For the leader who nourishes Big Idea thinking within the ranks, he must also learn to let some of the best ideas run their courses. Allow people to fail; every great idea cannot be a commercial, marketable innovation. But some will be and those make the ultimate difference. We get stuck in our thinking about leadership sometimes. We leave it to advertising agencies and Internet marketers to create innovation. But maybe today's leaders should be charged with allowing some chaos—just enough, anyway, to produce that special something that can make an average company extraordinary.

Sander A. Flaum is managing partner of Flaum Partners. He can be reached at sflaum@flaumpartners.com
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