In today’s market, digital leadership is more than a competitive edge—it’s imperative.
According to management consulting firm Deloitte, 57 percent of CEOs plan to implement new technologies into their business models to find growth opportunities—creating a chance for you to showcase your leadership potential.
If you want to capitalize on that trend and advance your career, here’s a primer on digital leadership and the skills you need to guide your organization successfully.
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DOWNLOAD NOWWhat Is Digital Leadership?
Digital leadership is a type of leadership that focuses on engaging with, leveraging, and navigating the uncertainty of emerging technologies, digital tools, and data.
While it requires technical skills, Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill—who teaches Leading in the Digital World, one of seven courses comprising HBS Online’s Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program—believes workplace culture is more important.
“What we see is that it’s not really about having the tools, but frankly, having the culture and capabilities in your organization to use those tools to make a difference to your customer and any other stakeholder you care about,” Hill says in a Harvard Business Review video.
For example, Netflix uses predictive analytics to create personalized customer experiences, which is possible because of its culture of innovation that empowers employees to be creative and take risks.
If you want to make an impact on your organization and advance your career, here are the top digital leadership skills to develop and why they’re essential.
Related: How to Be an Effective Leader at Any Stage of Your Career
5 Digital Leadership Skills You Need to Succeed
1. Agility
Agility allows you to quickly adapt to new technologies and market shifts to ensure your organization remains competitive and innovative.
“The greatest leaders that I’ve met are always thinking about how they're preparing for the future as they also deliver for the present,” Hill says in an episode of The Parlor Room podcast. “And preparing for the future is really about creating a team or an organization that actually can be agile because the world does change.”
Listen to the full podcast episode below, or watch it on YouTube:
Being a digital leader entails capitalizing on emerging opportunities and navigating new market disruptions, such as:
- Technological advancements
- Shifting consumer preferences
- Increased global competition
To develop agility, promote continuous learning by highlighting opportunities that enable your team to reach their professional development goals.
Related: 3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs
2. Communication
Communication is crucial to digital leadership—particularly when implementing organizational change.
Inspiring positive, incremental change involves empowering those around you to work toward common business goals and objectives using communication skills like:
- Clarity and precision
- Active listening
- Transparency
These skills can not only help you establish trust in the workplace but navigate uncertainty. Conversely, poor communication can cause resistance that impedes strategic initiatives’ success.
3. Empathy
As a leader, you must empathize with and guide your team through digital transformation.
“True adoption requires conviction at the top of the organizational chart and a spirit of determination that permeates every level below,” Hill writes in a Working Knowledge article. “And real success will come from the details—how the company weaves these concepts into its corporate DNA and day-to-day operations.”
You must also acknowledge that change can be overwhelming.
“Leaders must be empathic about the stress employees feel as they grapple with the complexity and change that comes with digital transformation,” Hill writes. “In time, the opportunity to deliver on a shared purpose helps align and motivate people.”
By recognizing and proactively addressing employees’ stressors, you can get their buy-in for strategic initiatives.
4. External Collaboration
Collaboration in digital leadership is pivotal—especially when it extends beyond internal stakeholders.
In a Working Knowledge article, Hill encourages external collaboration to keep employees engaged and offer first-hand opportunities to observe digital tools and technology in the workplace. She also recommends collaborating with competitors.
“Companies can also no longer go it alone, given the speed and capabilities necessary to compete,” Hill writes. “Leaders must forge new partnerships with key players in their ecosystems, including private companies, government, and sometimes nonprofits. Competitors are even becoming partners; to stay at the cutting edge, companies are turning over essential but non-core activities like cloud storage to organizations with whom they compete in other domains.”
If you’re interested in collaborating externally, identify partnerships that can broaden your team’s perspective and enhance innovation.
5. Courage
Courage isn’t just admirable for digital leaders—it’s necessary.
“In a fast-moving world with more risks than ever—cybersecurity, reputational risks, pandemics, social crises—executives need courage to make big bets,” Hill writes in Working Knowledge.
It requires embracing risk and recognizing that not doing so can hinder your ability to succeed. That can be particularly difficult if you’re afraid of failure. To get comfortable taking risks, create an environment where mistakes are integral to learning.
For example, launching its streaming platform, Disney+, was risky for entertainment giant Disney—involving substantial investment in new technologies amid a crowded market. However, the move quickly positioned it as a major competitor to industry leader Netflix.
Related: 5 Characteristics of a Courageous Leader
Having the courage to take risks doesn’t always result in success, though.
“Executives must be prepared to shoulder responsibility for mistakes and share credit for triumphs,” Hill writes. “One executive we interviewed said: ‘Leaders must go from trying to have all the answers to being comfortable with being uncomfortable.’”
How to Develop Digital Leadership Skills
With constant changes in the workplace, taking advantage of professional development opportunities is vital to long-term digital leadership success.
Enrolling in a structured leadership development program, such as CLIMB, can help you gain tools and insights for navigating the digital age’s complexities.
“We know that if you want to be successful these days, you must be able to adapt and innovate and meet the needs of your customers as they evolve,” Hill says when asked about her Leading in the Digital World course on The Parlor Room podcast. “So the course really focuses on ‘What does it mean to be an effective leader when you actually have digital tools and data to enable you to be able to innovate and meet the needs of your customer?’"
Are you interested in developing digital leadership skills? Explore our yearlong Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program, comprising seven courses for leading in the modern business world. Download our CLIMB brochure to learn more about the curriculum, admissions requirements, and benefits.
