Leadership in the Digital Economy v2

Leadership in a Digital World

TIM COBURN

Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014 All Rights Reserved

The Future

Agrarian Economy

Industrial Economy

Service Economy

Digital Economy

The Past

Leadership is being shaped by the digital economy. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

Agrarian Economy Industrial Economy Service Economy Digital Economy

INNOVATE

LEARN

DELIVER

MAKE

PLAN

DEFINE

LEAD

WORK ACTIVITIES

Allocation of work to human capacity

Allocation of work to automated capacity to gain competitive advantage

Re-allocation of work to the human capacity released by automation to gain competitive advantage

Now and the Future The Past Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014 All Rights Reserved

‘More than three-quarters of executives say the strategic intent behind their digital programs is either to build

competitive advantage in an existing business or to create new business and tap new profit pools.’

The Digital Tipping Point McKinsey Global Survey, 2014

Embracing digital is not a choice. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014 All Rights Reserved

In the Digital World

Every One and Every Thing is Online

At Your Fingertips, Wherever You Are

Making Life Easier Learning About You

Offering You More of What You Like

The essence of digital. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014 All Rights Reserved

‘…you have to be totally connected with everyone who touches the brand […] if you don’t do that I don’t know what your business model is in 5 years.’

‘Consumer data will be the biggest differentiator in the next two to three years. Whoever unlocks the reams of data and uses it strategically will win.’

‘There has never been more creative freedom and potential, or more opportunity to connect and learn. But the pace of change also presents challenges: feelings of fear, distrust and uncertainty are pervasive.’

Angela Ahrendts

If you don’t have a plan for digital, you don’t have a plan. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

In the digital economy, the value-add of human capacity migrates

Competitive advantage lies in learning, innovation and leadership… with humanity.

KEY


Embrace Digital

Learning Power

Real Innovation

Leadership with Humanity

Leadership capabilities for the 21st century.


Embrace Digital

The transition to digital redefines the work people do.

It’s a human project, not just a technical one.

Leaders must provide a human purpose that makes the transition worthwhile.

In a digital enterprise, you only gain a competitive advantage if you develop your human capacity for learning, innovation and leadership.

Your digital strategy needs a people vision.

Leaders have to provide both.

Embracing digital is a human project, not just a technical one

Envision Your Digital Enterprise

Get Every Thing Online

Make it Accessible, Everywhere

Make Customers’ Lives Easier

Gather Data and Learn, Fast

Offer More of What they Like


Learning Power

Learning has always felt like something you do on a course.

In the digital world, all the knowledge you need is online and immediately accessible.

Now, you can learn and perform at the same time.

What’s more, the ability to learn is the strongest indicator of the potential to succeed.

So, not only is the capacity to learn a key enabler of the transition to digital, it’s vital to performance in everything leaders do.

Despite this, learning has remained well down the list of corporate leadership capabilities.

Research shows it can be measured and improved.

It’s time for learning to become mainstream. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

Real Innovation

Imagination and the ability to turn ideas into products people want is the human ability that differentiates who we are.

The disruptive potential of digital technology puts a higher premium on innovation.

As human capacity is released from ‘production’, the demand for ideas makes innovation everyone’s job.

Employee innovation will become the next step in our employee engagement journey.

Engagement is a means to an end measured by customer satisfaction. The link between these two is an entrepreneurial act of innovation, by the employee for their customer. We need to measure innovation, not just engagement.

Leaders need to improve engagement and generate ideas that add more value.

Competitive advantage will flow to real innovation, well executed. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

That’s leadership with humanity.


From the time when the Berlin Wall came down 25 years ago, to the Arab Spring and Occupy events of the current global recession, a generation of people have taken a stand for democratic, social and human values. In today’s world, a leadership vision that stops at shareholder return, just won’t do.

If you want to lead, you have to listen, engage and take people with you. To do this, you need a worthwhile vision that other people also want. The effort required to succeed and the learning and innovation on which success depends, make the quality of your vision even more important.

Corporate leaders, including those at the top and everyone with a team, need a vision with a human or social purpose.

Yet, below c suite executives who associate their vision with the enterprise as a whole, few leaders have a human or social purpose with which they inspire their own teams.

