What is digital leadership

In the study mentioned, Tobias Greff (AWS Institute for Digital Products and Processes) and I (Lindner and Greff 2018) looked at over 30 definitions of the digital leader. Together we came up with the following definition:
Digital leadership is a cross-sectional competence and a collective term for various methods, theories and tools that describe leadership and, in particular, leadership competence in the digital age (Lindner and Greff 2018).
Reading tip: What is digital leadership

What are the CHALLENGES of a digital leader?

As already mentioned in the study by Lindner and Greff (2018): Leadership, like leadership research, has always been subject to permanent change. What characterizes a manager is dealing with new challenges (Wiendick & Wiswede 1990). Leadership behavior is shaped by learning processes, self-reflection, lived vision and adaptation as well as changing framework conditions (Enste et al. 2013). One example is Taylorism, in which it was the task of the manager to achieve the maximum efficiency of employees and machines. It continued with new topics such as the increasing number of women, which sparked a gender-specific leadership discussion, or globalization, which triggered a discussion about diversity-oriented leadership. Managers are now facing increasing digitization. This has numerous challenges. In a round table Tobias Greff and I asked 6 managers about their current challenges. These are:

• Generational conflict / digital maturity of the individual
• Remote and distance guidance
• Agile team leadership

To explain: Digital maturity means that some employees like to use a lot of technology and other employees even refuse to use it. A manager must therefore lead employees individually according to the digital maturity level
There is no question that all employees work in the same place. This increases the need for a virtual tour by phone, video or email. The number of so-called agile teams (e.g. Scrum), which can no longer be successfully managed using conventional methods, is also increasing.

How can a digital leader master digitization?

In the study by Lindner and Greff, 66 executives were asked about the current approaches to solving the three challenges mentioned above. The results can be found extensively in the study, but I would like to quote a few of the recommendations for action.

Generation management (from Lindner and Greff 2018)

• Understand: Generation X, Y and Z stand for employees in three phases of digital affinity – beginners, advanced and digital natives. It is recommended to build up knowledge about the individual generations.
• Evaluate individually: Not every employee can be clearly classified into a generation or an older employee is not always a newcomer to digitization.
• Use acceptance: New flexible work concepts are generally valued across generations and thus offer the ideal starting point.
• Employee orientation: Generation management does not replace individual leadership, but it does offer guidance.
• Reading tip: What is generation management

Remote and distance guidance (from Lindner and Greff 2018)

• Create awareness: According to the study, virtual leadership skills are becoming increasingly important. More than 90% of employees are permanently available digitally. In more than 55% of the cases, a virtual tour is mandatory.
• Coach & motivate employees: The motivation of the employees in a virtual employment relationship and the coaching are regarded as one of the most important tasks of the manager.
• Concrete goals: It is recommended to control virtual teams via goals. Regular status reports are useful as an instrument for target correction.
• Clear distribution of roles: In a virtual team, the stable distribution of roles and working according to the pull principle could relieve a manager.
• Employees trust: According to the participants, virtual leadership is based on trust. It can be assumed that the larger the work packages, the more trust is required.
• Reading tip: What is e-leadership

Agile team leadership (from Lindner and Greff 2018)

• Skills : There is a common understanding that a digital leader should have social, technological and visionary skills that can be trained.
• Characteristics are : Promote leadership at eye level, trust in employees, experiments and inspiration as well as agility and participation.
• Competencies are : the knowledge of new trends, agile methods, new work concepts, new technologies and new markets.
• Reading tip: Agile leadership

Conclusion

A digital leader is characterized by dealing with current challenges in the course of digital change. Using the example of three selected challenges, I have given tips and hints for solving these in this article.
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Digitization is changing people and markets. It causes disruptive upheavals in entire industries, creates new digital-centric companies and requires established companies to make considerable efforts to cope with the transformation activities associated with these digitization processes. New procedural models have to be learned, tried and tested thought patterns have to be broken and, last but not least, innovation activities have to be understood as continuous necessities. At the same time, there are significant opportunities in digital business to renew competitive advantages, improve existing process structures and realign your own products, services and business models (Source: Digital Business Leadership von Kreuzer et al.).

In the aforementioned book: Digital Business Leadership, three very exciting questions were asked, which I would like to list here and which I would also like to try to answer in the course of the article:

• • What distinguishes digital business leadership and how can this be achieved?

• • But how can the necessary changes be made in an existing organization?

• Which new concepts need to be conveyed, which conventional principles throw overboard?

