2015 is the “year of innovation” across the UAE. When I first heard this news, I caught myself thinking, “Hasn’t the UAE always been innovative?”

Definitely it has a long heritage of innovation. Look around and what do you see? Both innovations and an innovative spirit. The UAE is home to two of the world’s leading airlines, man-made islands, the tallest building — and other tall buildings — in the world ... the list continues of the biggest, first and best. These feats are innovations in their own right and definitely required an innovative spirit.

Many argue that the development of the UAE was fuelled by petro dollars. While this was a source of income, those dollars are not the source of innovation. The innovations came from the leaders and people who transformed the sandy shores into global cities.

This was accomplished by a group of young leaders who wanted more and believed that they could. And they did.

I am amazed by the fact that 43 years ago, in 1971, the UAE only had 25 BA graduates. At 28 years of age, Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was the world’s youngest Prime Minister. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was also a record-breaker — the world’s youngest defence minister at 22. And his other brother Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, at the age of 26, took on the terrific responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. And, today, look at what we have — they innovated to create one of the most progressive countries in the world.

Don’t mistake this point as an indictment on receiving an education. The fundamentals of 1971 actually support today’s desire of Shaikh Mohammad, who has said, “We need to stimulate the spirit of innovation in our youth”.

Hearing this made the focus of 2015 make sense. While the UAE has been innovative, they desire to keep the innovation alive.

I want to highlight two leadership insights from the year of innovation that every leader can learn from.

Firstly, don’t sit on your laurels. Even if your company is not embracing an innovation focus for 2015, the principle of this point is do not rest on what brought you past success. You need to keep your strength as a focus. Just as the UAE desires to stimulate the spirit of innovation in youth, even though it has a history of innovations.

Think of an athlete, even a “hobby” athlete. They cannot rest on past success and expect it to continue to deliver exceptional results in the future. I would describe myself as a “hobby” runner; I run for general fitness and a race per year. Every year, after I finish the Standard Chartered 10K, being satisfied with my improving time, I am tempted to rest. But if I do, I will fall backwards.

It is always easier for a leader to celebrate past success than it is to keep the team focused on growing again. Thus the importance for leaders when following a success to focus the team on the next goal.

The second leadership insight is “how to build innovation”. Innovation is as much about the environment as it is creativity. A good beginning point to stimulating innovation is to stop stifling it.

Many companies do double talk — say one thing and do the other — when it comes to innovation. The posters and official communication say, “Innovate!” but the managers’ actions say, “Don’t take a risk, don’t experiment, do things the way you always have”.

Stimulating the spirit of innovation requires an environment where employees feel secure to take a risk. One where they are not worried about the punishment that will come if something goes awry. The environment needs to encourage employees to think and act, finding new ways to meet clients’ needs.

It is about the environment you create and what you encourage that will stimulate the spirit of innovation. Don’t rest on yesterday, create tomorrow!

— The writer is a leadership adviser and author of ‘10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East’ and other leadership writings. Follow him on Twitter: @tommyweir.