Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Leading in
the Digital Era
A Curated Collection of Research Articles
from Harvard Business School Faculty
Linda A. Hill
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Digital Transformation: A Long Journey This was how one executive of a Latin American e-commerce
We asked executives to rate the progress of their company described the challenge of digital transformation:
companies’ digital transformations. Those who had been Many of the tenets of effective leadership are familiar, but
working on their digital transformation for more than 5 everything is happening much, much faster. And the task is
years reported the most headway. not to cross the finish line and turn off the engine, but to get
comfortable—as a leader and as a company—with this new
pace and the attendant complexities.
3
Their conviction was resounding: 97 percent of respondents
4
“agreed” or “strongly agreed” that organizations will not
Less than 1 Year 11% 56% 26%
5 remain competitive unless they radically adapt to the
6 Most demands of the digital era. All but 3 percent indicated that
1–5 Years 19% 38% 30% 9.7% their organizations were undergoing digital transformation.
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97%
roundtable participants. Digital natives They demand that leaders serve
in particular expect customer-company stakeholders, not just shareholders,
interactions, even in business-to- and proactively build a more equitable
business industries, to be as fast and and sustainable world. Customers
intuitive as tapping out a text or playing “Agree” or “strongly agree”
increasingly want the same and are that companies won’t remain
a video game. Not only must a company especially concerned about issues
offer high-quality products or services, competitive unless they embark
that affect them personally, such as on a digital transformation.
but the way they deliver them to the data privacy and security. Social
customer matters much more today responsibility in the broadest sense,
than in the past. roundtable participants said, has
Customers demand more value and become a competitive “must,” essential
innovation than ever before, but for attracting talent and building trust
they’re not always willing to pay more with customers.
60%
for that product or service. In fact,
thanks to social media, dissatisfied SIX QUALITIES OF DIGITALLY MATURE
customers can amplify their opinions ORGANIZATIONS
about a company’s long support
Rather than waste time resisting, Respondents whose organizations
wait times or hold organizations
digitally mature organizations embrace have been on the digital trans-
accountable for their environmental
and adapt to these key shifts in the formation journey for 1–5 years.
practices. Moreover, the accelerating
business landscape, participants said.
pace of technological development
Companies able to navigate this
and global interconnectivity can erode
unforgiving dynamic tended to have
a company’s competitive edge faster
the following characteristics:
than ever.
47%
both inside and outside of companies.
In the past, CEOs and other senior With more and better data available,
leaders were seen as the legitimate companies can get to know their
strategic decision-makers because customers like never before. Rather
Respondents who believe their
they had more access to data and than expecting customers to buy
organizations have the right talent
could decide if and when to share it. whatever a company sells, the most
to compete in the digital era.
With much more information available successful companies proactively
to many more people, leaders’ anticipate and discover customers’
legitimacy must come from different problems and desires and innovate
sources, or they must share decision- accordingly. Because of the
making with employees—or both. transparency afforded by
Source: Leadership in the Digital Era survey, n=1,500
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Cross-functional Continuous
51% Collaboration
44% Learning
the internet, where customers can browse reviews and companies have the right technical expertise (such as
prices with ease, digitally mature companies aim to provide experienced data scientists or analysts), tools (dashboards
a unique, often more customized, end-to-end customer and data visualization applications), and platforms
experience. (computing infrastructure and operating systems) to
integrate data across their organizations.
“Understand your customer” has long been a business
mantra, but even roundtable participants from digital-first Simply making data available doesn’t guarantee that teams
companies admitted that too often their organizations will use it. Can employees access data easily? Is it integrated
merely sell the products and services they have rather than into employees’ workflows and processes? Do employees—
develop new offerings based on evolving customer needs regardless of seniority, experience, or age—know how to
and desires. Interestingly, only 55 percent of survey interpret the data? While 61 percent of survey respondents
respondents ranked customer focus as one of the most ranked “data-informed decision-making” as one of the most
critical characteristics for success in the digital era. critical success factors in the digital era, judgment—an
analog skill—is still required. Digitally mature companies
Getting to know the customer has become a dynamic, have employees up and down the hierarchy who can look
ongoing process, and is fast becoming table stakes. at data critically, knowing that some analyses will be
For example, companies understand they need to get incomplete, imperfect, or even biased.
reacquainted with their customers after the COVID-19
pandemic and recalibrate their pain points and desires. 3
One participant remarked, given the unpredictability of the A Challenger Mindset and Willingness to Disrupt
pandemic and the economy, companies should “serve their
Digitally mature companies encourage employees to
customers, not sell to them,” and build the connections
challenge the status quo—even if this means fundamentally
needed to move to the next normal. Global strategies
rethinking the core business. Everyone in the organization
are also becoming more “glocal,” with growing pressure
is responsible for listening to signals from customers,
to develop products and services for the needs and
suppliers, and other stakeholders outside the company.
expectations of specific national markets.
