Digital Leadership is much misunderstood or certainly poorly used
as a phrase. Occasionally, I am asked by clients as an addendum to the search brief or job
description, to find people who “get digital”, “are comfortable with digital”
or are “digital leaders”. The
problem is I don’t think that the speaker really understands what it is they
are asking for, or has reflected enough to make the statement relevant. Do they
really appreciate what a Digital Leader is? I assume they mean someone who
understands the lexicon of digital - big data, cloud computing or 'wearables'
and can match this with the social skills - networked power, co-design and
other collaboration skills. But,
depending on the organisation, they might just mean someone who understands
those shiny objects people are carrying/holding/wearing/speaking in to. But true Digital Leadership goes way beyond that, indeed it is woven in to a
business & is more than a "person". In fact true
Digital Leadership flips the balance. Rather than
using an understanding of the digital landscape to improve its products,
services and organisation it uses digital to drive the change, improvement and
development of those things. Unsurprisingly
only a small number of companies have achieved such a level of digital
integration, or created such powerful digital feedback loops to shift its
business. Nike being a
great exception to this with its http://nikeinc.com/digital-sport function - producing Digital products
yes, but doing so via the use of the crunching of major data sets, social
monitoring and so forth to identify customer wants and use this to shape the
products, be it a wearable device or new shoe design.
So help me understand what do you mean by Digital Leader?
