LD7090 Leadership in a Digital Age Assignment Sample 2023
Introduction
The implementation and adoption of new and advanced disruptive technologies in the current environment in Companies are accelerating the need to redefine leadership (Zeike et. al. 2019). All business organizations are stressed to evolve and face the transition to respond to technology’s challenges and opportunities. The leaders must also adopt technological traits to optimize the day-to-day operations. Leadership now requires involvement, participation and contribution from everyone. Digital leadership can be defined as the strategic use of a company’s digital assets to attain business goals. The present report also emphasizes elaborating the significant leadership models and theories in the digital age.
Section 1: Leadership & Self Analysis
Review of various leadership models/theories in light of digital leadership
Leadership theories present the explanation of why and how specific individuals become leaders (Kane et. al. 2019). These theories emphasize the behaviour and traits an individual can embrace to enhance leadership capability.
Trait theory of leadership
In this context of the report, the first theory which can be described is the Trait theory of leadership. It focuses on specific inborn personality characteristics and traits aligned to successful leadership across multiple situations (Sheninger, 2019). As per this theory, some specific hereditary attributes and qualities make someone a leader. These qualities can be physical factors, intelligence factors, or personality factors. These traits can be adaptability, courage, creativity, decisiveness, emotional stability, or task competence.
It has been evaluated that majority of the companies are hiring employees who have the strength of being a digital leader or who have the knowledge who can use digital tools while leading and managing the organization. The primary digital leadership traits involve facilitating change, encouraging digital literacy and keeping up with the technology (de Araujo et. al. 2021). As per the trait theory, it is believed that several attributes of a leader are inborn. These traits positively impact employee performance as they get motivated by these attributes. Noting the same, it can be said that digital leaders can also positively influence the workforce by using digital Technologies as this is the need of the hour.
As per the courage characteristic, leaders are committed to the groups’ goals and are brave and do not hide from the challenges. On the contrary, a digital leader focuses on changing by adopting digital transformation to create a new business model. A digital leader will try new leadership and management techniques that work well and fit in the new business working environment (El Sawy et. al. 2016). As per the trait theory, strong leaders can control their emotions and avoid overreactions. On the other hand, as per the digital leadership traits, this digital world requires to be stay connected with the team 24/7. The digital leader’s responsibility in this age is to share the problems and keep the workforce away from confusion by adopting technological interaction methods (Wang and Torrisi-Steele, 2017).
Contingency theory of leadership
As per the contingency theory, importance is given to the leader’s personality and situation. Contingency theory emphasizes how particular conditions impact the effectiveness of a leader. Following this theory, it is believed that a person can be an effective leader in one situation and can be an ineffective leader in other circumstances. Thus, the contingency leadership theory gets influenced by various specific factors. These can be management style, typical work schedule, objectives, company policies, and the relationship between co-workers. For instance, if the relationship between co-workers is quite formal, the contingent leader can adopt hierarchical features within the organization (Yücebalkan, 2018).
It can be reviewed that if there is a situation in the organization where there is enough workload, the new age digital leader can prioritize tasks. The digital leader can schedule the work activities and prioritize tasks as per the urgency and skill of an employee. Thus, it will help in increasing productivity. Furthermore, to make the employees adopt digital change within the organization, the digital leaders need to keep up with the technology. The digital leader should have an adequate understanding of the latest technologies that the organization is about to use (Domeny, 2017).
As the contingent leader performs differently in different situations, some of the digital leadership traits can be adopted while performing this leadership style. For example, a digital leader is focused on being innovative. It is evident that a digital leader will not be capable of leading by example if he cannot experiment, create and use unconventional methods in different situations. The digital leader should be willing to try other management techniques. Apart from this, as per the identification of the problem and scenario, the digital leader can provide support to its employees (Oberer and Erkollar, 2018). A digital leader must have the capability to identify the fears of the employees under various circumstances and help employees deal with them.
Identification of digital leadership traits and self-analysis
Digital leadership traits
A successful digital leader possesses several traits, including innovation, having adversity quotient, and technical skills (Della Corte et. al. 2019). Digital leaders are capable of creating a vision that can serve as a compass for their team members to follow. The vision generates sound digital literacy, thorough investigation and sufficient technological knowledge. The digital leader drives transformation in the organisation by introducing platforms and initiatives that can help achieve expected results. The digital leaders actively monitor and attempt the practices which can exceed business Expectations.
In a nutshell, it can be stated that digital leaders have the capability to think beyond industry boundaries. These leaders do not wait for any uncertainty to bring a technological revolution to the company. They are always searching for better implementation of advanced technologies to enhance their capability. Digital leaders continuously search for gaps in the industries and then come as a bridge through the latest technological innovations. It can be said that one of the most prominent attributes of a digital leader is the adversity quotient.