They’re empowered to question all aspects of the business and
2 suggest new ways to create value for customers. People who
Culture that’s Data-informed, Not Data-driven thrive in these conditions are actively curious about
everything happening around them; they’re comfortable
Digitally mature organizations embrace data—lots of it!— admitting what they don’t know, and are willing to unlearn,
and use it to make better, faster decisions. However, data relearn, and embrace the latest and best practices.
informs, not determines, their decisions. Analytics are
important, but judgment and critical thinking ultimately set Curiosity and creativity are vital resources for a digitally
the roadmap. All employees, not just the data scientists, use mature company. Even with the automation of many
data to develop new insights and foresight instead of relying functions, participants were adamant that human ingenuity
on past experience. Given the speed of change, hindsight continues to be critical. Leaders of these organizations tend
might be irrelevant to the task at hand. Digitally mature to look for people who apply their creative sparks to the
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insights they gain from data, artificial Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic We’ve heard for years about the
intelligence, and feedback from has forced leaders and organizations need for organizations to develop
colleagues. Learning and performance to reimagine collaboration, the a workforce of calculated risk-takers,
are twinned, not split as is often the participants said. We have all grown able to live by a “fail fast” and “learn
case at companies that have yet to accustomed to the virtual meeting fast” approach. Leaders still want this,
embrace agile approaches. and collaboration tools that global and to get it they need to create an
companies are using to engage people environment that makes room for
When hiring and promoting staff, these from around the world at different uncertainty, experimentation, and
organizations look for candidates with organizational levels, but success well-intentioned failure. They
a “growth mindset,” who can adapt to requires more than technology: themselves must be willing to have
changing conditions. One participant the courage, as one participant put it,
said their business assesses each • Explicit discussions about shared to launch new products or programs,
employee’s “AQ”—adaptability purpose, values, and norms can experiment with them, refine them,
quotient—to gauge their capacity to encourage ownership and and even drop them.
be agile and grow even under stress. collaboration.
• Regular meetings—not just ad Digitally mature organizations leverage
4 design thinking, lean start-up, and
hoc troubleshooting—help
Distributed Decision-making and agile methodologies to power
standardize processes.
Co-creation innovation. They conduct rigorous,
• Rituals can forge a sense of relevant experiments, and test,
Companies have been aspiring to
community and belonging despite learn, and adapt in light of new
bust silos for well over a decade,
physical distance and cross-cultural developments—even dropping
but growing demand for end-to-end
differences. once-promising projects when the
customer experiences has made
cross-functional work imperative. • Orchestrated “social” encounters data suggest they no longer work.
Roundtable participants agreed that can foster mutual trust. With customer intimacy guiding their
digitally mature organizations are operating models and cultures, these
However, participants know firsthand
highly collaborative. experiments put customer needs first.
the limits of virtual collaboration.
In fact, we heard examples of
When it comes to horizontal
Leaders of digitally mature org- companies co-creating new products
collaboration, there appears to
anizations see beyond functional and services with their customers, for
be no substitute for face-to-face
silos and organizational levels to bring instance, in innovation labs designed
interaction for building trust and
together individuals with varied skill for that purpose.
connection, even among digital-first
sets to frame and solve problems.
companies and digital natives.
These leaders view employees more
as “collaborators” than “followers,” 5
in part because data and technology Continuous Experimentation and
enable more employees to have input Learning
in decisions. For that reason, diversity, In a world where speed matters,
equity, and inclusion efforts that bring digitally mature organizations act
more perspectives and experiences even when the appropriate move is
inside companies have become ambiguous. They don’t wait for perfect
critical to stimulating new thinking, information before making decisions;
some participants said. they see their decisions as “working
hypotheses” based on the best
Executives we talked to say leaders information available.
must carefully balance when to
“weigh in” and “step back”; their
ambition is to empower employees
to own and act on their decisions.