What is digital business leadership

By digital business leadership, Kreuzer means maintaining market leadership in the new digital market. According to the authors, many companies will not survive and in a so-called digital darwinimus go under. This is shown by the following quote: Many companies have already perished in the struggle for survival of digital Darwinism. Print products such as the Financial Times Deutschland and the Frankfurter Rundschau have been withdrawn from the market and have thus already been sorted out by the readers or their importance has been massively reduced. Universal mail order companies like Quelle and Neckermann were blown out of life. The multi-channel company Weltbild was also caught off guard by the online challenge and shaken to its foundations.
Cruiser et. All mean changing a business model through the new technological possibilities and the change of customer requests up to the opening up of completely new markets. In order to achieve this, however, important levers must be changed in companies.

Changes in organizations

A business model from the perspective of digital business leadership corresponds in character to a strategic business model. It represents the basic logic of a (digital) company, which describes which benefit is created in which way for customers and partners and makes statements about how this benefit should be generated, said Kreuzer and the other authors in their book. One possibility to implement such models is the so-called lean startup model.

As early as 2011, Eric Ries showed in the illustration above that precise future planning for a product is no longer possible. Rather, today’s times require a quick release of the respective business model in order to be able to collect data after the market launch that can flow into the further development of the business model. Before the release, on the other hand, you can only make assumptions, which may result in significant additional effort in rework. Take a look at that Book by Eric Ries. Also read my article on agile product development .

digital business models for digital business leadership

But what are such new business models? What are the characteristics of a digital business model? Here is the definition of Capital.de: A digital business model is first and foremost a transaction that is processed using digital technologies. A transaction is the exchange of a service and a consideration that takes place between a requesting and a supplying system according to precise rules across a defined technical interface. The transaction must not be a one-time and random process, but must be able to be repeated.
These digital models do not work with 1: 1 transmission. Capital.de here are some examples: The principles of how value is created and captured differ significantly in digital models from those in traditional and conventional business models. A rental video library like Empire has a completely different business model than Netflix’s video-on-demand model, although the range of services is similar from the user’s point of view. The arrangement of taxi rides via an app is a different model than the arrangement via a radio control center, even if taxis are ordered in both cases.
Establishing digital business models is also a task of a digital leader and not an easy one. There are already numerous examples on the market and it is important to find your own model that fits your own company. A best practice is lean startup to find this quickly and cheaply. Here are the links to the books as well:

• Cruiser et. al – book – Digital Business Leadership
• Eric Ries – book – Lean startup

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Tasks of the CDO

In their study, Walchshofer and Riedl examined the various tasks of the CDO on the basis of job advertisements. So both state: The CDO is responsible for developing the digital strategy responsible. This strategy is derived from the corporate strategy and should be implemented by the CDO and anchored in the company. Farther he is responsible for controlling and checking the change. It should develop and derive new business models and check them for feasibility.

The central task of the CDO is also to create efficient structures. By digitizing and simplifying business processes, a higher process speed is to be achieved and agility ensured (Walchshofer and Riedl). In addition, both authors identify tasks such as: maintaining internal and external networks as well as external representation, changing the corporate culture and managing employees.

Requirements for the CDO

Walchshofer and Riedl find that an economic or technical degree is often required. Knowledge in sub-areas of business such as personnel management, processes and marketing as well as in areas of IT is required. Essential basic knowledge is required here. Experience in digitization projects is often mentioned as an important factor.
In addition, there are the usual soft skills such as empathy, frustration tolerance and leadership experience. In this way, a Chief Digital Officer should be able to better implement the necessary changes in the company.

Conclusion: CIO and CDO?

At the end of the study, Walchshofer and Riedl draw a conclusion as to whether the CDO and the CIO are the same or not. So both say: You can see that there are significant overlaps in terms of both tasks and requirements. However, it also becomes transparent that specific to CDO and CIO Tasks exist. It is also noticeable that there are no requirements for the CIO that are not also relevant for the CDO.
The following text passage can be found in the conclusion of the study: In summary, the work of the CDO can be described as overriding (in the sense of more strategic) compared to that of the CIO. The person works across functions and the focus is on digitization and the digital transformation of the company.
At the end, the question is also asked whether a CDO will now be established permanently or whether it will only remain a short-term topic. The question remains: What does a Chief Digital Officer do?
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How realistic is democracy in companies?

The authors of the book first assessed the feasibility of democracy in companies and came to the conclusion that this form appears attractive and realistic. The study was carried out among 1,000 employees. However, there is strong interest in this rather young idea (democracy in companies).

What is preventing companies from doing this?

On the basis of the survey, the author now turns to the possible obstacles for democratic companies. The top barriers, according to this study, seem to be: transparency, equity participation, and choice. Of course, the result is on the one hand logical, since classic companies and societies such as the AG are simply not made for democratically electing superiors. According to the author, a fundamental structural change is necessary here.

How do democratic companies “live”?

