I received an interesting question from the host of Gulf Tech Talk podcast during the recent interview I had that revolved around the impact and influence of technology on leadership. I decided to leverage on the interview discussion by sharing the insights of the talk in my article this week. Hence, how has technology influenced and impacted our leadership methods today?
In my humble opinion and professional experience, I would say in a profound way. How exactly? In few simple words, leadership methods are impacted from the traditional way of leading to being inclusive (getting everyone involved based on digital tools and data), more dynamic (responsive to change based on the digital tools and data), and agile (react quickly and easily to market dynamics, based again on the digital tools and data available). Let’s get into the specifics.
Gone (or will soon) were the days where decisions are only made and influenced at the top of the organisation. With the digital tools, platforms and services that continue to evolve and revolve, leadership methods and style are changing (or getting enhanced) to include everyone within the organisation by being collaborative instead. In what way? Decisions will be influenced by being distributed across organisations layers. Today we have emails, instant messaging, video conferencing, unified communications and many more that continue to be introduced that enable real-time communication and collaboration, not only just across different level of an organisation per se, but also across borders globally as well (especially to organisations that operate globally).
Team members within the organisations are empowered, and as a result, decisions too become also collective (as opposed to being only done at the top). I am not saying this is completely the norm now yet will change and is influenced by the technology evolution and its impact on people, organisations and nations as a whole. Mark my words, change is happening fast and will transform gradually, as I see this already within some of the organisations here in Oman that I am associated with.
With the vast amount of data generated and available for leaders to analyse (thanks to big data and the data analytics tools), the flexibility, responsiveness and adaptability of leadership in organisations today is enhanced. Access to insights on the market trends and dynamics, customer details and behavior, operational performance and the like, via an easy to see dashboard, presented at a click of a mouse, surely enables leaders and organisation to be more dynamic, in the sense make informed decisions quickly.
Decisions that are made by facts and not just by intuition or guesses per se. These data are available instantly and 24/7, be it at work, at home, or even outside the country, at a click of a mouse button (or a swipe from an app). Today, you are connected with work or business even when you’re on leave or holiday. Yup, that’s not good and may not be healthy (to be honest), but that’s the reality (and to some, a blessing in disguise too). I see people taking work home instead of spending quality time with their families, while others even working while working-out at a gym. Yes, technology influence is a two-edge sword – some organisations are leveraging and capitalising, while some individuals are suffering and/or benefiting as a result.
How has technology influenced and impacted leaders to be agile? Simply, again with the vast amount of data available, and with the digital tools/platforms that continue to be introduced and utilised, has made leaders act and decide quickly based on facts and evidence. This goes all the way from better communication and collaboration with all stakeholders, faster and automated process within and across the organisations, enhanced and personalised customer engagements using various touch points, and many more that is probably beyond my article today. These platforms, tools, systems are evolving and indeed makes leaders responsive, adaptive and innovative – from decisions, solutions to how they work too (i.e. remotely, hybrid, flexible, etc) – another interesting element to ponder into my future articles.
There is no doubt that technology has impacted and continues to influence leadership style and methods positively in a greater extent, and a bit not so healthy to some extent (which I am happy to shed some light on, in my up-coming articles). Leaders that embrace these technology influences and benefits, ultimately make their organisations more inclusive, more dynamic and indeed agile too. Until we catch up again next week, stay connected but be wary on the side-effects.
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