Journey to Digital Excellence
Journey to Digital Excellence
What if you don’t have a CDO – Chief Digital Officer? Whose role does it become in your company to ensure that you are implementing digital strategies and keeping up with the newest digital marketing trends?
The world is constantly changing and with it so does technology. How can leaders possibly keep up with this ever changing but crucial component to new business strategies. Are leaders becoming influencers in a new concept of social leadership? Is digital technology become a disrupter, enabler, or both?
Every company has a need to have a digital strategy which incorporates the future of the company. Strategic planning now involves having digital initiatives integrated through resource allocation, monitoring your return on investment and execution of these strategies.
In saying all of this, is digital technology a disrupter? This is a word that we are hearing more and more in business and that by definition means; “a person or thing that interrupts an event, activity or process by causing a disturbance or problem.” Let’s look at our current world scenario. Covid 19 has disrupted the norm and forced many businesses to set up virtual offices. Is this a leadership nightmare or has digital technology made virtual business a viable option? The traditional role of leader still exists and skills like mentorship, communication, adaptability, relationship building, task management, production are now functions that can be incorporated into digital technology.
Being a leader in today’s digital world doesn’t mean that you need to be able to write or read code or understand the intricacies of the technology. You should have people for that. People that you lead, encourage and trust to implement the strategies that you are tasked with to bring success to your business. In fact, with more of the world going “virtual” doesn’t it mean that digital technology might enhance your leadership style. I bet you laughed when I said does a leader need to be a digital influencer? Well, the answer is yes. Think about it. You now have the ability to reach your target audience with the click of a button. Your message can be received by everyone at once through technology and not become altered through the verbal pipeline. I would encourage you to use a digital platform to help you increase performance, productivity, and engagement much like a social media influencer would. Think about sending out your message to your team and having them be engaged through this channel.
It could be a challenge in the beginning to alter your mindset towards using technology to implement a new leadership strategy but once you have you might even notice your own productivity increase. If you haven’t already, consider using a project management software for task management and leadership. It will help you to lead effective teams through collaboration, workflows, schedules, progress tracking and productivity management. Many of these software solutions have the option to have group chats, messaging and keep your team cohesive and engaged with you even though you aren’t in the same office. In my mind, this is a winning solution.
Let’s consider that digital technology is an enabler which by definition means: “a person or thing that enables something or makes it possible.” In our constantly changing world, I would say that digital technology is not going anywhere. We might as well embrace it and shift our mindset to use it as an amazing leadership tool in our journey to digital excellence.