Many companies are already considering what such a democracy could look like. A thesis that is often given in various sources is: “Digital technologies facilitate co-determination”. Can the future look like this: employees choose managers, vote on new products, decide on working hours and customers? This topic is currently still highly controversial and offers space for further research. The fact is, however, that the current generation seems to have “no fancy” for outside control and, thanks to digital technologies, coordination processes are now also easy. The CEO of Microsoft Germany said: “We used to look for employees who do what we say, today we are looking for employees who do what we don’t say.” He sees this as a success factor, as decisions are often made too slowly. However, it remains open how and whether this type of democracy can contribute to the sustainability of companies. We are still at the beginning of our research and it will be exciting to see what findings will emerge.
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More humanity in management

According to the authors, successful organizations display a mature and humane culture. A paradigm shift from management X to management Y is taking place. Management Y serves the employee. People are not lazy, they are ready to make good contributions to something big. Living Management Y fundamentally changes our image of man from authority to serving management. Brandes et al. see the management of an organization as critical success factors and demand: “ Human maturity in key positions in the organization as a success factor for future viability “.

Organizations as social systems

Let’s take a look at the overall concept. “Bringing organizations to life together” is what the authors say and calling for a different understanding of organizations in order to shape, control and “revive” them. The authors put forward the thesis: “Leadership as a host” in an organization. We also see the Scrum approaches and the honest enthusiasm of employees. I like to compare this approach to sociocracy. Generation Y, to which I also belonged, needs incentives, i.e. meaning in everything they do. Companies must therefore honestly inspire employees through creating meaning and the defined purpose of the company. What I particularly like at the end of the book is that the authors are open and say: “Every organization can be attractive and sustainable”. I agree with the authors here and no matter which one Framework for agility You use: All seem to lead to success in their own way. Also read the articles about Holocracy and Democracy in Business . So there is still plenty of room for further research into how each of these frameworks can actually be implemented and what type of company it is suitable for.
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The agile company

In principle, the agile company is a company that has committed itself to striving to adhere to the agile principles. In terms of research, it is also a company that is agile outside of IT. An overview of agile departments see another article on my blog. However, agility is not yet precisely defined and so I try to define the term more precisely and clearly in the course of my research. But in short: an agile company is ready to scale classic agility and its principles in the company.

What does holocracy mean?

Robertson’s (2015) concept is currently on everyone’s lips. It regulates the management of organizations despite transparency, which makes it possible to get involved at all levels. It puts the purpose of the organization first, not profit. Robertson shows impressively how managers in a holocracy do not assume the position and the pompous status of the manager, but the role and the responsibility of the manager.
I don’t want to just use the next definition from Robertson’s book ( here is the current Amazon link ), but try to use the interviews that arose in the course of the research to explain the holocracy using the example of the illustration by Pfläging (2014, p. 59). As a reading tip: Pfläging published 2014 “ Organizations in Complexity “and the 2nd part in 2015: Complexity methods . Imagine a small 8-person consulting house.

At the center of this little holocracy we have a leadership group that controls all activities and problems. Anyone who wants to get involved in the company can take part in it and play a role there. Various other roles have been set up around the management team, B. the business developer or the consultant. These roles can consist of one or more people and change constantly. If there is an effect from outside, i.e. from the customer, the respective group (the persons concerned) takes a corresponding reaction and makes a decision about it autonomously and independently. The customer would like B. award a new order and person X changes from the role of Consultant to the role of Sales. If desired, the management team can now support this person (e.g. looking for a suitable employee). As soon as the situation has been resolved, this person takes on the role of IT consultant again. However, a new group has now formed, which consists of 2 people (person X and the new consultant for the job) and is clearly assigned to the customer. This model is illustrated again in the abstract in the illustration by Robertson (2015, p. 64). So we have different circles in the company that deal with a specific topic that helps the organization. The entire organization is also to be understood as a circle. Aside from the circles, there are many different roles. As an employee, I can be in several circles and always contribute something to the purpose of the organization.
In this way, the company is controlled dynamically and is primarily oriented towards the purpose of the organization. Roles replace positions and hierarchy, and there is a lively structure above rigid organizational charts. So we are always able to change our current organization and react to any changes. We already know this shape from somewhere, right? Exactly – from biology. The holocracy is made up of different circles called holons that enclose other things. In a holon there are several molecules (roles) and a molecule has several atoms. The atoms and molecules in a holon do not change, but they can develop new properties through a new combination. This has worked in nature for millions of years. Just imagine that these molecules first have to ask a management whether they are allowed to reunite.
Reading tip: Extensive article on Holacracy and Sociocracy

Agile companies and holocracy

Holocracy and agility have a lot in common – the former can in any case be seen as one of the agile frameworks. However, the model is still very abstract and requires some observation and use case formation. In the course of my research, I will report on it further at this point. The focus is primarily on practical examples for implementation. An absolute reading tip for you is the book “ Reinventing Organizations “. Here, the author examines how organizations have developed over the past 50 years and what stage we are now at. I also have the key messages in discussed in another article and compared to the concept of holocracy.
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What actually is a shortage of skilled workers?

