A digitally-disrupted workforce has changed the way businesses perform today and paved the way for a brand-new future of leadership and innovation. According to a McKinsey study, 65% of senior executives interviewed believe that digital technologies can increase income for their companies over the next three years. Yet, despite these predictions, the primary obstacle facing today’s businesses is a lack of management capability.
Ultimately, if businesses want to take advantage of digital transformation, then leaders need to adopt new behaviours and roles to drive their companies forward. If a leader can frame a vision of a technology-infused business positively, then the brand can begin to adapt to the modern era.
Here, we’ll look at some of the skills that marketing and leadership professionals in the workplace need to have to move forward into the digital age, and especially communicate at their next interview.
Those these insights only cover part of the digital journey; they may help to provide a map into the abilities today’s hiring managers should be
looking for.
1. Digital Vision
Technology is a constantly evolving and dynamic thing! As a leader within the digital age, it’s crucial to be able to foresee the outcomes of what you might implement today and the potential regarding where new technologies might take you in the future.
As you stay on top of the latest discoveries in the marketplace, you’ll also need to think about what’s coming, and how new changes can help your business grow.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean focusing all decisions around the concept of technology. Digital leaders also need to be able to implement “emotional intelligence” to understand how AI, RPA, and new technology can support, rather than overwhelm their team members.
2. Advocacy Abilities
Often, the core values that are necessary for any leader will remain the same, regardless of the era. Leaders always need the power to encourage and inspire their followers into action. To do this, leaders will also need a solid knowledge in digital trends. As the source of technology knowledge, it’s the responsibility of digital leaders to keep their staff educated, and help them implement new ideas.
As a leader in the digital age, it’s up to you to set the tone for the remainder of your organisation. Advocacy comes when you energise the workforce and send them marching forwards to your digital vision.
3. Inspiration
We touched on the concept of inspiration above. In an age of digital transformation, today’s leaders need to empower their people to move through a complicated journey as productively and efficiently as possible, often by educating themselves on the nuances of new technologies.
As a leader, it’s important for you to learn as much as you can about the solutions you want to implement, then demonstrate its possibilities to your followers by “walking the walk”.
In other words, it’s not enough to simply have a digital vision; you also need to practice the actions that you’re advocating for.
4. Communication
Communication skills will always be crucial to any leader. One positive solution may be to consider the digital messaging practices you currently use and think about how you can adapt them to outline your digital vision.
On the other hand, keep in mind that a unified workforce moves more successfully towards a goal. Replacing an “authoritarian” leader approach with the approach of a leader that’s focused on empowering a community could help to enhance collaboration in the workforce, and encourage employees to team up and focus on their digital future.
5. Adaptability
As we mentioned above, technology is a dynamic and fluctuating thing. Exploring new technologies means exploring new solutions in how you approach the workforce. For instance, the edges of all workforces are currently expanding, with professionals from new generations implementing new styles of work into the average office space.
Adaptability is often one of the most challenging skills for a leader to learn, but it’s important to be able to grow and change with the times if you want to make the most of the digital revolution that lies ahead.
6. Understanding
It’s impossible to implement new technology into a workforce if a leader can’t show a solid understanding of what they’re advocating for. The digital world has introduced a new language to the modern environment, and senior leaders must learn how to translate that language on the behalf of their employees.
Additionally, leaders must understand which technology features they need to use to track the performance and outcomes of their initiatives. After all, it’s important for any leader to be able to show how changes to the workforce could have a positive impact on the business.
7. Adapting Leaders for The Digital World
While the fundamental features of successful leadership usually remain similar throughout the ages, it’s worth noting that the digital revolution is presenting new challenges for the modern business. Changes in the way we work mean that leaders will need to take on new traits that help them to move with the times.
As the possibilities for organisations continue to change with the adoption of everything from collaborative technology, to AI, leaders need to be prepared to introduce the most productive new solutions to their teams, in a way that’s inspiration and easy to implement.
About Resource On Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company. We assist the world’s leading organisations to grow their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill roles that span across digital marketing, marketing automation, Human Capital Management, CRM system management and, Salesforce developer, Salesforce consultant and Salesforce admin jobs.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 professionals each year. To find out how we can support you call us on +44 20 8123 7769 or rod@resourceondemand.com.