Digital leadership

Erin Perry: How can leaders influence others to follow digital transformationhier: Umstellungtransformation?

Bob Dignen: Well, there you go, I mean, you’re asking that question about influence and there are problems with that kind of question. I mean, should leaders see their job as somehow influencing or persuading others to go in a certain direction, which the leader knows is right but the poor idiots in the rest of the company just haven’t quite managed to to figure sth. outetw. herausfinden, verstehenfigure that out. I mean when I put it like this, you can see the problem with the question.

And another question we could ask is, how can leaders learn from others the best form of digitally-driven change to etw. umsetzenimplement? I mean this is very different. I mean it puts the leaders into a learning position. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a Leiter(in) DigitalisierungCDO with all the highest qualifications on the planet. If you take up your mission as the one framed by learning rather than persuasion, then everything changes, particularly if you’re brought in new to an organization with which you’re unfamiliar. Because then you focus on asking. What could make sense here? Why? Why not? Which of my ideas are the right das Richtige sein, geeignet seinfit? Which are the wrong fit? What do you see as the future? What might prevent us from getting there?

So, if digitalization is in essence about using data in a smart way, then I think digital leaders need to invest sufficient time in collecting data from the people who will letztendlichultimately own the change. This doesn’t mean that the data they collect is correct or valid, but knowing the context, knowing the operational realities formed over Jahrzehntdecades, I think is central for anybody leading digital change.