Wikipedia says: As Skilled workers shortage This describes the state of an economy in which a significant number of jobs cannot be filled for employees with certain skills because there are no suitably qualified employees (skilled workers) available on the labor market. So is there currently a shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies?

No shortage of young professionals

If you look at current studies, there is actually a shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies not among young professionals, but especially in the senior sector. Also places like Big data experts and Industry 4.0 Experts, which are increasingly new professions, cannot be filled because there are simply not enough people.
It is also clear that companies like to hire people who can be deployed directly to the customer because they have already worked there. Training costs a lot of energy and money and companies are happy to forego these costs.
The example of consulting companies shows this quite clearly: the company’s major customer always has a need for new consultants. That means that every qualified consultant finds a place there immediately; which means that these companies hire for the whole year as soon as a good candidate applies.

Traditional HR under fire – skills shortage in medium-sized companies

The shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies costs according to the BVMW around 33 billion euros in lost sales or unrealized sales annually. Medium-sized companies react to this with a sustainable personnel strategy: The most important HR policy issue at the moment is to retain good employees. 63 percent of companies attach great or very great importance to employee loyalty. Preventing employee turnover even has a higher priority than recruiting new employees: At 45 percent, recruiting is only the fifth most important topic in medium-sized HR departments (source BVMW ).

How applicants are ripping off HR

In the Haufe magazine Prof. Dr. Kanning in his column : “How applicants rubbish HR” examines what actually happens in job interviews.

In many companies, the selection of personnel has the character of a stage play in which the advisory literature provides the script: the applicant knows what information to convey in his cover letter – exceptional suitability, high motivation, enthusiasm for a unique employer – and the company believes in to be able to recognize a good candidate from such a cover letter (source Prof. Dr. Kanning)

It shows that applicants are very well prepared for standard processes and know exactly what companies want to hear. As a result, the same processes are carried out over and over again, which always lead to the same candidates. He sums it up well with the following quote:

In the assessment center there is almost certainly a group discussion and all applicants scratch their hooves to be the first to run to the flipchart and structure the meeting.

Recommended action for agile HR: authentic and honest

This article got me thinking. If you look into the Brand one, you can find in the current special task “Consulting “the following: Who would have thought? Entire generations of HR professionals conjured up people; They observed and marveled at him, measured and weighed him, rewarded and punished him, placed him at the center of all their efforts – and in the end saw him more as a troublemaker than the focus. And now that we’re all just talking about technology, digitization, artificial intelligence, new tools and transformations, now of all times people have come back into focus. And this time we can’t get past him.
Especially the work in consulting and in medium-sized companies is based on people and a medium-sized company can often not offer as much in terms of money as a large corporation. I often had conversations with companies myself, and the same thing was kept coming back to me: exciting projects, well-known customers, great colleagues and short decision-making paths. After about 10 conversations, I asked myself: When will something new come? The tenor around me is also similar:

The jobs are all kind of the same. You are somewhere in IT, you are put to a customer all year round and you work there. Then you see each other again for the Christmas party. I don’t really care whether it’s company X or Y (respondent in the course of the article).

Application process vs. a casual conversation

However, one day I met companies that were different. Somehow more unprofessional, but authentic and honest. The interviews were more like a cup of coffee and an exchange of hobbies. The reason was: The tasks are so diverse that it is important what the applicant is willing to learn and how motivated he is. In practice, the current skills were mostly of secondary importance in the long term.

Work with us! We are flexible!

The arguments why you should work here were also different: They were companies that argued not with customers or teams, but with flexible work, home office and the compatibility of side projects and long trips. There was increasing internal attempt to renegotiate contracts with customers in order to provide a more agile environment.

Offer applicants added value

I think such behavior can be described as agile HR. An HR that understands the applicants of Generation X, Y, Z. What does he really want? Does he really want to travel in great planes with the Samsonite suitcase or does he just want to work one day in the home office every Friday? Medium-sized companies should reflect on values and try out concepts such as “Bring your own device”. You do not believe that a main argument for many of my respondents was to work on a Macbook instead of Windows.

Many service providers per customer

It’s about understanding the applicant and really offering them added value, why they should work for this medium-sized company. Many companies have their employees work for a large customer. However, this also includes many other service providers to which the employee can quickly switch and sometimes do the same job for more money. Agile HR must therefore find individual arguments that speak for its own company.