Apart from the emotional quotient and intelligence quotient, AQ measures the capacity and human resilience to come back. This high AQ helps in better employee retention (Bresciani et. al. 2021). This can be referred to as the score that measures an individual’s ability to deal with their life’s adversities. Digital leaders have this AQ, and thus they can effectively survive in high-pressure situations and deal with unfavourable circumstances.
Self-analysis
To assess my leadership strengths and weaknesses in the context of digital technical leadership, I have used a Diagnostic tool named personality Insight. This tool helped me reveal my psychological inclinations, which helped me analyse the personality characteristics. I adopted this personality insight. I have gained a self-analysis of my strengths and weak areas. I conducted an analysis of my attributes and compared them with the critical digital leadership characteristics. I have identified that the most significant feature of digital leaders is to be strong in adverse situations and effectively manage the condition by digitally transforming it. I have determined that I lack this skill as I get disturbed and hesitate to face negative situations in this context. Thus, I have to develop my confidence to deal with such negative circumstances to sustain high-pressure situations. It is the key area that I am required to develop. Furthermore, considering the key developmental areas in the field of leadership, I score low at managing time and assigning tasks to everyone. I sometimes feel trouble dealing with the works and efficiently prioritising and allot them.
On the contrary, I also identified that I have innovative qualities. I can efficiently analyse the root cause of the issue and generate a reliable and innovative solution. I believe that I can adopt innovative technology solutions to be a digital leader within an organisation as I have the curiosity and a mindset of thinking out of the box.
Furthermore, after evaluating my significant strengths, I identified that I have some digital skills that will help me deal with modern business challenges in the future workplace. For instance, I can use technology to communicate with others effectively. There are a lot of communication tools and software which are trending right now and has become a need for the organisation to adopt in the workplace. I can efficiently implement and work on these tools to track the employees or team members and manage them. I believe that communication is essential to manage the overall performance.
Furthermore, digital tools will also help me in resolving problems. The problem-solving approach is a crucial skill at the workplace. I can use several digital tools to resolve the issue, including using Google, a spreadsheet, or a computer. In addition to this, I can assess the personalities and gain knowledge of the people. This helps me identify the key motivating factors, and thus, this is beneficial in encouraging the employees.
List of Strengths and areas of weaknesses
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| · Innovative approach
· Problem-solving skills with digital tools · Motivating team using technologies · Understanding of digital tools and techniques |
· Lack of Adversity quotient
· Lack of time management skills · Unawareness of software for prioritizing tasks · The low score in managing adverse situations |
Section 2: Leadership Capabilities and Behaviours
Management of geographically dispersed teams
A geographically dispersed team is the distributed workforce over a wide area internationally or domestically (Sultan and Suhail, 2019). The spread and rise of information communication technologies have enabled the increasing use of scattering teams or global virtual team. Practical leadership skills and capabilities are thus essential to manage and lead such groups.
In order to manage a geographically diverse team, it is vital to communicate responsively. Thus, the critical leadership capability is to communicate well. If the group is diverse, then a leader must indulge in responsive communication and make the team aware of the expectation applied to everyone. To operate effectively and efficiently, the team members and leaders are required to be committed to regular communication.
Apart from this, another leadership behaviour is to support connection and team unity. The remote team members generally lack an emotional attachment with their peers and leaders. In this situation, the leaders can facilitate opportunities for connection and engagement. Thus, it can be possible by actively seeking out ideas, recognizing and celebrating accomplishments, and distributing information on a regular basis.
Being a leader of a geographically dispersed group needs an additional measure of patience and flexibility (Bolte et. al. 2018). The leader’s behaviour and actions will set the tone for the remaining team members. Therefore, it is significant for the leader to be patient and flexible. With this, the team members can be encouraged to have a designated workspace, classify schedules and establish a regular work plan. Being tolerant and responsive will help the team members get in touch with the leader and share their challenges.
Another leadership capability required to lead and manage such teams is setting up accountability and measuring adequate progress. While working at a distance, it is possible to lose sight of how the work progresses. In order to avoid this, the leader can establish a structure for daily reporting and updates. The leader can set up a reporting mechanism that will make people accountable for their work, and also, work progress can be measured efficiently.
The leader should have relationship-building or team-building skills. As the team is working towards the same goal, the leaders need to develop and maintain a collaborative group. This will help in resolving conflicts, communicating and fostering active listening.
Another capability required in the leader is to manage the dispersed team is decisiveness. An effective leader is one who makes quick decisions with the available information. Also, the leader should possess every information regarding the team member and his strengths and weaknesses to assign the task and provide training (Wagner, 2018).
