4 Leadership Behaviors That Drive Innovation at the Best Workplaces in Chicago, Texas, New York, and the Bay Area

Roula Amire
2025-06-12T07:42:57-04:00
4 Leadership Behaviors That Drive Innovation at the Best Workplaces in Chicago, Texas, New York, and the Bay Area
Great Place To Work

Imagine working with an ocean view or the New York City skyline as your backdrop. Would it inspire you to be more innovative?

It might, but not if your company shuts down your ideas.

There’s no denying that location matters when it comes to innovation. Some regions have advantages that make them hubs for creativity and development. Politics, infrastructure, and culture help a city grow and attract top talent.

But there’s more to the story.

If we look closer at companies in these innovative regions, when all else is equal, a trend emerges. It’s leadership, not industry or products, that drives innovation and lands companies on the 2025 Fortune Best Workplaces in New York, Chicago, Texas, and the Bay Area? Lists.

These workplaces generate more high-quality ideas, implement them faster, and achieve greater agility than typical workplaces. These workplaces also experience 52% more discretionary effort and 38% greater agility than typical workplaces.

“People don’t work harder or faster because they live in Silicon Valley or New York City,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work?. “Employees aren’t more innovative or productive by proxy. Leaders make their employees feel valued and empowered to contribute new ideas. They listen to voices beyond their executive team and celebrate trying new things while continuously learning. That’s what drives innovation and makes your business profitable – not your zip code.”

These winning workplaces exemplify how high-trust cultures drive business success: Leaders shape the employee experience, which then shapes the culture, and that culture drives business performance.

Leaders at the winning workplaces keep employees informed, offer development opportunities, provide clear organizational direction, and celebrate trying new things. That creates innovative cultures where employees believe their work matters and have confidence in their executive team — top drivers of meaningful innovation opportunities, according to Great Place To Work research.

It’s why an enormous 120% more employees at these workplaces regularly develop new and better ways of doing business compared with employees at typical workplaces.

That results in money in the door. Companies with innovative cultures, where all voices are heard, experience 5.5 times the revenue growth compared with less innovative companies.

“People don’t work harder or faster because they live in Silicon Valley or New York City. Employees aren’t more innovative or productive by proxy. Leaders make their employees feel valued and empowered to contribute new ideas. That’s what drives innovation and makes your business profitable – not your zip code.” – Michael C. Bush

Consistent innovation across all managerial levels is a defining characteristic of the Best Workplaces. About one out of two frontline employees and individual contributors are actively involved in sharing and implementing ideas — a sharp contrast with typical workplaces, where less than one in five individual contributors are engaged in innovative activities.

“Great leaders avoid echo chambers,” Bush says. “Listening to all voices builds trust, which drives business success. It’s why these companies go faster and do better.”

Leadership behaviors trump location

What are leaders doing to create these innovative cultures with high levels of profitability, productivity, and efficiency? Practicing the nine high-trust leadership behaviors, including speaking, developing, inspiring, and celebrating. Here’s a closer look:

1. Speaking: Leaders at the Best Workplaces prioritize openness and transparency. They establish consistent messaging and ensure employees at all levels are clear on expectations and feel informed. Great “speaking” includes vulnerability and sharing challenges facing the business. At least 85% of employees at all managerial levels feel that management keeps them informed about important issues and changes, compared with 63% at typical workplaces.

Leaders at Ryan, LLC, for example, prioritize transparent communication through monthly “Team Talk” conference calls, where no questions are off limits.

2. Developing: Best Workplaces offer a variety of learning and mentoring opportunities. When all employees experience learning opportunities, the entire workforce is encouraged to contribute ideas. Nearly nine out of 10 employees throughout all managerial levels experience development opportunities. At typical workplaces, nearly half of individual contributors aren’t supported in their professional development.

Hackensack Meridian Health in New York created a peer mentoring program to tap the best of both coaching and mentoring. Peer mentors help each other discover who they are, uncover what they want, and determine where they want to go. They co-create psychological safety, enabling deeper, more meaningful conversations.

3. Inspiring: Leaders inspire employees by communicating a clear vision and involving employees in decisions that affect them. More than eight out of 10 employees at the Best Workplaces trust management’s strategy and vision and are encouraged to have a voice in decision making. Why is that so important? Employees are 1.4 times more likely to develop new and better ways of doing things when they are involved in decisions.

Transparency is prioritized at Cisco and is spread throughout the organization from the top down. During “Cisco Beat” meetings, monthly 60-minute sessions, leaders share transparent information about employee relations concerns, and employees give honest feedback on what’s working and what’s not.

4. Celebrating: Celebrating employees for their innovative efforts, regardless of the outcome, is key to a culture of innovation. This empowers employees to share ideas without fear. At the Best Workplaces, nearly nine out of 10 employees at all managerial levels feel their organization celebrates people who try new and better ways of doing things.

The difference between the best and typical workplaces is particularly significant the further down on the organizational chart. Only about half of individual contributors and frontline managers at typical companies trust that their ideas for improvement are valued, compared with 87% at the Best Workplaces — an enormous 78% higher.

Cadence’s global recognition program, “SHINE,” allows employees to thank one another for going above and beyond, completing a project, helping with a task that is outside of their role, or simply partnering with one another in a task or a team project. Nearly 80% of employees in 2023 received monetary awards from the company through this peer-to-peer recognition program.

Every leader can inspire innovation in their people. Your location won’t inspire new ideas — your leader will. Location is not the differentiator, leaders are.