Tips for a more agile HR

I would like to conclude this article with some tips from Prof. Dr. Kanning, which go in a similar direction underpin. Companies can establish more agile HR, …

• … by realizing that compliance with formal standards when examining application documents says next to nothing about the suitability of an applicant;
• … by not asking pre-cut questions in the interview, but specifically addressing the requirements of the respective job;
• … by simulating real work situations in the assessment center and working with job-specific evaluation criteria and
• by no longer believing that they can intuitively recognize the right candidate even in poor selection processes.

In an article on Business insider Finally, I also found a nice quote. The author is frustrated that it is difficult for young professionals to find a job because they are always looking for long professional experience or high performers. She writes at the end of her post:

Be realistic at last! Invest in people who would like to work for you, pay them decently and you will get loyal, adaptive employees who will not go to the competition at the next better opportunity, but who are genuinely interested in learning from you and growing with you (Julia von Pidoll).

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Employee autonomy while maintaining controllability and control

A special component that is required of executives should be trust. That’s right, because permanent control is demotivating. Nevertheless, a manager must also maintain constructive control so that activities take place in accordance with the company’s goals. This balancing act is one of the most difficult. Köffer and Urbach (2016) have already examined this in detail in the context of IT and say about maintaining control:
In particular, IT compliance studies emphasize the need for companies to have and maintain control over the use of technology in the workplace. Such a control is indispensable anyway for security-critical industries. Anyone who threatens formal sanctions for IT compliance violations must be able to discover them and sanction them accordingly. Employees who realize that a policy violation has no negative consequences are more likely to maintain their behavior.
On the other hand, however, they criticize too large a set of rules and find that they are no longer optimal in the context of digital change.
“One-size does not fit all”. This phrase turns up in the literature related to it Research fields of the digital knowledge workplace. He illustrates that approaches that treat all knowledge workers equally are increasing are insufficient. Instead, many studies call for an individual design of digital knowledge jobs.

Guildelines for Leadership 4.0

So how does leadership manage such a balancing act? I have included a few tips in various articles and also included a few things in my roundtable. In the following I show these as bullet points:

• Due to the diversity of generations and globalization, a higher understanding of diversity is important, which managers need to promote
• Results are what count, not the process! This rethinking is required of managers
• Networking employees across departmental boundaries is becoming increasingly important for a common understanding
• In a modern management culture, opportunities and leeway are created instead of specifications
• Leadership has to guide you and give way to creating visions
• Appreciation and meaning for the individual employee becomes important
• Managers should also reflect on themselves and constantly improve

Situational leadership 4.0

A modern, digital working world (Work 4.0) is emerging, with virtual teams, new tools, digital offices and more agile working methods. This demands more personal responsibility and greater media skills from employees. Managers have to create an appropriate working environment and select the right models – as a key requirement for the long-term success of their company, according to Innovation Evangelists .

One approach for Leadership 4.0 could be situational leadership. The aim of situational leadership is to recognize and exploit the potential of each individual employee. Based on the respective maturity level of the employee, a certain leadership style should be practiced Portal anleiten.de If you want to know more about it, read mine Article on situational leadership . In total, however, there are three steps to choosing the right leadership method:

• Identify the level of maturity of the employee
• Select guidance method
• Test and improve leadership method

Five types of leaders

In addition to this situational guidance, according to the study, the Innovation Evangelists classify five types of managers. I have quoted the following paragraphs from the PDF in the link.
1. “Traditionally protective care” The traditional management culture gives its employees security and is aimed at the long-term stabilization of the company and jobs. Expertise and natural authority are the hallmarks of a traditional leader. Through her role model function, she wins the loyalty of her employees.
2. “Tax by numbers” The aim of this management culture is to maximize profit and return. Here the managers should succeed in organizing the employees in such a way that the company generates the highest possible profits. By means of a sophisticated strategy, target management and number-based controlling, the company is to be brought forward in the competition for the greatest profits. The overriding goal: attractive returns for capital owners.
3. “Coaching of cooperative teamwork” The transparency of knowledge and information, the reflection on it in the team and the use of the resulting internal and cross-company synergy potentials are the result of networked and flexible structures. A high degree of diversity brings different perspectives and perspectives into the development processes – but it also requires managers to be able to moderate conflicts and create room for maneuver.
4. “Stimulation of network dynamics” Initiative and personal responsibility should be encouraged by networking among employees. Hierarchy takes a back seat as a mode of interaction between managers and employees. Instead, this leadership culture relies on cooperation, flexibility and dynamism. In this way, the complexity of the markets should also be taken into account: Here it is important to react flexibly. This can only be achieved with flexible network structures in companies and corporate management.
5. “Solidarity with Stakeholder Action” Solidarity and the balance of different interests are lived in the value-based management culture. The employees are motivated by the meaningfulness of their task, appreciation, freedom in their daily work and the opportunity to participate. The central goal of this management culture is to balance all stakeholder interests

