Most people think innovation comes from working harder. This new study (from our collaboration with @OSFramework) indicates otherwise. Innovation starts with setting the right goals. 🧵 1/7

Self-leadership (like setting personal goals or staying motivated) is believed to promote innovation at work. But the psychological process behind that hasn’t been clearly explained. 2/7

To investigate this, the study tested two key psychological mechanisms: 🧠 Goal striving – how much effort you invest 🎯 Goal generation – how you create goals for yourself 3/7

Using a sample of 286 public sector employees in Brunei, the authors used structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test which of these mechanisms mediates the effect of self-leadership on innovation. 4/7

📊 The results Even after controlling for age, gender, goal commitment, and trait resilience, self-leadership had a significant positive effect on innovation (c' effect = 0.27; p < 0.001). But only goal generation explained that link. Coefficient = 0.31; 95% Confidence Intervals = [0.22; 0.39] Goal striving? Not very significant. Coefficient = -0.06; 95% Confidence Intervals = [-0.14; 0.01] 5/7

In plain terms: 💡 Autonomy matters more than grit. Helping employees learn how to generate meaningful goals on their own may be just as important as training them to follow goals or pushing for performance. 6/7