Written by CCL, pymetrics and Thrive HR Exchange

According to John R. Ryan, President and CEO of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL),

“Digital transformation will realize its potential only when the leadership and culture of organizations are truly transformed as well, preparing the way for constant innovation. Digital transformation is an unending process, rather than a single event, and the leadership that drives it must continually evolve as well.”

In July, Thrive HR Exchange partnered with CCL and pymetrics to organise a Digital Leadership development workshop that focuses on the unique role of HR leaders in driving digital transformations. Building on CCL's Digital Leadership Framework and the behavioural insights captured by pymetrics' gamified exercises, the workshop provided participants with a deep understanding of what behaviours and mindsets are critical to their ability to lead, and the capability gaps that they can start working on today.

The 9 digital leadership roles from the CCL represent a view of what it takes to enable leaders and organizations to create effective digital transformation. It is assumed that one leader may embody some of these roles, not all. So, one may view this as a collection of roles that together will constitute effective digital transformation.

Direction

• FUTURE SEEKER - Embraces the possibilities of digital to create a transformative vision for the future and strives to leverage new technologies to improve the business constantly

• BUSINESS SHAPER - Uses digital technologies and analytics to improve decision-making and create new capabilities or growth opportunities

• CUSTOMER CHAMPION - Focuses on understanding the customer and using these insights to guide actions or decisions

Alignment

• ECOSYSTEM BUILDER - Creates a networked, flexible, dynamic, multi-disciplined environment to build the right innovation partnerships inside and outside the organization

• ORGANIZATION TRANSFORMER – Understands and implements operating models, processes, roles and responsibilities or governance to support innovation and transformation

• INNOVATION ACCELERATOR – Accelerates digital strategy execution by setting the context for innovation - Encourages agile approaches and rapid prototyping to fast-track ideas

Commitment

• TALENT MAKER - Focuses on building diverse talent to develop the next generation of digital leaders

• CULTURE CATALYST - Understands and promotes values and behaviors that will support digital transformation; builds trust and develop confidence around a digital future

• ENGAGEMENT ENERGIZER – Shares a compelling view of the digital future of the organization and creates positive and engaging digital experiences to connect to others

To enable digital leadership, there are a number of behaviours that are seen as pivotal to supporting any leader.

The three most important behaviours identified by pymetrics based on participants' engagements with the exercises focus on the way you learn, make decisions and take risks. 

Learning

Leaders who learn quickly from their mistakes and can rapidly change course based on feedback, will be better able to capitalise on the insights gleaned in a "test and learn" environment and get to the optimal solution quicker. 

Decision Making 

When you take a deliberative approach to decision making it means you are making reflective rather than instinctive decisions. The ability to reflect is pivotal in ensuring that you're not simply recycling old solutions, but rather, using the latest data and intelligence to challenge long-held beliefs and  make decisions  that consider the needs of the future rather than the practices of the past 

Risk Tolerance 

Digital leadership requires being an adventurous risk taker. That doesn't mean you're haphazard in your approach, but it does mean that you will need to take risks and be comfortable operating without all the answers at the outset.  As Isaac Newton once said, "No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess"  

If you would like to learn more about Digital Leadership, here are a few ways to join the discussions:

• Join Thrive HR Exchange community on Slack to interact with the workshop participants, CCL and pymetrics presenters as well as a global HR community.

• Subscribe to our Thrive HR Exchange newsletter to stay updated on the next intake for the Digital Leadership workshops, which will be held across multiple time zones.

• Participate in CCL’s Digital Leadership survey to explore the readiness of organisational leadership for digital transformation, starting initially with Singapore. For organisations providing 15 or more responses, we are able to provide a complimentary organisation-specific insight report.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®), a Partner of Thrive HR Exchange, is a top-ranked, global provider of leadership development. By leveraging the power of leadership to drive results that matter most to clients, CCL transforms individual leaders, teams, organizations, and society. Our array of cutting-edge solutions is steeped in extensive research and experience gained from working with hundreds of thousands of leaders at all levels.

pymetrics, a Partner of Thrive HR Exchange, is an enterprise talent platform that makes workforce decisions more efficient, accurate, and fair. We use behavioural science-backed exercises to measure the cognitive, social, and emotional attributes of individuals and a data-driven approach to match them with the right opportunity - based on their potential, not their pedigree. Our ethical and audited AI-powered insights and recommendations equip leaders with accurate and actionable information to manage the entire talent lifecycle, from hiring to internal mobility and beyond.