Conclusion: Leadership 4.0

Leadership 4.0 is becoming more dynamic and complex. That’s what it says Manager magazine : Depending on the team composition or the workload of an employee, it must be decided again and again which manager is responsible for selection and supervision in a specific case. The disciplinary manager or the technical superior? Just as complex: Who is allowed to give which – own or external – employees instructions regarding the place, time and content of the activity?
Also represents that Manager magazine furthermore some exciting questions: Who monitors the employee with regard to the content, quality and quantity of the work? And when a computer has put the team together: Who is responsible for selection errors, should the employee cause damage and liability? So it goes on cheerfully: employees of a transnational uniform working group could be subject to different legal systems; Differences in pay within the team raise questions. From a legal point of view, there is not always a clear answer to these seemingly banal questions alone.
Overall, it shows that we still have many unanswered questions in the area of leadership 4.0. But one thing is clear: Something will change and there are already first approaches for managers. It is currently important to simply try out these approaches and to interpret them in small steps and to implement those that work.
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Definition of e-leadership

Electronic leadership or e-leadership does not describe a specific management approach, but specific contextual conditions of leadership and associated special ones Requirements for leadership strategies. This chapter does not use a individual management concept presented, but several management strategies discussed,  that are suitable for electronically mediated collaboration (Hertel and Lauer).
Also delivers  Draws one  E-leadership definition: Management takes place in organizations on various hierarchical levels and ranges from top management to middle management to department and team management. Compared to classic leadership, which is mainly realized in direct face-to-face interaction, e-leadership differs in particular in terms of it  the parameters: digitality, leadership and performance.

E-leadership in a nutshell

The definitions are quite similar. It means, for example, that a team leader increasingly communicates with his partners and employees through electronic media. He’s sitting almost like in a small virtual cell.

 Digital self-organization

Organizations as we know them are often typical  Equipped with top-down processes. Now this is giving way to digital self-organization. So Drawshardt says: A look into practice shows that digitality is increasingly leading to a traditional understanding of hierarchical organizational structures changing and legitimizing power being weakened or even reversed. Some modern executives in the digital economy even deliberately forego legitimation power in order to encourage their employees to perform. A vivid example of such an e-leader is WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. His employees work mobile and project-based without any time or space restrictions: There are no offices, no fixed working hours and internal communication takes place via the company’s own chat system and blogs.
This is exactly what my picture above shows. Such tool landscapes in particular can also promote grassroots democracy in the company, according to Konstruhardt. It was similar to you in mine Article with Dr. Andreas Zeuch discussed.  Swarm intelligence is also possible through digital technologies and networking. Of course, there are also risks, including the misuse of the transparency of these technologies. More on that in mine Articles about the digital workplace .

E-leadership in practice

How is e-leadership designed in practice? What skills and behaviors does such an e-leader need? I found the following at Hertel and Lauer. So this is how these digital leaders should behave to meet the definition above. These are recommendations as to which executives should help.

• Change from a directive to a participatory and supportive attitude among managers.
• Increasing importance of socio-emotional relationship management; among other things for the timely detection of undesirable developments.
• Promotion of independence of employees, also in terms of responsible self-management.
• Media literacy, in particular with regard to electronic communication media; It’s not just about how different tools work technically, but above all about what their socio-emotional effects can be; ie how and when they should be used sensibly.
• Interest in technological developments and openness to new forms of work – not at any price, but after carefully weighing up time and costs (also for employees) and potential profits.

Conclusion: e-leadership is still in its infancy

Currently, e-leadership is still in its infancy and we have to see whether this term really catches on or whether it becomes digital leadership. But here too, according to Hertel and Lauer: The rapid development and differentiation of new forms of work requires very flexible management strategies that differ depending on the type and characteristics of virtuality  seem to make sense.
In the end, Laudon sums it up very well: To the same extent that digitization is completely turning the business models of traditional industries upside down, the understanding of the leadership and management skills behind them must also change. In addition to the modified professional approach, the new competence requirements for leadership behavior should be given the same importance.
Therefore, according to Laudon, the following is recommended  Questions to ask:

• How do I “disturb” a complacent resting in the status quo?
• Do I approach each task with a clear agenda of things that need to be done better and done differently?

