Leading in the Digital World: How to Foster Creativity, Collaboration, and Inclusivity (Management on the Cutting Edge)

The definitive book on leadership in the digital era: why digital technologies call for leadership that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Certain ideas about business leadership are held to be timeless, and certain characteristics of leaders--often including a square jaw, a deep voice, and extroversion--are said to be universal. In Leading in the Digital World , Amit Mukherjee argues that since digital technologies are changing everything else, how could they not change leadership ideologies and styles? As more people worldwide participate equally in business, those assumptions of a leader's ideal profile have become irrelevant. Offering a radical rethinking of leadership, Mukherjee shows why digital technologies call for a new kind of leader--one who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Drawing on a global survey of 700 mid-tier to senior executives and interviews with C-level executives from around the world, Mukherjee explains how digital technologies are already reshaping organizations and work and what this means for leaders. For example, globally dispersed businesses can't reserve key leadership roles for people from exclusive groups; leadership must become inclusive, or fail. Leaders must learn to collaborate in a multipolar world of networked organizations, working with co-located and non-co-located colleagues. Leaders must lead for creativity rather than productivity. Focusing on practice, Mukherjee outlines goals and strategies, warns against unthinking assumptions, and explains how leaders can identify the mindsets, behaviors, and actions they need to pursue. With Leading in the Digital World , Mukherjee offers the definitive book on leadership for the digital era. "The twentieth century was marked by an emphasis on productivity-how to make more widgets efficiently. The best leaders were those who successfully managed for productivity, embracing such philosophies as Six Sigma and Quality Circles (such as those proposed by W. Edwards Deming in our own books Out of the Crisis and The New Economics). The twenty-first century is about a different kind of work-knowledge work-and as a result, needs a different emphasis. Rather than focusing on being productive, firms in the digital era need to focus on being creative. Creativity, as Amit Mukherjee defines it is 'the ability to look past received wisdom and traditional approaches to give form or structure to new ideas.' Just as the nature and goals of work are evolving, so too are the skills a leader needs to succeed. Before, leaders commanded hierarchical organizations. Now, technology is able to radically restructure hierarchical organizations into flatter, more collaborative environments, often drawing in workers from around the world. Academic models of leadership have been slow to reflect these changes. This book provides a framework for thinking about how to be a leader in the digital era. Instead of decreeing lists of 'five things to implement immediately,' it addresses the mindsets, behaviors, and actions that current and aspiring leaders should embrace. The book puts forth the idea of a 'Producing Leader,' (as opposed to earlier models of Facilitating or Directing Leaders). A producing leader has a broad knowledge base, creative vision, and uses empathy to make connections between groups of experts who ask for and give help. The book suggests ways that leaders can better create and support more inclusive working environments, and offers new ways of thinking about collaboration between firms (essential in today's world where Apple wouldn't be able to produce iPhones without Corning's Gorilla Glass). It also discusses the importance of setting and communicating values and strategic intentions to help mobilize and encourage workers to achieve firm-level goals. The book concludes with a guide to developing one's own personal leadership philosophy to enable the shift from leading for productivity to leading for creativity"-- Provided by publisher The definitive book on leadership in the digital era: why digital technologies call for leadership that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Certain ideas about business leadership are held to be timeless, and certain characteristics of leaders--often including a square jaw, a deep voice, and extroversion--are said to be universal. In Leading in the Digital World, Amit Mukherjee argues that since digital technologies are changing everything else, how could they not change leadership ideologies and styles As more people worldwide participate equally in business, those assumptions of a leader's ideal profile have become irrelevant. Offering a radical rethinking of leadership, Mukherjee shows why digital technologies call for a new kind of leader--one who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Drawing on a global survey of 700 mid-tier to senior executives and interviews with C-level executives from around the world, Mukherjee explains how digital technologies are already reshaping organizations and work and what this means for leaders. For example, globally dispersed businesses can't reserve key leadership roles for people from exclusive groups; leadership must become inclusive, or fail. Leaders must learn to collaborate in a multipolar world and networked organizations, working with co-located and non-co-located colleagues. Leaders must lead for creativity rather than productivity. Focusing on practice, Mukherjee outlines goals and strategies, warns against unthinking assumptions, and explains how leaders can identify the mindsets, behaviors, and actions they need to pursue. With Leading in the Digital World, Mukherjee offers the definitive book on leadership for the digital era The definitive book on leadership in the digital era: why digital technologies call for leadership that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Certain ideas about business leadership are held to be timeless, and certain characteristics of leaders—often including a square jaw, a deep voice, and extroversion—are said to be universal. In Leading in the Digital World , Amit Mukherjee argues that since digital technologies are changing everything else, how could they not change leadership ideologies and styles? As more people worldwide participate equally in business, those assumptions of a leader's ideal profile have become irrelevant. Offering a radical rethinking of leadership, Mukherjee shows why digital technologies call for a new kind of leader—one who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Drawing on a global survey of 700 mid-tier to senior executives and interviews with C-level executives from... Adaptive leadership; Collaboration; Creativity; Digital transformation; Distributed teams; Leadership in business; Networked organizations; Organizational development and change; Performance management; Talent management