Digitally maturing companies are beginning to make the necessary changes to adapt their organizations from a traditional environment to a digital one, but there is still progress to be made, particularly in leadership development and upskilling employees, according to the 2018 Digital Business study of 4,300 business executives, managers, and analysts by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte Digital. In fact, more than half (55%) of digitally maturing companies and 80% of early stage companies reported a need for new leadership to compete in today’s digital environment.
Other survey highlights include:
- Nearly all (90%) respondents indicated they need to update their skills at least yearly to work effectively in a digital world, and 44% indicated they need to update their skills “continually” to do their job effectively.
- Nearly 30% of respondents from early stage companies explicitly indicated that their company provides little to no support for developing digital skills.
- Less than a third (34%) of all respondents are satisfied with how their organization is helping them prepare for working in a digital environment.
What traits do digital leaders need? Respondents cited the following:
1. Provide vision and purpose
2. Create conditions to experiment
3. Empower people to think differently
4. Get people to collaborate across boundaries
While these traits are individually important, taken together they make a larger point of the need to develop a culture of leadership at all levels of the organization. Becoming a more digitally mature organization may not involve simply how a leader does so, but it also may involve rethinking who needs to lead. In fact, the study found that digitally maturing companies are more likely to be pushing decision-making authority down into lower levels of the organization in order to better execute in a digital environment.
To access the complete findings, visit: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/coming-of-age-digitally/?utm_medium=pr&utm_source=release&utm_campaign=dlrpt2018
