The speed of change

• 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.

Sudden changes in the industry can disrupt the status quo, potentially derailing the success of your organization. In these situations a leader must remain flexible and adaptable, ready to make the quick decisions that can keep the company on track with minimal negative impact.

Putting speed and innovation ahead of tried-and-tested business practices often makes leaders cautious. However, in a fast-changing world, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

For a start-up, the risks can be even greater but innovation is impossible without risk. And if you can’t take risks, you may not be cut out to be a digital leader.

Digital technology needs to enhance your processes and activities, and also what you are able to offer to your clients.

Companies now need digital innovators to lead them or risk perishing under the growing wave of digital disruptions. They also need to communicate and share with customers and employees, to identify opportunities and individuals who will help promote change.  

Organizations don’t change. People change. Many companies move to change systems and structures and create new policies and processes but fail to address the underlying mind-sets and capabilities of the people who will execute it.

A new strategy will fall short of its potential if they fail to address the mental attitude because people on the ground tend to continue to behave as they did before.

Companies that only look outward in the process of organizational change, and dismiss individual learning and adaptation make two common mistakes:

• They focus solely on business outcomes and fail to appreciate that people will have to adapt to implement it.
• They focus too much on developing skills. 

The best leaders with the most impact almost always use six classic fundamental practices:

• Uniting people around an exciting, aspirational vision;
• Building a strategy for achieving the vision by making choices about what to do and what not to do;
• Drawing and developing the best possible talent to implement the strategy;
• Relentlessly focusing on results in the context of the strategy;
• Creating ongoing innovation that will help reinvent the vision and strategy;
• Growing yourself so that you can most effectively lead others.

Extensive Data studies have found a link between the health of an organization and its performance.

Robust health is crucial to an organization's long term success.

Companies aligned with one of these four organizational recipes are more likely to be healthy and to deliver strong, sustained performance than those following random management styles:

• Leader Driven
• Market Focused
• Execution Expertise
• Talent and Knowledge-based

Leaders nowadays need to understand technology as much as they understand money, HR, or the law, in order to make confident, informed and effective decisions for their organization and users.

Skills development is a continuous process for leaders as they need enough understanding to recognise their skill gaps and identify what can help their projects and organizations to thrive.

Many training initiatives assume that the same group of skills or leadership styles are suitable without considering the strategy or organizational culture of a company.

An excellent leader in one situation does not necessarily perform well in another. Focusing on context means equipping leaders with two or three competencies that will make a distinction to performance, rather than a list of leadership standards that is of no specific benefit.

Companies face a challenge when it comes to planning the program's curriculum.  Adults typically retain only 10 percent of what they hear in classroom lectures, but nearly two-thirds when they learn by doing. 

The answer seems straightforward: tie leadership development to real on-the-job projects. While it is not easy to create opportunities that simultaneously address high-priority needs, companies should strive to make every major business project a leadership-development opportunity as well.

Most businesses don’t need to own its IT infrastructure because the cost of access has plummeted to the point it is often economically irresponsible to do so. The new digital leader points to the higher level of service and lower costs achieved through external partnerships.

You should be embracing cloud infrastructure and getting out of facility management.

• They articulate an authentic commitment to diversity, challenge the status quo, hold others accountable, and make diversity and inclusion a personal priority.
• They are modest about capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute.
• They show awareness of personal blind spots, as well as flaws in the system.
• They demonstrate an open mindset and deep curiosity about others.
• They are attentive to others’ cultures and adapt as required.
• They empower others and focus on team cohesion.

If a leader wants to know what is the most important trait, commitment is the most critical.
For those working around a leader, the single most important trait is a leader's visible awareness of bias - a leader that constantly challenges their own bias and encourage others to note their pre-conceived leanings. Raters also care about humility and empathy.