A Digital Leader's Behavioral Traits
- Adapting to constantly shifting power and influence
- Collaborating with ease across many different teams
- Valuing the contribution of new work partners and different interest groups
- Investing huge amounts of energy into getting things right. Try, fail and try again
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- Work together, complement each other, and function as a team.
- Able to operate on and enable environments that are more dynamic, team-centric, and connected.
- Lead and build teams and partner with the broader ecosystems, keep people connected and engaged, and drive a culture of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement.
- Lead a workforce that includes contractors, the contingent workforce, and crowd talent.
- Understand how different business functions, industries, and technologies come together to form solutions.
- Comfortable and competent with risk-taking.
Millennials expect to be developed via opportunities, mentoring, and stretch assignments. However that is hard to come by in top-heavy companies.
Most millennials think their roles provide little development while most companies report they have excellent or adequate programs for Millennials.
- Conceptualizing possibilities in a virtual world
- Handling ever increasing cognitive complexity
- Thinking divergently about new ways of doing things
- Making decisions quickly without all of the information
- Tolerating an environment of risk and ambiguity
- Showing resilience in the face of constant change
- Being brave in challenging how things are being done
- Having the confidence to take the lead in driving change
- Digital investors: Executives who embrace the VC mind-set, uncover opportunities, educate, invest in talent and ideas, forge partnerships, conduct the transition to a digital model and build an ecosystem that fosters innovation.
- Digital pioneers: Business and function leaders who can reimagine and lead into the future, shape new and different business models, and lead a winning digital strategy
- Digital transformers: Leaders who can manage people through radical change and transform the business
- Rethink the organization’s leadership model to include the concepts of innovation, growth, inclusion, teamwork, and collaboration.
- Identify the likely digital leaders in the organization: Determine who can be the investors, pioneers, and transformers.
- Train potential leaders to understand the opportunity.
- Ensure accountability.
- Promote younger people into leadership faster.
- Foster risk-taking and experimentation through leadership strategy.
- Move beyond traditional leadership training: Focus on leadership strategy, emphasizing culture, empowerment, risk-taking, knowledge sharing, exposure, matrix management, and building talent as guides.
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Leadership development is viewed as a current and future priority. Despite efforts to produce and nurture new leaders, only 7 percent of senior managers think that their companies develop global leaders effectively. Around 30 percent of US companies admit that they lack enough leaders with the right capabilities.
Digital leaders don’t have to do everything themselves, but they must be able to spot the areas of their organization that need improving. Moreover, they need to be able to hire and develop the best talent to not only fill roles but also drive the business forward to greater success.
By 2030, up to 30 to 40 percent of all workers in developed countries may need to move into new occupations or upgrade their skill sets. Skilled workers in short supply will become even scarcer. Any company that doesn't join the early adopters and doesn't address its underlying talent needs may fall short of reaching its goals.