But these companies are also willing “In a world where speed
to go outside their organizations, matters, digitally mature
sectors, and regions to harness talent
who can deliver differentiated organizations act even
customer experiences. when the appropriate
move is ambiguous.”
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6
described how complicated it is to do business across the
Ethical Decision-making and Proactive Governance
globe—where there is no standard or “level playing field” for
As technological advances give rise to previously handling employee or customer data, for example. American
unimaginable use cases, digitally mature organizations companies were seen as far behind those in Europe and
recognize that they are accountable for the unintended much of Asia in working with governments to address the
consequences of their actions within and even outside their moral dilemmas associated with digital technology. Many
organizations. Participants acknowledged that ethical participants, especially those in emerging economies, said
dilemmas will arise, but that leaders must go beyond “do no they proactively partner with policymakers to develop
harm” and establish the processes, habits, and talent that regulations and practices that encourage competition,
serve as the company’s compass and guardrails. Millennials protect customers, and meet the needs of society.
and Generation Z in particular want to work at companies
that stay true to espoused values. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: ENABLER OR DISRUPTOR?
Leaders of digitally mature organizations align their Companies around the world are trying to harness the
employees around a shared purpose that puts ethical potential of digital technologies and data to ensure their very
decision-making on behalf of stakeholders at the center. survival. When we asked leaders what it takes to prepare
These companies earn the right to collect and use organizations for this effort, they shifted quickly from talking
employees’ and customers’ data, for example, by being about digital tools to talent and culture—a surprise to us.
transparent about their intentions and relevant processes. Many companies find the journey to digital maturity
When they use that data, they actively ensure they are daunting, with its seemingly endless considerations and
abiding by the expectations they set when they gather it. constantly shifting landscape. It’s new ways of working and
Organizations want to get to the point where customers want new relationships with customers and other stakeholders
to share their personal information because they trust they that separate digitally mature companies from those whose
will benefit from its use. Building this trust needs to be a transformations are still underway or have stalled.
multi-pronged effort embraced by all in the company—not
just policed by those in compliance roles. In part two of our series, we will share what we learned
about achieving these hallmarks or simply getting in the
We had lively discussions about the relationship between the race. Indeed, digital transformation can be an odyssey, but it
private and public sectors and how that relationship needed has a destination: at the end of the journey, digitally mature
to be reimagined given the challenges and opportunities organizations can test and learn, change course, and reinvent
emerging technologies have unleashed. Participants themselves while remaining true to their core values.
Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business
School. Ann Le Cam is an executive fellow at HBS and senior vice president of global talent and animation production at Wētā FX. Sunand Menon is
an executive fellow at HBS and chief product officer at RANE, a risk intelligence company. Emily Tedards is a research associate at HBS.
This program will help you master the leadership mindset, capabilities, and practices required to
build more agile and innovative organizations. Explore behaviors to transform your organization,
deliver more value, and build competitive advantage.
KEY BENEFITS WHO SHOULD ATTEND
As you analyze the leadership practices and organizational • Senior executives and executive team members with
cultures that are helping today’s leaders build more agile and significant management responsibilities
digitally mature organizations, you will develop new • Executives in medium to large organizations in any
approaches and skills that enable you to drive digital country or industry
transformation and overcome obstacles to progress.
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Digital Transformation:
A New Roadmap for Success
financial investment and time. Of those
who reported making significant
progress on their journey, 60 percent
had been at it for at least five years. In
calculating the resources, financial and
otherwise, necessary for change,
participants emphasized the need
to plan for continual upgrading of
technology, organizational capabilities,
and talent.