Application of role in the practice
Considering myself working as a digital leader in an organization, I am required to have some critical leadership capabilities and skills to perform and manage the dispersed team effectively. In the context of the example mentioned above, it can be said that these behavioural traits and abilities are significant. It can be said that, to lead and guide the team dispersed team is I have to apply effective communication. To prove myself as an effective digital leader, I can ensure that proper and consistent communication should be practised within the team. In this case, I can use modern and latest digital communication tools, including e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing software, and audio notes to be in touch with the team members.
However, it is also evident that I can face critical issues and problems during team management. I can face the case of misunderstandings and errors in the work due to a lack of adequate bonding and relationship among the team members. If the team do not share a good bond, it can affect the overall work (Avidov-Ungar et. al. 2020). Therefore, I can focus on developing a collaborative work environment. As a leader, it is my responsibility to facilitate better relationships among the team members, even if every member is not in a single place. This can be done by considering digital team building tools. Being a digital team leader, I have to organize monthly informal virtual meetups, team quizzes, and multiplayer gaming. I believe that I can manage such a team by being empathetic to the team members, and I should also create an informal relationship with them.
Another challenge I can experience is the form of lack of focus and productivity. It is pretty challenging to manage the workforce remotely and consistently encourage them to stay focused and be efficient and productive. This can also create a sense of unawareness in the team member, affecting work productivity. In order to deal with this issue, I have the opportunity to set clear expectations from every employee, and the team members can themselves keep track of their progress. Other than this, I believe that I have to motivate the team members on a timely basis to feel connected and indulged in the work tasks. I can offer them innovative incentives, interact to identify their challenges and feedback, and appreciate employees during meetings and calls.
Being a digital leader, I am also required to exercise ethical, social, and legal responsibilities in the selected scenario. I can constantly embrace transparency within the team and make ethics the team’s core value. Every technological advancement used within the team should be done in an ethical manner. Being a moral digital leader, I must not discriminate against the team members on any grounds. A socially responsible leader focuses on their own goals and thinks of team development (Zupancic et. al. 2018). Thus, I have to fulfil my social responsibility by helping the team members in their professional development and achieving objectives. Moreover, I must practice or conduct every activity of the team with a duty of care and adhere to the regulations and laws.
Section 3: Business Transformation
While working as a digital leader within a business organization, a critical contemporary issue has been identified, impacting the overall business performance and productivity. This issue has been determined as poor teamwork. There can be several causes of this poor team performance within the organization. Common reasons can be poor communication, ineffective leadership, lack of motivation, lack of training, and poor job fit (Stana et. al. 2018).
Effective teamwork is essential for the company as it improves productivity, innovation and enhances flexibility. This is important as a highly engaged and motivated team demonstrates a significant increase in profitability. Efficient teamwork increases the cooperation among team members, and thus they can learn from each other’s mistakes.
I believe that the company is required to deal with this contemporary issue. Being a digital leader, I can apply business transformation working and increase the performance of this issue. Poor teamwork is a critical challenge for the overall business performance and profitability. As I am working as a digital leader within the organization, it is my responsibility to transform the general working of the team so that this issue can be resolved effectively. To change the working and deal with this issue, I can implement some practical strategies.
- A digital leader understands the significance of inbound data and the business process that contributes to it (McKAY and Jamaludin, 2020). Being a digital technical leader, I value communication, willingness, and creativity to explore the methods that can help a business achieve its goals. I believe that a successful digital leader should be creative and innovative, collaborative, experimental, able to network and curious. Therefore, I look forward to creative thinking, forward-thinking, and keeping track of the industry trends and requirements. Also, I feel that as I am working as a digital leader, I can digitally transform the business process and operations to enhance the effectiveness of teamwork.
- In this business transformation process, several Strategies and steps can be implemented (Sousa and Rocha, 2019). This effective implementation and adoption of the strategies will help cope with various problems and specifically resolve the issue of poor teamwork. Great teamwork is based on the effective structure of the organized process, feedback and collaborative sharing. Usually, the cause of poor collaboration is misunderstandings and communication gaps. Therefore, the first step is to strengthen the communication between the team members. Communication is the key at any workplace. Ensuring a free flow of accurate information within the team will Foster a better culture and, thus, better relationships that lead to effective work. Accordingly, to deal with the issue of communication gap as identified in the workplace, this can be handled with continuous communication and allowing the employees to get to know each other beyond their job roles. In this regard, being a digital leader, I can use various communication tools, including video conferencing. Digital Technologies provides numerous benefits to the team members (Sander, 2020). Consistent communication on video conferencing will also enable better coordination and support from each other.
- Another reason has been assessed as lack of trust. While performing as an efficient digital leader, I am responsible for developing trust between the team members. Therefore, I will transform the business in such a way so that everyone within the team can encourage collaboration and trust among each other. In this regard, everyone within the team will be encouraged to openly communicate and be involved with the organization’s strategic planning process.