If you want to lead, your vision must make sense, be something you pursue with credibility and which appeals empathetically to the people you need to engage and take with you. It’s not a single sentence, once written and long forgotten. It’s something you embody and keep alive in what you say and do, everyday.


The Future

Agrarian Economy

Industrial Economy

Service Economy

Digital Economy

The Past

Embrace Digital

Learning Power

Real Innovation


Now and in the immediate future, four capabilities will make a difference

Our challenge is to combine the speed and versatility of digital technology with the imagination and compassion of those that use it. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

One More Thing

Everything leaders do – we all do – happens in what we say and how we talk.

Your way of talking is as unique as your fingerprint and as influential as your personality.

For this reason, effective leadership requires an overall, over-arching ability to use your voice.

Great leaders are especially skilful in using language, conversation and stories to create an organisation of teams who succeed.

As a leader, you can’t engage and take people with you unless you have linguistic fluency.

Since everything leaders do is done with words, there is a distinct advantage for those who know that great corporate leadership comes from great corporate authorship.

Your way of talking is as unique as your fingerprint and as influential as your personality Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

Did You Know?

The world needs more leaders.

In Deloitte’s 2014 Global Survey of Human Capital Trends, the top-ranked item was the need for leaders at all levels and in all geographies:

‘This continuous need for new and better leaders has accelerated. In a world where

knowledge doubles every year and skills have a half-life of 2.5 to 5 years, leaders need

constant development.’

And in the 2014 Hay Report on the Top Companies for Leadership, within the range of activities companies use to develop leaders, high touch, face-to-face learning remains a priority – the Top 20 companies say they rely on it.

The success of leadership development depends on its relevance, effectiveness and personal touch. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014

All Rights Reserved

Participating leaders are made aware of the external trends, business goals, team priorities and leadership needs the programme is designed to address.

They are engaged and invited by senior leaders to renew what they know, clarify their own purpose and align their goals to an ambitious corporate vision.

Relevant learning activities immerse them intellectually, creatively and emotionally as they acquire knowledge, practice skills and address real issues at the same time.

Selected activities optimise the development advantages of interdependent - collaborative and competitive – learning.

Leaders are challenged to learn quickly and use new skills in their job with the same urgency that business improvements are required.

Leaders measure and report improvement in their own performance against the programme’s objectives using stakeholder feedback as evidence.

High Touch, Face-to-Face Leadership Development: Design Principles

While the greatest part of a leader’s development happens as they do a challenging job, high touch, face-to-face learning events provide a unique and welcome opportunity to refresh and accelerate the development of new capabilities.

Principles like these should guide the design of your programme:

AWARENESS ENGAGEMENT IMMERSION

INTERDEPENDENCE SPEED IMPACT

If this is what you need, please get in touch. Copyright © Tim Coburn 2014 All Rights Reserved

Leadership Development

To realise their vision of success, corporate organisations need bespoke leadership and organisation development solutions. Working together, these are the steps I follow:

IMAGINE ENGAGE CREATE DELIVER TOGETHER

I listen to understand.

We discuss possibilities.

I suggest an idea.

We decide the next steps.

I create the design.

We refine it together.

I deliver the programme.

We evaluate its success.

I work in partnership.

We work together.

Proposal invited

Proposal accepted

Design approved

Programme delivered

Impact evaluated

Step 1

Activity

Outcome

Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

BESPOKE SOLUTION


TIM COBURN

Tim Coburn is a leadership consultant with thirty years prior experience at world-class companies. He was an OD and Leadership Consultant at The BBC and Motorola, Global Head of Talent and Learning and Development at Rolls-Royce, Head of Leadership at Kenya Airways, Head of Talent at Syngenta and Director of Leadership Development at Serco Group plc.

For More Information Please get in touch: [email protected] Or visit: www.timcoburn.com

LEADERS FOR THE WORLD

Leaders for the World is a bespoke leadership and organisation development service offering support for digital enterprise, learning power, real innovation and leadership with humanity.

The Leader’s Toolkit offers downloadable skills with ‘how to’ guides for leaders, training guides for coaches and introductory guides for young people at school.


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Leadership in the Digital Economy v2