together to find a solution (the best choice).

Delegate to the very best people you can find. That’s how you build an innovation team.