- In addition to this, I will develop a culture of accountability and a supportive structure. The issue of low productivity can be resolved with this supporting structure. I will conduct a one-to-one interaction with the team members to identify the problems and performances and help identify their career goals and enhancement possibilities.
- I have examined that some employees face issues in effectively accomplishing the work due to a lack of knowledge and skills. Therefore, I will establish a culture of providing employee training. Several online tools can help the employees in developing their knowledge base. These are learning management systems, learning experience platforms, video training tools, micro-learning platforms, project management and planning tools.
To resolve the identified contemporary issue in the workplace, I can transform the business with these strategies. I believe that I can effectively apply these strategies in the workplace to resolve the performance issue of the team members. Also, utilizing these strategies will benefit the organization. The application of such a technical approach will enhance the employees’ morale, and they will be able to generate more innovative ideas and feedback for the company.
The employees will help identify a lot of opportunities for the company and offer problem-solving approaches. When the efficiency of the employees or team members improves, they will deliver better results and thus contribute to the profitability with high-quality results in a shorter time. When the team members share mutual support, encouragement, goals and cooperation, it will improvise workplace synergy. Thus, there will be numerous benefits for the organization due to this business transformation. Moreover, the resources required for this transformation involve digital assets, access to several training software’s, communication tools, project management software, and team building software.
Section 4 – Personal Development Plan
The development of this plan is required to enhance my competencies of being an effective leader in this digital age. I have assessed my self-developmental areas and thus needs to implement this plan. This will help me in being an effective digital leader in the modern business organisation. I aspire to become an influential digital leader in a well-reputed multinational corporation, and thus I have set out the below objectives. These will help in my future approach to leadership, and these learning activities will help me enhance my career.
| Objective | Goals | Strategies/learning activities | Success criteria | Timescale |
| Developing time managing competency | There is a need to develop time management competency to reduce stress, helping achieve the goals faster and prioritising the work. | To work as a digital leader in the workplace, I have to develop this skill. I can improve my time management skill by learning effective planning, goal setting, auditing and improving the workflows. I can also use several digital tools to create a to-do list and checklist. | My success criteria for this skill will be when I will be able to manage workload in a better manner. | Three months |
| Enhancing knowledge of prioritization and scheduling software | Prioritization is also necessary to keep me motivated and to improve my work productivity. | I am aiming to develop my knowledge base regarding scheduling, planning and prioritising tools. These involve schedule network analysis, critical path method, risk multipliers, Resource Management by the smart sheet and hub planner (Gorton, 2018). | As I feel quite anxious while planning and scheduling work activities and thus, the success parameter can be when I efficiently use these tools. | Five months |
| Developing adversity quotient | I aim to develop a high adversity quotient resulting in first-rate productivity, accomplishments, and creativity. This aids in achieving productivity, performance, innovation and morale (Bach and Sulíková, 2021). | I can consider some steps in improving my adversity quotient by seeing and acknowledging that change is required. I will further take ownership of the situation and apply problem-solving skills to develop an action plan. Furthermore, the last step will be to do or execute the change. | This will be when I will not fear the adverse situations and will effectively face the circumstances and manage them productively. | Six months |
| Gaining knowledge of dealing with complex situations | The current business environment is full of complexities, and being a digital leader, I should know how to deal with difficult situations. Therefore, developing knowledge about such adverse situations will help me in feeling more confident and less stressed. | The learning activities I can undertake to deal with complicated situations can keep my thoughts truthful and balanced. In addition to this, I should evaluate the techniques and tactics I can employ to get better results. Moreover, I should focus less on the problem and should emphasize on resolving for developing solutions. Furthermore, I believe that being realistic is essential. I should keep a check on the industry environment and changes to reduce the risks and possibilities of uncertainties. | The success measure is when I will no longer fear the situation and have the knowledge of techniques to be applied in the specific circumstance. | Two months |
Conclusion
Hence, from the comprehensive study, it can be concluded that digital leadership is the need of the present business environment. The report reveals the self-assessment, and it has been identified that I am good at resolving problems, being innovative and using digital tools and techniques. On the contrary, it has been evaluated that my self-developmental areas are lack of adversity quotient, lack of prioritising tasks, and need to develop time management competency. The report also discloses the importance and strategies required to manage a geographically dispersed team. A digital leader can employ several tools to manage the team effectively. The writing demonstrates a business transformation approach for the digital leader to resolve the biggest contemporary issue of poor teamwork. Thus, it can be summarised that several competencies are required to be a digital leader. A personal development plan has been demonstrated in the study for this purpose which outlines the major goals, learning activities, and time scale.
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