1
Recognize the Emotional Side of
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation can be
bewildering and exhausting for leaders
and employees alike. Emerging digital
Is your company reaping the rewards of digital transformation technologies are disrupting everything
yet? Linda Hill and colleagues offer seven guiding principles for from supply chains and manufacturing
to selling and distribution, as companies
transformations at any stage—nascent, progressing, or stalled. battle to create differentiated end-to-
end customer experiences in an
For the past two years, we’ve been Organizational change is never easy, unforgiving dynamic economy. As one
asking executives: Where is your but our roundtable discussions made executive put it, in a hyperconnected
company in its digital journey, and clear that achieving digital maturity world, competitors can “pop up from
where do you want to go? can be an especially arduous journey, anywhere and everywhere.”
even for digital-first companies. While
Roundtable discussions with 175 senior the COVID-19 pandemic has made With rising expectations of customers
executives around the globe and a digital transformation an even more and other stakeholders, no company can
survey of more than 1,500 senior urgent need, companies must also afford to stand still. Now more than ever,
executives from over 90 countries morph iteratively to keep up with the they must constantly attend to both top
helped form a picture of today’s speed of emerging technologies. and bottom lines by launching new
digitally mature company. However, it’s It’s a process of continuous learning products, services, and experiences
one thing to know where you aspire to and pivoting to adapt to an evolving consistently. Leaders from software-as-
be, and another to understand how to competitive landscape. a-service (SaaS) business models, for
get there. In this article, the second in example, described how delivering at
a three-part series, we dive into the Despite the recognition by participants the price points and pace required
challenges these leaders confronted that speed is critical, they reported that today has required them to reimagine
and strategies for how to address them. digital transformation takes significant their processes and talent systems.
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2
Align Around a Customer-Centric Narrative
Vision and strategy matter, but without a sense of shared Too often, leaders only communicate how digital
purpose, employees aren’t willing to do the hard work transformation will improve the company’s performance.
required to build a digitally mature organization. Employees Instead, they must develop a narrative—a human-centric
not only want to know where they are going, but also why story—for how digital transformation will improve the lives
they are going there. We heard time and again that too or livelihoods of their customers and other stakeholders.
often leaders neglect to connect the dots between who As one executive put it, “We must explain how digital assets
they are, whom they serve, and how digital technology will help us become a sustainable enterprise, both profitable
will help them deliver. and a force for good in the broader society.” Attention to
The sense of collective identity keeps employees aligned purpose throughout a digital transformation helps counter
and committed to working in the new ways demanded of short-termism, and encourages the psychological safety
them in the digital era. Without it, employees, especially necessary for cultivating a growth mindset among employees.
Millennials and Gen Z talent, don’t find their work as mean- To nurture that sense of shared purpose, as well as
ingful. They don‘t develop the sense of belonging they need customer-centric thinking, participants described how
to collaborate and deliver innovative solutions to customers. they sent cross-functional or cross-level teams to observe
A shared sense of purpose anchors the organization as its customers using their products and services. Others talked
leaders distribute authority and delegate decision-making. about the benefits of running design thinking labs with
customers to incubate new offerings. These approaches
helped employees across the organization develop a shared
understanding of the customer journey. As leaders
The Objectives of Digital Transformation explained, customer-centric organizations develop solutions
to address customers‘ evolving needs and desires, rather
We asked survey respondents to identify their
than simply selling their existing products and solutions.
organizations’ top two areas of focus in digital
transformation. Here’s what they said:
3
Build a Data-informed Culture by Upskilling Talent
Customer Technology Fewer than half of survey respondents reported that their
23% Experience 17% Infrastructure organizations had the right talent to compete in the digital
era. Participants described the proliferation of “digital
positions” in their companies, from Digital Project Manager
Process Data
16% Efficiency 14% Management or Digital Director to Chief Transformation Officer or Chief
Innovation Officer. In one roundtable discussion, participants
predicted that, over time, more senior leaders would have
Company Employee technical backgrounds. One media executive predicted that
10% Culture 5% Experience in five years, engineers would comprise a third of his
company’s workforce.
Source: Leadership in the Digital Era survey, n=1,500
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Today, digital transformation requires Roundtable executives said senior Instead, it should enable employees to
upskilling all employees so they can leaders tend to be digital immigrants question the organization’s status quo,
harness digital tools and data. at best at most established using insights from data rather than
However, participants emphasized that companies. While they agreed that hindsight or past experience.
