High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Innovation Leadership involves adopting certain styles of leadership in organizations to influence employees to produce innovative ideas, products and solutions. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is the innovation leader. Gliddon (2006) developed the competency model of innovation leaders and established the concept of innovation leadership at Penn State University. As an approach to organization development, innovation leadership can be used to support the achievement of the mission or vision of an organization or group. In a world that is ever changing with new technologies and processes, it is becoming necessary for organizations to think innovatively in order to ensure their continued success and stay competitive. In order to adapt to new changes, “the need for innovation in organizations has resulted in a new focus on the role of leaders in shaping the nature and success of creative efforts.” Without innovation leadership, organizations are likely to struggle. This new call for innovation represents the shift from the 20th century, traditional view of organizational practices, which discouraged employee innovative behaviors, to the 21st century view of valuing innovative thinking as a “potentially powerful influence on organizational performance”.