Digital Leadership During Crisis: Challenges and Change, Tech and Tenacity

You can learn a lot from a leader, especially during times of crisis when leaders are put to the test and must guide others through uncertainty.

Digital skills, quite possibly, are in higher demand than ever before. Leaders stand out from the pack with digital confidence, digital literacy and digital-era behaviors. Today, that means strongly contributing to technology-rich talk, proficiency in technology content as it applies to the role and quickly pivoting behaviors as emerging digital context calls for.

Currently, our country is fighting a threatening battle: COVID-19 or coronavirus.

The COVID-19 challenge is “facing the leadership of practically every organization in the world, from governments to Fortune 500 companies, to the smallest nonprofit,” The New York Times reports. “They are now managing their teams through a crisis with no clear end in sight.”

Let’s revisit those aforementioned digital skills at the leadership level: Digital confidence, digital literacy and digital-era behaviors.

Are today’s leaders mastering these skills as we’re fighting the worldwide COVID-19 crisis inside -- and outside -- our organizations?

“’Digital leadership’ …became a critical skill for all of us to learn in the fast-moving and constantly clanging fight,” the Times says. “At the height of the Iraq war, a vast majority of interactions were by video conference. We became the military’s ultimate remote workforce.”

Today’s leaders must echo that movement, especially as more and more work, communication, interaction and management will be done via digital tools and technology, and the culture must be stronger than ever.

“It’s harder to express sympathy through a computer screen, harder to deliver nuanced criticism when not in person, harder to read tone and body language,” according to the Times. “You can and must learn these skills, but it will take focus and effort. If you embrace it, you can form a new and stronger culture.”

The people leading in today’s organizations have adaptive, growth mindsets and the ability to act fast in an instant, without notice, based off of their behavioral traits, competencies, and drivers. The digital age calls on leaders to make new, challenging decision and responding properly is the key to ensuring success for their people and the organization as a whole, no matter how alarming and stressful the challenge might be.

“Believe in yourself and your people, show confidence in your organization’s ability to adapt, and you will come through the crisis stronger than might seem possible today,” the Times writes. “We are now weathering a once-in-a-hundred year event, and American are hurt - physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually.”

“Leaders at all levels in society need to embrace the changes this crisis brings rather than struggle against it. Your people need you. This is your moment, and you can rise to it.”

As American businesses work to overcome the COVID-19 challenges, management must develop digital skills, agile mentalities and behaviors to lead change and grow during a digital age of unpredictable events.

Join Korn Ferry, a leading organizational consulting firm, and their recently acquired business, Strategy Execution, a leader in holistic curriculum in both technical and leadership skills, for a webcast on Thursday, April 2 at 3 p.m. EDT to learn best-in-class talent profiles for leading in the digital organization. REGISTER ONLINE to reserve your “digital seat.”