executives must first understand the leaders urgently needed to expand
different generations in the workforce: their knowledge, they didn’t see eye It’s important to remember that data,
to eye on what digital literacy means. like all information, is power, and not
• Digital natives, who grew up with everyone will embrace this transition
digital tools A few argued that leaders should
understand data analytics and AI readily. Functional experts and leaders
• Digital immigrants, who are open to deeply, and even learn to code. can become resistors to change,
learning and changing Most contended, however, that what especially if the data challenges
• Digital refugees, who avoid digital really matters is a leader‘s capacity to deeply held assumptions based on
tools they view as unsettling and collaborate with and learn from digital experience or expertise, or reveals
scary specialists on their teams. unpleasant realities about customer or
employee experiences. Some might
While not everyone needs to be able to To increase digital literacy, some consider the use of AI in “people
code or understand the underlying companies are using reverse decisions” dehumanizing. Again,
dynamics of artificial intelligence (AI), mentoring programs, with Millennials leaders should prepare to manage the
participants say that almost all and Gen Z’ers educating those more emotions associated with learning to
employees need a “basic senior (because of age or position) use data to make better and faster
understanding and comfort” of about the potential of digital tools to decisions. Without a shared sense of
working with data—its potential and create value. One participant in China purpose and attendant psychological
limitations. Digital specialists in an described how “twenty-somethings” safety, participants say that employees
organization should implement joined C-suite meetings to share their will likely reject data instead of
user-friendly digital tools to help level perspectives on the opportunities and incorporating it into the daily practices
the playing field for those who are less challenges of various digital projects in their organizations.
familiar with them. For some under consideration.
companies, visualization tools have It’s also imperative to have team
been key to getting everyone (even 4 members represent diversity of
those who fear numbers and math) to Manage the Power Dynamics that thought, and some participants
use data to inform their decisions and Come with Data argued for demographic diversity.
actions. Unfortunately, the consensus We have all come to appreciate how
As we argued before, companies
among participants was that too often algorithms can lead to unintended bias
shouldn’t aspire to create a data-driven
digital transformations don‘t devote that harms certain employees and
culture, but rather a data-informed one.
enough time and resources to customers, and the company’s
Data shouldn’t be touted as a replace-
developing the mindsets and reputation (a bias story can go viral on
ment for expertise or experience.
capabilities all employees need. social media within minutes).
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companies have set parameters for using customer data, their data?” “How would I personally feel if my data were used
what about rules around employee data? Companies will need that way?”
to confront these questions.
Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business
School. Ann Le Cam is an executive fellow at HBS and senior vice president of global talent and animation production at Wētā FX. Sunand Menon is
an executive fellow at HBS and chief product officer at RANE, a risk intelligence company. Emily Tedards is a research associate at HBS.
This lab-style leadership program immerses you in every stage of the innovation process. Experience
first-hand what it takes to build the culture and capabilities required to encourage collaborative
problem-solving, creative thinking, rapid iteration, and learning from success and failure.
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LEADING IN THE DIGITAL ERA | CURIOSITY, NOT CODING: 6 SKILLS LEADERS NEED IN THE DIGITAL AGE 13
Transforming an
organization starts
with transforming its
leaders. Data from
1,700 executives
by Linda Hill and
colleagues reveals
the most important
skills and traits
leaders need now.
Leaders who set out to reshape their companies to Our survey respondents also ranked creativity, curiosity, and
compete in a fast-evolving digital world often come to a comfort with ambiguity as highly desirable traits. “It’s the soft
daunting realization: To transform their organizations, they skills that I argue are not soft anymore,” said the chairman of a
must first transform themselves. major African retailer at one of the 21 global roundtable
discussions we held with leaders of digital-first and incumbent
However, the qualities they need to develop aren’t the ones companies.
you might expect. You might think an organization in flux
needs a steady hand, someone with foresight and More troubling, though, was that fewer than half of our
experience who plots a sensible route to cautiously and participants think that they or other senior executives at their
competently travel. And, of course, companies need organizations have the right mindset and skills to lead in the
leaders who are also digitally literate, right? digital era. Those closer to the nuts and bolts of digital
functions—the chief technology officers, chief information
In actuality, our research highlighted that none of these officers, and chief digital officers—feel more confident about
characteristics matter as much as you might think when it their own capabilities but less so about those of their
comes to leading digital transformation. In fact, 71 percent colleagues in other functional areas.
of 1,500 executives we surveyed in more than 90 countries
said that adaptability was the most important leadership In light of the speed at which new technologies continue to
quality in these times. Roundtable discussions with about emerge, digital transformation is not a one-and-done process,
200 executives echoed those findings. and neither is the leadership transformation required of leaders.
