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How Faith-Informed Leadership and Strategic Change Can Help You Stand Out
In today’s fast-moving business environment, innovation is often celebrated as the engine of growth and competitive advantage. But what happens after the brainstorming session? After the product launch? After the strategy pivot?
The truth is, innovation without effective change management often fails to deliver lasting impact. Ideas may be groundbreaking, but without the right leadership and process to embed them into an organization’s culture and operations, they rarely stick.
This is where today’s business leaders have an opportunity to Stand Out by combining strategic thinking with the emotional intelligence and resilience needed to guide teams through change.
The Hardest Part of Innovation? Implementation.
It’s easy to focus on the creative side of innovation—generating new ideas, developing disruptive technologies, or exploring fresh business models. But turning innovation into sustainable change requires a different skill set. Leaders need to:
- Navigate organizational resistance
- Communicate change effectively across teams
- Align innovation efforts with company strategy
- Monitor and adapt change initiatives over time
- Foster a culture that welcomes, not fears, change
And for leaders shaped by a Christian academic community, these responsibilities come with an added layer of purpose: leading change in ways that reflect integrity, care for others, and a commitment to ethical decision-making.
Change Leadership Is Now a Core Business Competency
Forward-thinking organizations are placing greater value on leaders who can manage both sides of the equation: innovation and change management. Today’s most effective business leaders are not only idea generators, they’re change champions and they know how to bring people along for the journey, build buy-in, and sustain momentum long after the initial launch. In short, they Stand Out by making change not just possible, but successful and lasting.
Preparing Leaders to Move Ideas from Concept to Reality
At Northwestern College, our MBA specialization in Innovation & Change Management was designed with this leadership gap in mind and it’s offered within a Christian academic community that encourages students to align professional leadership with personal values.
Students in the program don’t just learn how to develop innovative strategies, they gain the tools to implement them effectively, ethically, and with empathy. Through real-world application, the curriculum covers areas like organizational development, strategic planning, change communication, and systems thinking.
In today’s business world, it’s not enough to have good ideas. Leaders must know how to turn those ideas into action and action into lasting results. If you’re ready to Stand Out as a leader who can both envision change and deliver it, check out our flexible and affordable MBA today. Learn more about Northwestern’s MBA and Innovation and Change Management Specialization.
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Two related and very similar qualities can lead to success for all of our students. They are relatively simple concepts and parents and school personnel have frequent opportunities to teach, develop and reinforce them.
The first of these qualities is what Stanford professor and psychologist, Carol Dweck calls a “growth mindset.” Those with a growth mindset believe that success comes from effort. On the other hand, people who believe that success comes from being born with the gift of intelligence or talent have a “fixed mindset.”
The second, related quality, is “Grit,” which University of Pennsylvania professor and psychologist Angela Duckworth defines as, “persistence, determination & resilience.”
Having a growth mindset is a great start. It gives us hope that we can affect the outcome of any situation. It gives us a reason to try and a reason to take risks. When we follow up with grit, we are able to deal with the disappointments and setbacks that inevitably come. We are able to focus on the benefits of the journey and not get discouraged when obstacles arise.
As parents, one of the most difficult things is watching our children struggle. Our instinct tells us to protect them from any pain and hurt that comes from failure. In some cases, we do need to step in, but in more, we need to put our energy into encouraging them to persist and believe that their efforts will make a difference. We also need to continually focus on learning—whether it is in a classroom, in relationships, or in an athletic or fine arts activity.
If our real expectation is that our children do their best, learn as much as they can, and act with character and integrity, we will praise and focus on those things and remove the focus and emphasis on a specific grade or an expectation for a certain amount of playing time. A’s and playing time are nice, but they are secondary to developing grit and adhering to a growth mindset.
These same principles of grit and a growth mindset are just as essential for educational leaders as they are for students. Pursuing a master's degree in educational administration requires the belief that leadership skills can be developed through effort and continuous learning. It also demands perseverance in the face of complex challenges, from navigating policy changes to supporting diverse student needs. As future administrators, modeling these qualities not only contributes to personal success but also sets the tone for a school culture that values resilience, growth, and the ongoing pursuit of excellence for all. If you're ready to take the next step in your leadership journey, learn more about Northwestern College’s M.Ed. in Educational Administration Program.
About the author
Russ Adams has served as the program director for Northwestern's Master of Education in Educational Administration and Principal Endorsement programs since 2024. Adams is also the assistant director for Northwestern's Center of Innovation and Leadership. Serving as superintendent of the MOC-Floyd Valley school district for 11 years, Adams was the recipient of the 2020-21 Iowa Superintendent of the Year, he previously served as principal of MOC-Floyd Valley High School from 2003 to 2013. He was recognized as the 2009 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and a 2003 recipient of the prestigious Milken Educator Award.
