Innovative Ideas Are Rooted in Self-Esteem
The implementation of a change or innovation within an existing organization can be difficult. Implementation of something new within an organization always leaves employees with feelings of risk and worry. While innovation is necessary it leaves those trying to do it with concerns about losing their status within their organization. While they may only feel these fears at a subconscious level they could still have a negative effect upon their abilities and success.
Consider the following: You have decided to propose a new plan of organization and you are ready for the implementation of your new plan. Suddenly a change occurs in yourself and you start to weigh the extent of the potential risks. You begin to wonder, if the idea fails how much will you lose? And what are the chances it will fail? You begin to question if you can even go through with it. There is one thing more than any other that plays a role in whether you'll go forward with the implementation of your new idea or not. That one important thing is self-esteem.
According to Dr. Will Schutz, a well known psychologist, practitioner of interpersonal relations and personal development, and author of the famous work The Human Element(1994), "Self-esteem is the core of each person, the center from which all creativity, motivation and productive work issue". Dr. Schutz has defined self-esteem as the basic feelings a person has about themselves. These feelings affect everything that person does. In particular, these feelings influence the way the person works with others. There are three crucial areas in which this takes place:
- A person's feeling of significance. How important an individual person feels to the organization or group they belong to is based on their own feelings about themselves. Consider two types of people; the first feels sure about their own importance and thus their importance to the group and know that they contribute to the productivity of the group. The second feels so insignificant that they believe they could be gone for days, weeks and even months without the group having any adverse effects. Which one do you think will be great at the implementation of new and successful ideas? Most likely the individual with the strong feelings of self-worth. Those with lower self-worth are likely to tell themselves that since they are not important there's little to no chance that they could come up with an idea that is important. Remember, since personal feelings of self-worth are not always obvious, it may be difficult to tell if a person feels their worth or not.
- A person's feeling of self-competence. This measures how capable a person feels in terms of the work they do. Some people feel they're fully capable of doing their job or getting assistance when needed while others feel limited in one or many areas. Simply put, some people feel ready to meet almost any challenge that arises while others feel they can barely do their job under the best of circumstances. Most likely, the person that feels they are barely cutting it is not going to be able to bring great innovation to a company. Even if they manage to get a proposal approved their own self-doubt could stand in the way of successful implementation. Similar to self-worth, a person's feelings of self-competence may not be easily readable by the world outside of themselves.
- A person's feeling of self-likability. This measures how well a person feels they are honestly liked by others which is based on how much they like themselves. Some people feel very likable and thus liked by most people they come in contact with while others feel unlikable and believe other do not like them. Their dealings with others are full of problems. It's possible that those with negative feelings about their likability may have received negative reactions in the past and they are now assuming those reactions are always going to be the case, even in a new setting. Most likely, the person with high feelings of self-likability is going to be much more likely to bring about the successful implementation of new ideas.These individuals are also more likely to communicate honestly about any concerns they may have because they generally feel liked and respected and trust their colleagues to give them honest help and feedback. This aspect of a person's self-esteem is also difficult to read and may not have much to do with reality. Many well liked individuals don't actually feel their likability is very high, and for this reason they may still hesitate to bring forth new ideas.
Self-esteem is a combination of a person's feelings of significance, competence and likability. To have a company or organization which successfully promotes new ideas and welcomes change you need individual employees with high self-esteem. Innovative leaders within the organization must be able to create an environment which helps foster the three factors essential for high self-esteem.
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