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1
Be a Catalyst, Not a Planner
In the digital era, companies face a more dynamic
competitive environment: key competitors are no longer the
usual suspects, and customer and stakeholder expectations
continue to evolve. The speed and complexity of
technological change require digital transformations to be
more iterative than other forms of corporate change.
Leaders need to catalyze change rather than plan for it. That
means creating the initial conditions for the organization to
achieve its ambitions and guiding their company through a
process of continual learning, pivoting all along the way.
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2 3
Trust and Let Go Be an Explorer
In today’s world, vision and strategy are still essential, but the With so much changing around them, leaders must be
ability to orchestrate collective action—co-creation instead of explorers. One roundtable executive defines exploration as
top-down direction—has never been more important. To this “curiosity in action.” An explorer searches with an ambition in
end, leading in the digital era is an exercise in trust, mind: What questions must they answer to lead their businesses
executives said. today and tomorrow? Where might they find the answers?
It’s about inviting employees to share in decision-making and Leaders must balance this curiosity with intentionality as they
creating a culture that makes people feel safe enough to take figure out when to be open-minded and broad and when to be
risks and act on behalf of organizational interests. It’s also focused and dig deep. They must learn to pick up “weak signals”
about earning trust from and offering trust to increasingly about what is happening in their organizations and ecosystems.
diverse stakeholders outside of the organization and By the time a weak signal becomes a trend, as one participant
collaborating with them in new and uncharted ways. Trusting said, “you are often too late, especially when first-mover
executives: advantage is at play.” The best explorers:
Distribute authority. It’s important to shake the command- Leave the office. Too often, participants acknowledged, senior
control model, which depends on hierarchy and rules. Leaders leaders “live in a bubble.” Explorers go beyond their
must learn to exercise influence without relying on formal organizations and their usual experiences and relationships to
authority. They set the organizational compass—communicate figure out how the future might unfold. They realize and accept
the purpose and values—and empower others to execute. the limits of their knowledge and actively seek out the views of
people with different lived experiences and perspectives.
Lean on others. We’re not talking about delegating to trusted Explorers adopt what one executive calls a “software mindset,”
lieutenants with similar backgrounds and the same life and committing to continual “personal upgrades.”
career experiences. It means learning to collaborate with an
increasingly diverse workforce across functions, levels, Stay humble. Leaders, even in digital-first companies, should
geographies, and even organizational boundaries. have the humility to ask questions and learn from in-house
experts and digital natives at different levels in the organization.
Curate talent. Expanding their traditional network of talent Leaders must be familiar enough with emerging technologies in
requires leaders who can identify and assess the capabilities, order to ask the right questions about opportunities, risks, and
mindsets, and values of individuals the corporation needs to legal and ethical danger zones, and set the boundary conditions
deliver on its purpose. This might entail nurturing digital to guide the deployment of digital tools and data.
natives (by definition, those younger than most senior leaders)
to help them reach positions of significant authority (and even Roundtable participants who are digital natives expect
become board members). Elevating promising talent will help executives to have a “basic appreciation” of the digital tools and
the company embrace the new and diverse perspectives data their organizations are leveraging, especially those related
necessary to go beyond the company’s core business to to cybersecurity, AI (artificial intelligence), and cloud services. In
imagine growth platforms. particular, they should appreciate the underlying logic of AI so
they can interpret and evaluate data and the results of analyses
Build partnerships. No organization can go it alone. The with a critical, if not skeptical, eye.
COVID-19 pandemic reminds leaders of how organizational
success depends on the resiliency of their ecosystems—a Roundtable executives described learning what they need to
public sector able to provide basic infrastructure and a private know through regular meetings (both in-depth and more
sector able to provide critical resources and capabilities (e.g., informal) with engineers developing and deploying digital tools
a reliable supply chain). Leaders are discovering they must for operations and customer-facing functions, for example.
proactively invest in the ecosystem and build partnerships Some roundtable participants indicated that they plan to sign up
(turn vendors into partners; join with competitors to solve for coding or data analytics classes to acquire expertise but,
problems government can’t) to create the conditions for more important, to show their teams that they too must become
sustainable success. life-long technology learners.
