Transcription

Leading in Digital Age

Organisations are distinctly mindful of the avenues and challenges the digital age that is to either go computerised or
go out of business, either embrace digital technologies or go out of business.

Disruptive technologies of industry 4.0, for example, blockchain, artificial intelligence, the IOT, which is the internet
of things, augmented reality, virtual reality and many more such technologies are stirring up the corporate world
across industries globally. Industry monsters, the big giants feel progressively undermined by new companies and
more modest opponents who are quicker and more deft and consequently ready to harness the force of new
innovations all the more rapidly.

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Digital transformation is on the top of to-do list of majority of leaders worldwide. It is the most common way of
incorporating innovation into numerous, if not all, areas of the organisation. Significantly changing the manner by
which organisations make and deliver value to clients. Regardless of whether it is through changing the consumer
experience, utilising virtual reality or expanding task proficiency.

Utilising perpetually complex advanced mechanism like robotics or programming arrangements, there are
extraordinary increases to be made by coordinating digital solutions all through the entire value creation process.
Leaders need to keep in mind, notwithstanding that the digital transformation is really finished.

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It is never complete. It is an unending ongoing vicious cycle. The quick and progressive improvement of new
technologies implies that insightful leaders should keep on accepting new technological freedom or face the danger
of eradication. Besides, they can't not just be happy with tackling the present innovation. Yet should persistently
evaluate the dangers and openings that future technological advances will make for their businesses.

Leaders in the advanced age face exceptional difficulties at the same time, higher way avenues. The modern day
workforce has become familiar with instant gratification and this has had a thump on impact on the speed needed
for leaders in business.

Consistent and seize-less change has changed our capacity to bear hazard, which means leaders are relied upon to
accept change through a progression of fast choices, settling any issue as and when they emerge. What this mean in
turn is that the way leaders are developed, the most desirable skills we now expect from them, and even who is
considered to be a leader has changed.

The idea of unlearning has never been more significant with thoughtfulness and outright should for the present
leaders. They need to come out of the knowledge silos, do away with the redundancies, explore newer set of
opportunities and scrutinising business as usual is the ethos of the digital age and to endure and flourish leaders
should be willing and ready to challenge and change their own practices, strategies and perspective and critically so
inspire others to do likewise.

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Motivating others has consistently been leaders' trademark for ages now, however, yet one more time, the idea of
this is also evolving.

The present workforce wants to be related with an organisation that has a reason which rides the influxes of
innovative changes, rather than hanging tight for them to come to shore. In the digital age, leaders should have the
option to empower and foster leadership attributes in junior workers and not feel undermined.

In fact, the concept of leaderless organisations, reverse mentoring or the concept where different individuals don
the hat of leaders in different scenario endorse this viewpoint, where leadership of junior workers is also
encouraged.

The familiar saying that one ought to never be the most brilliant individual in the room; has never been all the more
evident. Sharing abilities and gaining from everyone around us is more conceivable than any time in recent memory
on account of new technology.

Participation in this learning biological system ought to not diminish as an individual manoeuvres up in an
association though. However, there are certain leadership obstacles of the digital age, which may not be completely
unique to today, but are more pressing and difficult in today's world than in the past for sure.

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The first one is leading different generations. Now, baby boomers, generation X, millennials, generation Z, never has
so many age cohorts share the workforce. Leaders in the digital age are approached to lead groups that contain
numerous social economics and connect with each other.

This turns out to be a particularly troublesome, as today's leaders are frequently entrusted with driving those more
established than themselves. The future leaders connects the generation by seeing every accomplices qualities with
a plan to best lead each. Generational attributes don't make a difference straightforwardly to the individual.

However, a leader who is delicate to generational issues can recognise likely traps and interface with colleagues of
various ages. Another obstacle for leading innovation is to lead in disruptive environment. Now this is one of the
most obvious challenge and if you see 10 years prior, the yellow taxi was not worried about the accent of application
market.

However, they ought to have been. Now if I ask you this question, then how many of these yellow black taxis that we
see roaming around on the streets of India? The answer would be a negligible low. But when we talk about Olas and
the Ubers of the country, the answer it comes out in a high and huge numbers.

This is all because of the technological advancements and the changes in the business models. The smaller flexible
organisations quickly seizing on to the opportunity of developing a new business model out of the technological
advancements or technologies available to them.

Now, new technology makes new plans of action and new plan of action drive old models bankrupt. This is what
happened to Kodak, and this is what happened to the yellow taxis. Doing the same things expeditely obviously is not
an advocate in the digital age.

