4 Key Qualities and Skills of an Innovative Digital Workplace Leader

It’s clear as day that good leadership in the workplace is an integral part of its success. Not only does it drive the business objectives forward, but it also nurtures good relationships with those who both work for them and with them. Good leadership is a combination of skills and qualities, that most of those who are new to the discipline lack.

In most cases, the skills that landed them the managerial position are not the same skills that are needed for a successful execution thereof. For a better definition of what skills and qualities an innovative digital workplace leader needs to poses, read on.

Strength in delegation

Most new leaders today fall into a mindset of a “loner cowboy”. They are aggressive, try to do everything themselves or micromanage everything possible. A true leader, however, is one who possesses the ability to recognize strengths and flaws in themselves, and in others. Ultimately, they use this knowledge not to transform their own weaknesses, but to form a team where members compensate for each other's flaws.

It’s all about knowing how to delegate when things aren’t going so well. This enables leaders to concentrate their energy on the aspects of the job that are imperative to the company’s expansion. Although a profound knowledge of digital techs is required for certain leaders, for most, it should be garnered and maintained by trusted managers.

Mobility skills

Being mobile is a key quality for any modern professional. The same applies to both leaders and workplaces. This world is changing rapidly, and today's leader and their workforce need to be unchained from the traditional desk and cubicle setups to keep up.

A successful modern leader is able to adapt to any kind of working space, whether it is a coworking space, traditional office space or a home office setup. This boils down to jumping smoothly from a “cubicle mine” to an urban coworking space while still being able to operate efficiently in both environments. A true digital working space enables work to take place regardless of device and location.

Open leadership versus incomplete leadership

To lead in a digital culture requires a shift of the mindset. To move quicker, individuals in the organization need to be empowered in the decision-making process. In other words, they should be able to make decisions more autonomously.

An open leader has trust and flexibility. As such, to lead in the digital workplace is to have a strong guiding vision throughout all digital channels, to encourage ideas and insights at all levels, and to allow for a relatively safe culture of critique. Such a virtual leadership presence is required as employees are rapidly becoming a productive workforce when needed, while leaving behind a history of thoughts, work products, and collaboration efforts when not.

Purpose and passion

Is the organization excited about the digital? If not, then a leader isn't passionate about his work, and the same cannot be expected of the team members. Leadership is about becoming an agent of change when the business is going through a digital transformation. A leader must be able to drive their employees all the way to a radical change and engage their hearts and minds throughout the digital transformation process.

Basically, if a person is invested in such outcomes and has a clear plan to bring them to life, a digital transformation can be a permanent change in the organization, instead of just becoming a passing trend. The manager needs a focused purpose in order to embrace the digital, and not just follow something because everyone else is doing it.

The digital workplace isn’t just about new technology and offices, it’s about how we interact with one another and work together toward a certain goal. With that said, individuals who aren’t able to adapt to the changing environment are likely to fail as modern leaders, since technology has become a conduit which facilitates collaboration, findability, communication, and culture that make up the digital workplace.