<ul><li>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.</li><li>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</li><li>Digital transformers: Leaders who can manage people through radical change and transform the business</li></ul>

Types Of Digital Leaders

<ul><li>Work together, complement each other, and function as a team.</li><li>Able to operate on and enable environments that are more dynamic, team-centric, and connected.</li><li>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. </li><li>Lead a workforce that includes contractors, the contingent workforce, and crowd talent.</li><li>Understand how different business functions, industries, and technologies come together to form solutions. </li><li>Comfortable and competent with risk-taking.</li></ul>

Skills Needed In Digital Leaders

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

<ul><li>Tolerating an environment of risk and ambiguity </li><li>Showing resilience in the face of constant change</li><li>Being brave in challenging how things are being done </li><li>Having the confidence to take the lead in driving change</li></ul>

A Digital Leader's Emotional Traits

<ul><li>Adapting to constantly shifting power and influence </li><li>Collaborating with ease across many different teams </li><li>Valuing the contribution of new work partners and different interest groups </li><li>Investing huge amounts of energy into getting things right. Try, fail and try again </li></ul>

A Digital Leader's Behavioral Traits

<div><ul><li>Conceptualizing possibilities in a virtual world </li><li>Handling ever increasing cognitive complexity </li><li>Thinking divergently about new ways of doing things </li><li>Making decisions quickly without all of the information</li></ul></div>

A Digital Leader's Cognitive Traits

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.

Demographics And Leadership Destiny

<ul><li>Rethink the organization’s leadership model to include the concepts of innovation, growth, inclusion, teamwork, and collaboration.</li><li>Identify the likely digital leaders in the organization: Determine who can be the investors, pioneers, and transformers. </li><li>Train potential leaders to understand the opportunity. </li><li>Ensure accountability.</li><li>Promote younger people into leadership faster.</li><li>Foster risk-taking and experimentation through leadership strategy. </li><li>Move beyond traditional leadership training: Focus on leadership strategy, emphasizing culture, empowerment, risk-taking, knowledge sharing, exposure, matrix management, and building talent as guides.</li></ul>

Transitioning To Digital Leadership

Leadership development continues to be a significant challenge for companies around the world, as the transition to the new digital organization creates even larger leadership gaps. High-performing leaders today need different skills and expertise than in generations past, yet most organizations have not moved rapidly enough to develop digital leaders, promote young leaders, and build new leadership models.