The future leaders understand the disruptive nature of today's world and embraces innovation to become a
disrupter themselves. A disrupter does not accept the status quo and instead begs to question: is there a better way
to do this? Another obstacle lying ahead of leaders is to inspire authentically.

One of the biggest challenges leaders face in the digital age is not technology related, but very human. Digital
leaders need to authentically inspire team members to create buy-in and engagement. As technology further
connects teams, screens can also create barriers that inhibit the true personal connection.
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The future leader leads with transparency, integrity and with strategy for overcome technological barriers to connect
with team members in an authentic manner. Keeping up with the change is something that the innovative leaders
would certainly want to do, but they need to overcome this obstacle, as leaders in the digital age inhabit what has
been coined the age of accelerations.

Change is inevitable and organisational change must take place exponentially faster than 50 years ago. When new
technology transforms entire industries, leaders must lead their organisations to transform as well and that too, on a
pace which is faster or at least equivalent to the change that is happening in the outside world.

The future leader recognises innovation and disruption and authentically inspire across the generation to enact
organisational transformation. That is the mark of a future leader and they are the transformation leader suitable to
take the digital transformation of their organisation forward and ahead in the next world.

Another interesting dimension of the challenge you and I both face today, is that of the virtual setup. We've
had to move to a social distancing form, not just in our individual private lives, but professional lives aswell.

When you have a host of teams working from across the world on common projects, but virtually, it surfaces a
lot of challenges.

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Of course, motivation morale come into question, if you're not physically in person interacting with people
on a day to day basis, it's a little difficult to assess what's going on in the person's mind, when that happens,
team morale gets affected also.

Fatigue of having to stare at a screen for longer periods of time, may have an impact on a lot of physical
ailments as well. A leader who's inspirational, has to consider these challenges as well. A dispersed team, yet a
unified purpose.

What can a leader do to ensure that virtual teams remain connected, remain driven, motivated and also
aspire for high performance?

It begins with ensuring that everybody in the team understands why they exist in that team. Team vision, shared
purpose. It's followed by robust platforms of communication and sharing of information, then comes informal
formats of communication where people connect with one another informally aswell.
It also involves recognition, rewards and driving people with compliments and the belief that what they're
doing is truly well.
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In fact, the leader needs to be even more visible in times when the organisations is virtually operating.

Visibility is a key.Being present itself, sends a message. It's a famous Ubuntu saying: I am who I am, because
of who we all are.

When we understand that teams are bound together by a shared purpose, shared values and inspirational
leadership, we will be on the path to creating organisations that truly stand the test of time.

See I think 2020 has been a good and challenging year for a lot of people. It's also been good but nobody can
say 2020 is good just because of the number of people who have lost their lives.

So, I think nothing can replace that part there; when you're talking about from an individualistic point of view, I
think it's allowed people to take their acceptance level on bad news at a pretty high level.

It's actually acclimatized us that says ah, this can happen to me. This can happen to everyone in a very different
sense, that things will change because most of us think I don't have the time to step off the treadmill.

Then somebody picks you up and takes you off the treadmill or puts the power off and then a lot of people have gone
through that. My switch went off. My power switch went off. The biggest thing I think people have not been able to
accept and handle is habits because you're a glutton of your own habits and actually what this 2020 has shown is
you have to change your habit whatever that habit could be?

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The habit could be that you did this, whether you exercise or you did that and that was also curtailed because you
couldn't go down for the first two months and then whatever else.

Your habit of I can only talk and when I'm meeting with people, I'm only this when I'm that and all of that has changed
substantially. So, I would assume that it's made people realise. I'm not saying they’ve become better people or
worse people.

That's for each one to do but it's forced change. My best takeaway is that why do I need change to be forced onto me
if I do believe that 2020; I would like that to be a takeaway that just to a lot of people that says now will you believe
the fact that you don't need some radical thing to happen for you to either come to a screeching halt or to review
that you may need to change the way you're doing that or clear so many cobwebs and perceptions in your mind or
be defeatist about something or be tentative about something or do whatever you want to do on that.

Because an extraneous force came and got you to a screeching halt and got you to change your habits. So that's
just more on a sort of a macro level. I think the important part here is that we don't slip back to normal and just look
at 2020 and I think, all of 2021 as a year, two years in which; yes, that happened.

And I think, if you draw examples in the past; we're not going through anything exceptional that didn't happen
before you know there have been world wars and countries have taken 20 years but they have taken - I mean if
Japan went through that four years of two years of supremacy and then two years of complete utter
embarrassment and then, when you're left with no self-respect as a nation; at that stage to rise from the ashes is
incredible.

So, I think it's a great opportunity for a lot of people to really self-discover themselves; not rediscover
themselves, self-discover themselves.

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