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LEADING IN THE DIGITAL ERA | CURIOSITY, NOT CODING: 6 SKILLS LEADERS NEED IN THE DIGITAL AGE 16
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Be Courageous Be Present
Leaders need to learn to experiment, iterate, and pivot The leaders we talked to acknowledged just how complex
themselves if their organizations are going to be able to and demanding work has become for employees in the
thrive. In order to get comfortable with the inevitable digital era. Employees are expected to take on more risk as
missteps and unconfirmed hypotheses of experimentation, they experiment and innovate, and experience new human-
leaders need a new attitude toward risk. Eschewing technology interactions. As one leader put it, “everything
opportunities just to avoid failure is perhaps the riskiest about work and careers is being transformed.”
position of all in the digital economy. In a fast-moving world
with more risks than ever—cybersecurity, reputational risks, The best leaders stay present and emotionally engaged,
pandemics, social crises—executives need courage to make communicating openly and authentically. During times of
big bets. upheaval, these executives are:
Executives we spoke to acknowledged that they mostly don’t Empathic. They monitor employee stress and anxiety and try
feel psychologically safe, given the pressure they face from to prevent overload and burnout, especially in the “next
their boards and investors. However, if they want their normal” of the pandemic. Many people are coping with social
employees to learn to live with the risk profile necessary for and economic unrest and insecurity both inside
breakthrough ideas (as opposed to incremental choices) they organizations and outside in their communities. Many people
must model what it means to act with courage and don’t feel safe. The best leaders show compassion by asking
conviction: identifying as many risks as they can and working the right questions and actively listening, even when the
with their colleagues to mitigate them, while also having the messages they receive reveal concern, skepticism, or fear.
fortitude to make hard decisions and move forward.
Vulnerable. Participants said they’re learning to be more
As roundtable participants pointed out, “standard safety comfortable with emotion-ladened interactions—what one
vests” aren’t available; best practices are still up for debate referred to as “courageous conversations”—not only with
for many aspects of digital asset and data use. Leading employees, but with customers and suppliers, particularly
through uncertainty takes not only good judgment, but also those fighting to survive economically and physically in
the emotional resilience to shake off self-doubt and fear. these traumatic times. Leading during the pandemic has led
many participants to discover a resiliency they didn’t know
While digital natives and digital-first executives have they had, while others admitted they were struggling.
experienced the benefits of “failing quickly and often,”
leaders of less digital companies may find it hard to do so. Adept storytellers. Transparent communication and
Their outward confidence might mask fear and anxiety, but storytelling have never been so critical to leading. Authentic
they must be ready to admit misconceptions and conversations go a long way toward engaging employees
misinterpretations, and acknowledge early on what they and fostering ownership. Data and visualization tools can
don’t know or what isn’t working. Executives must be bring more power to a leader’s message—illustrating the
prepared to shoulder responsibility for mistakes and share what, how, and why of their decisions and actions. Savvy
credit for triumphs. One executive we interviewed said: storytelling can align diverse stakeholders around a shared
“Leaders must go from trying to have all the answers to narrative about how digital transformation will help the
being comfortable with being uncomfortable.” company pursue its purpose.
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LEADING IN THE DIGITAL ERA | CURIOSITY, NOT CODING: 6 SKILLS LEADERS NEED IN THE DIGITAL AGE 17
Self-aware. Participants consider self-awareness and Corporate purpose and the organization’s values become
self-management crucial. They said that executives need to the compass for navigating the many complex ethical
create space for “slow thinking” in a fast-moving world, dilemmas that arise with technology and data. Ethical
making time to meditate and reflect on uncomfortable leaders say “no” to actions that put profits before corporate
questions or choices. Leaders can’t afford to be lured by integrity and say “yes” to standards and safeguards even if
quick fixes or the latest “shiny object.” With clear minds, they risk profits. They must always ask: “Just because we can
they can forego short-term wins for more long-term do it, should we? Is it simply the right thing to do, even if it
sustainability. costs us in the short run?”
Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business
School. Ann Le Cam is an executive fellow at HBS and senior vice president of global talent and animation production at Wētā FX. Sunand Menon is
an executive fellow at HBS and chief product officer at RANE, a risk intelligence company. Emily Tedards is a research associate at HBS.
This program empowers high potential leaders to overcome the increasingly complex challenges
that emerge as they take on greater leadership roles. Expand your ability to build productive teams,
champion change, lead in a crisis, and create a culture of high performance.
HBS WORKING KNOWLEDGE RESEARCH COLLECTION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HBS EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
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