You can tell that something is changing. This change is favored by digital technologies and we are talking about a digital change that also affects leadership. E-leadership deals with one aspect of change: namely the increasing networking via mobile technologies, which leads to digital leadership or e-leadership. Here are links to the two books used:

• • Hertel and Lauer: Future of Leadership

• Laudon: HR excellence
• Konstruhardt: Success factor performance management

Der Beitrag What does e-leadership mean? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In the course of my research, I examined the term with over 60 executives. For me (Lindner 2019) the term is defined as follows: “Digital leadership is a cross-sectional competence as well as a collective term for various methods, theories and tools that describe leadership and, in particular, leadership competence in the digital age”

But what exactly is different about this tour in the digital world. Already that Research project of the Crisp noted the following:

A number of high expectations are projected onto the new generation of executives. In addition to a large number of desired characteristics, the digital leader primarily maintains a constructive and continuous exchange with his own IT department, actively informs himself about IT innovations and thinks disruptively with a view to new processes and business models.

Challenges of digital leadership

Leadership has always dealt with the size of executives with societal and entrepreneurial challenges. The so-called digital age or digitization is a new challenge. But the challenges facing leadership are complex and numerous and can quickly become overwhelming.

In order to shed more light on this, I discussed in a roundtable with 7 executives the challenges that digitization brings with it. The result can be seen in the following figure. The source can be found under Lindner and Greff (2019).

On the one hand, agile teams and methods are increasing, especially in IT. More and more managers are confronted with agile teams and are considering what a new type of leadership could look like.

On the other hand, current executives expect a clash of generations. The digitally reserved Generation X already meets the digitally influenced Generation Y. In addition, both will meet the completely digital Generation Z. Not each of these generations can be managed with the same methods and so a balancing act is required for the digital leader.

In addition, remote work and virtual teams are increasing, which is accompanied by management at a distance with virtual software tools. It is not clear how this can currently be implemented in a target-oriented manner by executives.

The last challenge is changing traditional business models and the associated change management, which must essentially be controlled by executives.

Challenge 1: Agile Leadership / Agile Teams

“Agility is defined as the ability of an individual or object to react flexibly to requirements and to adapt to its environment” (Lindner and Leyh 2018). It can therefore be assumed that leadership in an agile context is flexibly tailored to the employee or the work environment (Lindner and Greff 2018).

TIP: Take a look at the free PDF list with the recommended actions for the article

An agile value image

Agile leadership is a mindset and a personal attitude of the manager. So that you can understand this, I had over 60 managers create a value map based on slide rules. In the figure you can see how an agile mindset should look like according to the executives. This can serve as a guideline for you in everyday life.

Leadership methods and agility

Leadership has been around for a long time and there are numerous concepts around agile leadership , digital leadership and classical leadership in the sense of Taylorism (Command and Control). I would like to bring you closer to the individual methods in more concrete terms.

The challenge is: Use all leadership methods sensibly at the right time.

In my research I came across 9 leadership styles, which should cover 90% of the possible behaviors of a manager. I roughly differentiate the styles between the type of eye level and the autonomy for the employee.

Reading tip: Here you can find out more about the management methods

In an agile context, a manager should use management methods that are individually tailored to each employee. The idea of agile leadership is very simple but difficult to implement: You have to respond to the needs of the individual employees and adapt the leadership styles.

The new employee, for example, needs a more detailed briefing because he or she does not yet know his way around and is unsure of his tasks. On the other hand, a colleague who already has the necessary experience would have more personal responsibility. Depending on the need for autonomy or eye level, you use different leadership styles for each task.

TIP: Take a look at the free PDF list with the recommended actions for the article

Challenge 2: Maturity-oriented leadership of the generations

An essential difference between the generations is a differentiated average digital affinity. Ciesielski and Schutz (2016) continue these considerations and examine the differences between the generations in attitudes towards the world of work. The following table shows the generational characteristics.

Reading tip: Generation management

In the literature as well as in the roundtable, digital maturity was closely linked to the generations (Lindner and Greff 2018). Of course, it can be ruled out that this always applies in practice, but this should be retained in this blog article due to the simplification. The picture is from my study (Lindner and Greff 2018).

Up until a few years ago, the working world was largely adapted to the needs of Generation X (e.g. strict separation of work and private life). It is therefore important to evaluate which work models in which generation could guarantee a high level of satisfaction and thus a high level of motivation in completing the work (Lindner and Greff 2018).

Create workspaces for generations

Not every employee wants to work completely digitally and with agility. It is therefore important to create different analog and digital workspaces that the generations can use for themselves. There are two possibilities:

• Mixed-generation teams encourage innovation and creativity
• One-generation teams promote efficiency and collaboration

We had over 60 managers evaluate some of the working methods and assign them to a scale based on the generations. The illustration shows you how you can create such workspaces.

TIP: Take a look at the free PDF list with the recommended actions for the article

Challenge 3: Virtual leadership

The manager is a key player in organizations, whose task it is not only to provide performance on different levels, but also to motivate employees to perform through specific behavior and to create optimal framework conditions for the provision of services in organizations (Konstruhardt 2016).

