Digital Leadership: A New Way Of Leading Or A Crucial Skill?

Leadership in today’s digital age

Many people have their unique understanding of leadership, and many leadership styles still have their unique characteristics. While a transformational leader would inspire others to achieve a common goal, a transactional one evokes the task orientation. But what about a digital or virtual leader? What are their unique characteristics? Will doing things online or being technology-oriented make them different from the others? Recently, remote management with limited or no physical connection is related to digital leadership by many.

Yet, it is generally part of leadership for a very long time. And it was out there in many forms. On the other hand, technology orientation tends to be related to being digital or virtual. Yet, these are open for a small debate.

People were deeply surprised by the inventions and technological advancements 100 years ago. Before 20 years, this amazement weakened and further lessened a decade ago. Today? Everything is accepted as ordinary, as those things are supposed to happen anyway. New gadgets are routine. Supercomputers: ordinary. Cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, the mass of data, 3D printing, robots, war machines, satellites, space discovery: All are normal. Human nature adapts to the new normal as if cyborgs take control; some would not even be openmouthed by that either. Another phase in human evolution: technological disruptions whose dimensions are not easy to perceive, turn out to be daily life, conceptually. These phenomena and advancements are not surprising anymore. The expectancies from technology are so high that the generations born in the 21st century are readily waiting for the next disruption.

Naturally, these youth who grew up in this environment impact corporate culture, and leaders have to guide and inspire the generations that have such a mindset, what a challenge! Then, the question arises, does going digital and understanding technology rise out as a new leadership style, or is it a skill that every leader needs?

Digital is in the flow of daily lives and routine business procedures; thus, every leader is a digital leader, more or less. Leading these generations, who will be at the center of value creation, requires high leverage to be effective. And technology, or putting more precisely, having a data-driven viewpoint, appears as a must-have for every leader, which goes into the basket of a skillset rather than a distinctive style.

Finally, what are the other components in this basket? Analyses and research indicate that the leader of today and the future must possess skills and qualities including Agility, Problem-Solving Efficiency, Adaptation, Respect, Techsavviness, and Seeking Different Perspectives. The mnemonic device, APARTS fits well to abbreviate the essential qualities that will make the leader ready for many challenges in these disruptive times and will take the leader ahead of the crowd and beyond the time. These qualities will make it easy for us to tell the leader Apart[s].

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