admin Leadership in the digital age is all about empowering others to lead and establishing teams that are self-organized. These teams are capable of optimizing their everyday operations. In the current world, leadership is no longer hierarchical – it needs equal involvement, participation, and contribution from all the involved parties.
Today, leaders are in dire need of dealing with unprecedented changes and an unpredictable and challenging future that was brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The driving force behind this revolution was the advent of new technologies, paradigms and mechanisms. In a world such as this, it may seem that the role of leadership is diminished and no longer needed. This is contrary, as leadership will play even a bigger role than before. Leaders will have to create and show the way forward amid transitions, disruptions, ambiguity and chaos.
Research done by McKinsey depicts that, by 2025, emerging digital ecosystems could account for more than $60 trillion in revenue. The role of digital leaders will be prominent as they are now needed to steer, design and build systems that create a future that is inclusive for everyone. Here are some strategies that can help in creating leadership at all levels.
- Communication and Negotiation
As per a report by the Forbes on Project Oxygen by Google, several core traits have been determined that can be used to define an effective modern leader. This conclusion was drawn by examining the data behind leadership. One of these is giving encouragement and praise to others. This is defined as ‘the most important factor in coaching – even more important than strategic or technical expertise’. They also emphasize that two-way listening and communication between members is of paramount importance. Such an approach makes everyone feel inclusive, valued and a part of the team. Leaders can leverage communication to gain insights into how others feel. Understanding the emotions of others, including what stresses them or makes them happy, helps leaders understand and identify where tensions lie and how to appropriately solve them; this promotes an increase in productivity and wellbeing amongst team members in the long run.
- Experiment, innovate and execute
In today’s world, there are several factors of creative destruction at play. Leaders need to understand that this is necessary despite its problems. They need be on the top of their game to survive and thrive. Leadership faces an interesting paradox; it needs to not lose sight of the present, and at the same time must also visualize the future. Having a roadmap to reach it is imperative. Innovation is the best way to remain immune to creative destruction and disruptions. Leaders need to drive innovation and experimentation, and encourage their team members to think outside the box. When organizations create a culture of learning, experiments and failures lead to innovations and inventions. Creating leadership at all levels provides the support required for teams to iterate their way to success. To continuously evolve to meet dynamic needs is an important asset in today’s world.
- Outcome Oriented Organizations
The digital age has brought about a need to create new models of working and teaming. This is due to the gigantic lift that some capabilities have seen as a bolder value proposition. It is not possible any more to pluck people out of their functional roles and forcing them to work together 10 to 20% of their time, or for six weeks or six months (in the famous, but typically frustrating, cross-functional team). Instead, you will need to build more durable, outcome-oriented teams that bring together the needed expertise, knowledge, data, technology, processes, and behaviors from across the organization. This sort of thinking will serve as a foundation to shift from the old functional and fixed organization to a model of outcome-oriented teams that work across organizational boundaries to deliver your capabilities. These teams will coexist within the corporate offices, business units, functions, and shared services, but will increasingly become more prominent elements of the organization.
The mindset of the digital-era leader is quite different from the industrial era and the preoccupation with the current stock price. The mindset and attitude towards those doing the work are also fundamentally different. Leaders have to truly believe that their workers can change, that they are good people when they come to work with good intentions, and that if you leave them alone or provide support or enable them, they will be able to do more than what they would have achieved with the more traditional leadership. As Bill Fischer rightly puts it, “It’s not abdicating responsibility, but it’s setting a direction and stepping out of the way.”
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