Breakers-Leading by destruction in the innovation economy

What is a Breaker? He is a leader, but not an ordinary one. A Breaker leads in the workplace before going to lead in their industry. He is a creative destroyer. They take what is seemingly working and figure how to break it and from those parts, they build something better. In today s Innovation Economy, this is what leadership looks like. Our schools and corporate training programs breed leaders all the time. They are the managers, executives, and CEOs. With one major drawback, most of the time these leaders are nothing more than glorified strategizers. Paradoxically, our leadership education produces conformists. In other words, they are managing what is already there, maintaining a course set by some other force. The Breaker differentiates his or herself from competitors in one simple but powerful way: Breaking the rules and standards to create connections that lead to innovation. The Breaker breaks away from the pack through originality and value production. It s the proactive approach that becomes important here. Breakers are not repairmen or technicians making sure the machine keeps running at its current pace. Breakers are circumventing, upheaving, and disrupting the current models and practices in ways that are frightening to those who have been doing the same thing over and over again for years (and liking it). Redundancy is useless to the Breaker. What s the use of reliability if it s not going to increase your margins eventually? What I'm saying is, if it ain't broke, break it. More importantly break it before someone else does because the new enabling technologies, ultra-competition, and hyperconnectivity are completely changing how we deliver innovative value. This transforming landscape is defined by drastic shifts in how leaders approach markets and industries.