Coaching for Leaders, Episode 774
What Innovative Leaders Do Different, with Linda Hill
Host: Dave Stachowiak
Guest: Linda Hill, Harvard Business School Professor
Date: March 16, 2026
Episode Overview
This episode explores what truly sets innovative leaders apart and how established leaders can evolve to foster continuous innovation in their organizations. Dave Stachowiak interviews Dr. Linda Hill, a renowned expert on leadership and innovation, to unpack the practices of leaders who repeatedly drive breakthrough results. Dr. Hill introduces new frameworks and shares real-world examples illustrating how leaders architect environments where innovation thrives—not through singular vision, but by building collective capacity and culture.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Moving Beyond “What” to “How” in Leadership
- Traditional Focus: Discussions around innovation often fixate on what leaders do.
- Hill’s Research Focus: Shifts attention to how leaders build organizations that foster continuous innovation.
- Core Insight: "Leadership—and leading innovation—is actually different than leading change." — Linda Hill [02:12]
2. Three Essential Leadership Roles for Innovation
(from Hill’s research and “Collective Genius” book)
- Architect:
- Crafts the social environment and culture for ongoing innovation.
- “They basically create what we describe as a sense of community in an organization that allows people to be willing and able to innovate time and again.” — Linda Hill [03:22]
- Bridger:
- Builds robust partnerships across boundaries to accelerate innovation and access new resources or talent.
- Catalyst:
- “Catalysts build movements across whole ecosystems… facilitat[ing] multiparty collaborations, sometimes cross sector collaborations, if in fact you’re going to be able to innovate.” — Linda Hill [04:30]
3. Rethinking the Leadership “Vision” Paradigm
- From Vision to Co-Creation:
- The old paradigm: The leader communicates a clear vision for others to follow.
- Hill’s finding: In truly innovative environments, leaders often do not have the answer—they co-create with their teams.
- “I don’t know. I can’t tell people this is what we need to do. Follow me.” — Linda Hill [06:53]
- Vision vs. Purpose:
- “It’s not that these leaders don’t have a way to align individuals, they don’t rely on vision, they rely on purpose. And purpose is part of culture… if the work isn’t meaningful, why should people take the risks associated with the hard work of trying to do something new?” — Linda Hill [08:35]
- Key Takeaway: Leadership for innovation requires mindsets and behaviors for co-creation, not just followership.
4. The Shift: Setting the Stage for Others
- Challenge for New Leaders:
- High performers struggle to shift from starring themselves to “setting the stage” for others’ innovation.
- Enabling Slices of Genius:
- At Pixar, innovation thrives when everyone’s “slice of genius”—their unique talents and passions—is unleashed.
- “[…] you want to do as a leader is figure out how you set the stage so that you unleash those slices of genius in your organization.” — Linda Hill [11:55]
- Embracing Diversity of Thought:
- True innovation requires surfacing and managing conflict arising from cognitive diversity.
- “Most leaders we meet… tend to minimize those slices of genius and that diversity because you are going to get conflict if people are passionate.” — Linda Hill [13:36]
5. Culture of Cross-Pollination & Breaking Frames
- Horizontal Leadership:
- Moving beyond siloed teams; intentionally bringing in perspectives from other divisions or industries.
- Pfizer COVID-19 Trial Case:
- Michael, a leader at Pfizer, invited high-potential leaders from other divisions into his meetings, creating a more robust, enterprise-wide view and building relationships crucial for rapid pandemic response.
- “He ended up with about 16 people on his senior team… He built the kind of robust relationships and partnerships with others throughout Pfizer that his team could call upon when they really needed them.” — Linda Hill [18:11, 19:14]
- Result:
- These moves enabled Pfizer’s team to run vaccine trials in record time by leveraging pre-built networks and a shared culture.
6. Learning Cultures: From Private to Public Learning
- Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Example:
- Dr. Rakesh Suri built a learning culture in a radically different environment by championing group coaching and encouraging vulnerability among leaders.
- “He said to the whole organization… I’m scared but I trust you.” — Linda Hill [26:27]
- “Everything we do is a working hypothesis… The only way we’ll know if that decision was right is when we get feedback on the impact of that decision.” — Linda Hill [24:24]
- Key Practice:
- Leaders admit uncertainty and foster environments where fast feedback and adaptation are the norm.
7. Key Leadership Mindset Change
- Emphasizing Collective over Individual Genius:
- Hill notes her own evolution: “I actually don’t think that I deeply believed in the power of the individual to make a difference, as bizarre as that may sound, being head of the Leadership Initiative… But I have met leaders who have taken on the most ambitious sort of efforts… because they know they’re not going to do it alone… they do have this notion of the collective and the power of the collective.” — Linda Hill [30:13]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On Leadership Roles:
"You need leaders who know how to build robust partnerships with individuals or organizations outside your boundary…catalysts build movements across whole ecosystems."
— Linda Hill [03:43-04:37] -
On Vision & Purpose:
"If leading change is about having a vision...when you’re actually trying to innovate...it’s really about saying, let me create an environment in which you will be willing and able to co-create the future with me."
— Linda Hill [07:14-08:35] -
On Unleashing Team Genius:
"Pixar...talk about everyone having a slice of genius… what you want to do as a leader is figure out how you set the stage to unleash those slices of genius."
— Linda Hill [11:55] -
On Building for Speed & Crisis:
"They did not in any way do anything that wasn’t very consistent with science and safety and quality. But they knew they had to do things differently."
— Linda Hill [16:41] -
On Admitting Vulnerability:
"I’m scared, but I trust you… that’s not what you think you’ll hear from a leader in Abu Dhabi, which is a pretty hierarchical place... but that's what he said."
— Linda Hill [26:27]
Important Segment Timestamps
- [02:12] — Linda Hill on what makes leading innovation distinct from leading change.
- [03:05–05:02] — The three leadership roles: Architect, Bridger, Catalyst, and why they matter today.
- [06:12–09:24] — On vision, purpose, and how leadership shifts for innovation.
- [10:49] — Setting the stage for others to innovate; unleashing collective genius.
- [14:54] — The power of breaking organizational frames; cross-pollinating talent and perspective.
- [16:11–22:16] — The inside story of Pfizer’s rapid COVID-19 vaccine trials and the leadership moves that made it possible.
- [23:16–29:07] — Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and leading through uncertainty; fostering public learning and humility.
- [30:07] — Hill reflects on her own evolving view: the power of the collective.
Conclusion & Takeaways
- Innovation in leadership is less about top-down vision and more about architecting environments of purpose, belonging, and co-creation.
- The most effective innovative leaders amplify others’ genius, normalize learning from failure, and build horizontal relationships that cut across organizational boundaries.
- Purpose, not just vision, is central to risk-taking and ongoing innovation.
- Real transformation demands humility, vulnerability, and willingness to admit, "I don't know"—even from leaders at the top.
- Innovation at scale requires establishing a learning organization, fostering psychological safety, and enabling fast, public iteration.
For more on these ideas, Linda Hill’s new book, Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation, offers frameworks and case studies from global organizations tackling disruptive challenges.