In order to create the right framework conditions for virtual teams, it is also up to the manager to introduce the right software tools such as video conferencing, project management software, chat systems and much more and to coach the employees with them.

Together with over 60 managers, we evaluated the factors of virtual leadership. It turns out that there are essentially two areas of tension. So on the one hand it is a question of the balance between autonomy and trust and on the other hand between the digital and the analog world.

Reading tip: Virtual tour

Use software for leadership

Since the use of analogue has already been extensively researched, in this case we want to go into virtual guidance with software. We evaluated the satisfaction, the procedure (controlling to delegating and the task size using various software tools with over 60 executives).

In the table you can see various tools and in the first column how satisfied the managers are with them in the virtual teamwork. You notice that e-mail in particular tends to decline in satisfaction for virtual teams and is likely to be replaced by chat systems.

In the second column you can see how the managers proceed. Is the medium used more to control or to delegate tasks quickly? For example, executives in Jira post tasks and assume that these will be done while email is more likely to be asked for a status.

The last column shows the task size. Do you tend to assign large or small tasks? While software like Jira is used to assign rather small tasks, managers discuss larger and medium-sized tasks via video conference or telephone.

TIP: Take a look at the free PDF list with the recommended actions for the article

Challenge 4: digital business models

In addition to digital leadership, another approach is the role of a digital leader in the transformation of business models. The Consulting firm Deloitte examined the role of executives in the transformation of business models in the study with 102 companies. The result was the following:

• Leadership creates a clear vision for business model
• The task is to break open existing silos and to optimize value creation holistically
• The digitization of business models is a major organizational and personal challenge, and therefore also requires an outstanding leader who is not easy to find

Reading tip: What does a CDO do?

But how does a company decide which digital business model it wants to use at all? In order to answer this question, companies should analyze three aspects in particular.

• Offer (How can the product be offered using technology?)
• Customer benefits (In what way can the customer benefit even more from the offer by using technology?)
• Value chain (which options for changing the value chain through technology are possible?)

Reading tip: Digital business models

Transformation of business models

We also evaluated tips for transforming business models with over 60 managers. The important tips are:

• Change to a software company: Open up new business areas in your company and increasingly transform yourself from a product to a software company
• Think in new patterns: Don’t just digitize old, suboptimal processes. Instead, you should integrate new concepts and approaches and completely rethink processes and services.
• Digitize with strategy: Think of a sensible route for the transformation of your business model instead of starting out without a plan. Start digitizing where you can get results the fastest and follow this pattern as a continuous iteration.
• To be open for smth new: The transformation of a business model often has a lot of potential, but at the same time brings many new processes with it. So stay open in terms of technology and content and analyze whether your previous partners and alliances continue to fit the transformed business model.
• Stay close to the customer: Digitized business models clearly focus on the end customer. In order to best meet their needs, your entire projects and processes should therefore be designed for customer benefit. To do this, you should always stay in close contact with your customers and place great emphasis on user experience, customer journey and interaction design.

Conclusion: old wine in new bottles

The quote goes back to the phrase in the Bible after Matthew 9:17. Digitization brings new challenges with it, but leadership has long been shaped by dealing with new challenges. You will successfully master digitization as well!

The already known leadership styles, for example, will remain and managers should only use them at the right time in the sense of a digital world. The creation of workspaces for different generations is also a topic that currently affects leadership as well as the control of virtual teams and the transformation of business models.

Finally, I would like to give you a few recommendations for action as a digital leader, which I have also derived from my practical experience:

• you are the Advocate for digitization . So take the helm and actively shape change as a role model!
• You need to to be flexible . Always react accordingly to changing framework conditions and show understanding for mistakes.
• Try using new media and tools like Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram as well as Trello and Slack yourself. Be a digital pioneer!
• You have to be a digital leader don’t know everything , but you have to get the right people on the team who have the expertise.
• Above all, understand that Communication of diversity for men / women, cultures and generations.
• Read a lot About organizations and management: Don’t make the same mistakes that are in every management book and organize your team as you did 20 years ago!
• Listen to yours often intuition and Sure instinct ! Such a radical change is not a sprint, requires patience and often cannot be planned directly.

swell

Lindner, D. (2019). SMEs in the digital transition: results of empirical studies . Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Lindner, D., & Greff, T. (2019). Leadership in the age of digitization – what do managers say. HMD – Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik , 7th (1), 20.

Lindner, D., & Leyh, C. (2018). Organizations in Transformation: Agility as Consequence or Prerequisite of Digitization? BT – Business Information Systems. In W. Abramowicz & A. Paschke (Eds.) (Pp. 86-101). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Drawshardt, R. (2016). E-leadership: leadership and performance enhancement in digital contexts. In Success factor performance management (pp. 125-140). Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

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