According to The Global Leadership Forecast 2018, “organizations with digitally savvy leaders, the pioneers, are outperforming those organizations with less digitally capable leaders, the laggards.” The report, co-authored by DDI, The Conference Board and EY, warns that those without digital capabilities are less likely to identify the opportunities across the organization to advance technology for continued competitive advantage and greater differentiation. Their survey of over 1,000 executives revealed, however, that only 22% of respondents consider themselves among the savvy.

If you do not considering yourself (or your team) digitally savvy, what should you aspire to and how can you advance yourself and your team? To assist in your focused read on becoming a digital-era leader, I’m offering the following quick skim in advance of your download of this 62 page report (which I highly recommend).

“Digital-Era Leadership: Ready Or Not, Digital Competence is Already Differentiating Winners from Losers” (Page 12)

This article identifies 16 leadership competencies, 6 of which drive digital progress and performance:

• Lead with digitization – look to standardize and automate processes to generate new insights to leverage for differentiated capabilities.
• Adaptability – adapt to constant change and keep learning every day.
• Execution – turn new ideas into reality.
• Hyper-collaboration – work relentlessly to break down silos to gain collaboration in solving company and client issues.
• Identify and develop new talent – aggressively identify and hire digitally savvy talent.
• A 360 view – identify patterns and generate thoughts from multiple perspectives

This article links digital readiness directly to financial performance, suggesting that the most digitally savvy leaders (top 25% of respondents) are leading companies that are financially outperforming those of ‘average’ digital readiness by 50%.

Why? Data included in the next article, “Accelerating the Digital Journey”(page 15), indicates that digital pioneer leaders are more likely to act decisively despite speed of change and lack of predictability and are far more likely to use data to guide decisions as they are more likely operating in digital environments.

Furthermore, organizations in a ‘high state of digital maturity’ are reported to have a very agile, data driven, future focused, experimental mindset and strong culture.

In this article, you will gain insights into 3 work environments that uniquely develop strong digital leaders.

Lastly, “Leading with Data-Driven Decisions: The Culture and Skills Driving Higher Returns on Data” (page 16) reflects upon 5 cultural factors that make data-savvy organizations unique.

I recommendation of this week’s download as it is both thought provoking and data driven. The survey seeks to reflect issues of leadership across the globe, revealing concerns that transcend industry and geography. My mission for Research & Trends is to bring you the most recent and applicable reports, studies and webinars – and when lengthy, break them down here to make your reading most efficient!

-Your Research & Trends Curator, Pam Simpson