Innovation Starts Within: Why True Breakthroughs Begin with Self-Innovation
By Jayson Krause, Managing Director of Level 52 & Award-Winning Author of The Science Behind Success
When we talk about innovation, we often focus on the big ideas—the disruptive technologies, the revolutionary products, the breakthroughs that change industries. But what most people don’t realize is that innovation is an inside game. It starts with you. If you want to lead a team or an organization that drives innovation, the first place you need to look is within.
True innovation doesn’t happen by accident, nor is it simply a product of brainstorming sessions and creative sprints. It begins with self-innovation—the ability to transform how you think, how you lead, and how you approach problems. Only when you innovate from the inside out can you inspire and lead others to do the same.
The Inside Game of Innovation
We live in a world that celebrates the visible signs of innovation—new apps, groundbreaking business models, disruptive market players. But what we rarely see is the inner work that allows leaders to foster this type of breakthrough thinking. Innovation is, at its core, a reflection of the way we see the world. And to drive innovation externally, you must first cultivate it internally.
Self-innovation means constantly challenging the way you think, being willing to unlearn old habits, and having the courage to push beyond the familiar. It’s about recognizing that the limitations you see in your organization or team are often mirrors of the limitations you’ve placed on yourself.
When you innovate yourself—when you evolve your mindset and habits—you create the conditions for innovation to thrive in your organization. It’s not just about coming up with new ideas; it’s about building an environment where innovation is the natural outcome of your leadership.
Challenging Your Own Assumptions
The first step in self-innovation is to recognize that you are often your own biggest obstacle to breakthrough thinking. We all have ingrained assumptions—about how things work, what’s possible, and what the “right” way to do things is. These assumptions create mental blind spots that limit our ability to see new opportunities.
If you want to drive innovation in your organization, start by examining your own assumptions. Ask yourself:
What beliefs do I hold about how we do things that might be holding us back?
Where am I too comfortable, and how can I disrupt my own thinking?
What’s one thing I could approach with a completely different mindset?
When you challenge your own assumptions, you open the door to new possibilities. Self-innovation is about unlearning as much as it is about learning—letting go of the beliefs that no longer serve you and making room for fresh perspectives.
Reflective Challenge: Pick one belief or assumption you’ve held for years about your industry or leadership style. What would happen if you completely reversed that belief? What new possibilities could emerge?
Build a Mindset of Curiosity
If there’s one quality that fuels both personal and organizational innovation, it’s curiosity. The best innovators aren’t just creative; they’re curious. They ask questions others aren’t asking. They’re willing to explore unfamiliar territory, not because they’re searching for the next big idea, but because they’re genuinely fascinated by what they might discover.
Curiosity, however, begins with you. It’s not something you can simply demand from your team. You need to model it. Start by embracing a mindset of curiosity in your own leadership. Instead of seeing challenges as problems to be solved, approach them as puzzles to be explored.
Curiosity transforms the way you interact with your team. Instead of dictating solutions, you start asking the right questions:
What are we missing?
What if we looked at this from a completely different angle?
How would someone outside our industry approach this?
By modeling curiosity, you invite your team into a space of exploration and discovery, where innovation can flourish. Curiosity creates the conditions for breakthrough thinking because it encourages people to move beyond conventional solutions and seek out new ones.
Reflective Challenge: What’s one area of your business or industry you’re not naturally curious about? Spend time learning something new about it this week, not because you have to, but because you might discover something that surprises you.
Embracing Failure as Fuel for Innovation
Self-innovation also requires a shift in your relationship with failure. In most organizations, failure is something to be avoided at all costs. But in the world of innovation, failure is inevitable—and essential. The leaders who drive the most innovation are the ones who aren’t afraid to fail, because they understand that failure is a necessary part of the process.
The key to self-innovation is reframing failure as learning in disguise. When you fail, you’re gaining insights that can fuel future innovation. The more you embrace failure as part of your own growth, the more you create a culture where your team feels safe to experiment, take risks, and innovate without fear.
Leading innovation means embracing failure not as an endpoint, but as a critical part of the journey. When you innovate yourself, you learn to see failure as feedback. You internalize the idea that every setback is an opportunity for growth, both for you and for your organization.
Reflective Challenge: Think about a recent failure you’ve experienced. Instead of seeing it as a setback, what lessons did it teach you? How can you use that failure to fuel your next big move?
Model Resilience and Adaptability
One of the most important aspects of self-innovation is resilience—the ability to bounce back from setbacks and adapt to new realities. Innovation, by its nature, requires flexibility. No idea works perfectly on the first try, and no strategy goes exactly according to plan. But leaders who can adapt, pivot, and keep moving forward create an environment where innovation thrives.
If you want to drive innovation with your team, you need to model resilience. Show your team that it’s okay to take risks, to try new things, and to adjust course when necessary. Innovation is rarely a straight line. The best breakthroughs often come after multiple iterations, revisions, and adjustments.
Your team will follow your lead. If they see you embracing change and staying adaptable, they’ll do the same. And it’s in that culture of resilience that true innovation happens.
Reflective Challenge: The next time something doesn’t go as planned, resist the urge to fix it right away. Instead, take a step back and ask, “What is this trying to teach us?” Then, model how to adapt and move forward with those lessons in mind.
Inspire Innovation in Others
Once you’ve committed to your own self-innovation, something powerful happens: you start to inspire it in others. When you lead from a place of personal growth, curiosity, and resilience, your team picks up on that energy. They see you evolving, challenging your own thinking, and taking risks, and it gives them permission to do the same.
Innovation is contagious. When people see their leader continuously innovating from the inside, it sparks a culture of creativity, experimentation, and risk-taking. Your self-innovation creates the conditions for team innovation, which in turn drives organizational innovation.
But it all starts with you. You can’t expect your team to innovate if you aren’t doing the same. When you prioritize your own growth and development, you set the tone for what’s possible in your organization.
Reflective Challenge: Think about how you’ve grown as a leader over the past year. How has your own innovation impacted the way your team operates? What’s one area where you can continue to push yourself to grow—and inspire others to do the same?
Innovation Starts from the Inside Out
Innovation isn’t just a strategy or a process—it’s a mindset. And the most important innovation you can ever lead is the innovation that starts within. When you commit to challenging your assumptions, cultivating curiosity, embracing failure, and modeling resilience, you create the foundation for lasting innovation in your organization.
So, the next time you’re thinking about how to drive innovation with your team, start by asking yourself: How am I innovating within? Because the truth is, innovation is an inside game—and the real breakthroughs begin with you.
