Leadership 2020 Vision Manifesto

Hi and welcome to our Leadership 2020 Vision Manifesto. This is a simple, yet powerful 5-point manifesto for all leaders out there and those of you who support the development of leadership around you. It’s time to kick talking into touch and start to take action.

Join the manifesto here

What is the Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto?

It’s a call to arms to start shifting our way of thinking and developing leadership for a digital age faster than is currently happening.

What is in the Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto?

Here are the initial 5 points we have set out. If you think they need changing, amending or if you have something you would like to add then join the community to share your voice.

Here are the 5 points of the manifesto:

1. Redefine and reposition leadership away from command leadership.

   Embrace wider definitions of the term through wider access and inclusivity. Start with 3 simple leadership tribes: The first is the obvious leader by label – those people who are in traditional leadership roles already. The second is Leaders of change; internally this means everyone who is responsible for driving change from project management, change management, L&D, OD, technology – we are all leaders and should be recognised as such. Externally we must start to recognise, embrace and include leaders of change – people who are making a difference in the world. These people don’t have to be famous, they can be sitting next to you right now at work and you don’t even know it! Finally, Leaders of the future – this is more than thinking about top talent or the obvious traditional idea of future leadership – this is about embracing where leadership potential exists – women in leadership, supporting the growth of leadership in developing countries, older generations re-entering the workplace, Veterans with values and attitudes that are so transferrable… - let's broaden our thinking around who and how we define leaders of the future

2. Start with ONE

   The power of change starts with us as individuals. Committing to making one change individually to get things started. If we all start to focus on the power of one – it’s only a matter of time before it starts rubbing off on people around us and a collective shift starts to happen.

3. Mindset before skill

   Focus on attitude and belief – not skill and capability. Stop thinking first about the skills needed in our development plans or what skills you are looking for in the leadership role we are recruiting for – prioritise values and beliefs, search for evidence of the right attitude and behaviour, rather than evidence of profit and proof of financial success.

4. Have a humanity focus.

   Many of us are starting to place the customer at the heart of design, which is great, but we need more. It’s time to bring community and environment into play – let’s make this about humanity – about the human and about our society – not separate the two or focus on just one.

5. Finally – the manifesto calls for a mandate around data literacy. The practice of data ethics and taking self accountability for data. We’ve all heard stories in the news about data identity, cybersecurity and the manipulation of data when it's big and when we've got the technology to mine and exploit it, there is a growing reality and need to act as individuals and become accountable ourselves. We as leaders must role model data literacy in everything we do. We call this data mindfulness.

Please join the movement and commit to the manifesto yourself.
Share the manifesto amongst your peer groups, colleagues and your organisation.

Most importantly, please share across social media, let’s take action and help shift our positioning of leadership across the world.

Thank you,

The Adapt2Digital/Dilyn Team

Digital Leadership? Or Leadership in a Digital World?

Digital Leadership is a phrase fast becoming a buzzword for more and more businesses and business leaders.

However, the word digital has built an impression or understanding that it’s all about technology.  If you think that you are on a slippery road.  It is as a result of the digital revolution that we need to revisit and rethink leadership, business models and ‘the way we do things’.

But, Digital Leadership is less about a single person and more about bringing together a coalition of power, skill and vision that can collectively start the first wave of transformation.

Why do you need Digital Leadership?  Well we all need to become more digital – not just do digital but be digital and that means technology change, people change and business change…so one person alone doesn’t work.

What does this coalition look like and what do they need to do?

Well as with most transformational change efforts – nothing works without a fully embraced mandate from up on high.  So you need to ensure that the highest level of the business fully supports the effort.  Don’t stumble at this first hurdle, believe me, the effort to secure this support will be the biggest success factor in your business becoming more adaptive, more digital.

Then you need three key skill-sets and people of influence in this coalition: Someone who knows technology, someone who knows communication, and someone who knows about people and culture. Why is this important?  Well digital might not be all about tech but it’s going play a huge part in your transformation efforts – moving to automation, creating collaborative environments, aggregating data to make it meaningful, just having someone who knows what new and emerging tech is out there is hugely important.  This is a person who can show the business the art of the possible to achieve business objectives and meet audience needs. 

Communication is another key area that often get’s ignored when it comes to transformational efforts but it’s vital that there is a communication plan.  Don’t just send an email or have a meeting and think it’s done, and you can’t leave people to their own devices – you need to nurture them, keep reminding them of the urgency of becoming more digital.  There are two key areas that need to be managed; the participation of key people to build credibility and a reason to follow, alongside the creation of conversation throughout the organisation; a focus on sharing and receiving.  And then of course there is the need to address culture – because the way you do things at every level of the business is going to change and only the right mindset will allow for this to happen.

Then you need believers, inspirers, people willing to have a go, test things, try things, learn new things…these are the people that already have the mindset of change.  These people are those who will generate your initial quick wins and good news stories.  These people will create momentum to help move the transformational process along.  Don’t forget them, go out and find them as one of your first key steps – this is your first group of advocates.

Lastly, one of the big outputs of digital transformation is the democratisation of business.  So at this very first and key stage, bring some new and fresh digital native blood into the mix, there is much for us to learn from the digitals, as there is much for the digitals to learn from experience.

What I’ve just described is a really key step in your journey to becoming a more digital business.  You need power at the table, you need capability at the table, you need advocates at the table and some of your newest DNA to help you understand what tomorrow will really look like.

Obviously, I’m only talking about one small item that is needed at the beginning of your journey towards becoming adaptive.  You need to understand where your business sits digitally today so you know where to start and where to focus. 

You need a vision, and rather than a digital strategy sitting alongside your business strategy, create guiding principles that fit with your strategy that can be embedded within the business to help everyone start to become more digital.  You are also going to need some good news stories, most businesses we find have at least a couple of good news stories that can help people see that in some way, shape or form you are already demonstrating success in digital. 

We know the world is changing, we know as consumers we are changing, we know our daily lives are changing.

Digital does have a lot to answer for.  But in a good way.  We now know that things are in a state of constant change and that those who can see change, assess change and act accordingly i.e. adapt to change will be the successful businesses of the future.

Bringing your business up to speed with digital in 2015 really needs to be your number 1 agenda for the New Year.  Create a sense of urgency and start your journey.

Keeping pace with digital change

Digital is vast. It has redefined IT, Sales & Marketing, Customer Service and Operations; every area of the business and every industry sector has been changed forever. Why? Because the demands of the customer and the employee are rising at a pace faster than most businesses are adapting to these cope with these changing needs. This pace and the fundamental “access all areas” shift that digital has created has also generated a melting pot for new and disruptive competitors into sometimes hugely monopolised verticals.  If you want to find out more, pick up a copy of James McQuivey’s Digital Disruption.

The bottom line is clear for all CEO’s and business leaders. To be a leader in a digital world you need to:

• Really commit to digital

• Be prepared to go back to school – build up your knowledge and understanding of digital and the opportunities it can bring to your organisation

• Adopt a mindset that focuses on finding the right pace that matches your customers

• Keep pace with your customers (that’s digital maturity)

• Don’t delegate your vision; own the vision and empower the organisation to implement it

When something comes along that fundamentally changes the way we do business across the globe, we still see a struggle to take hold of both the challenge and the opportunity. All too often this results in a failure to use it to our advantage.

As far as digital is concerned, we still have a long way yet to go.

Christopher Columbus went out in a ship and realised the world was round.  Similarly, businesses need to realise digital is pervasive, it has no edges. It has changed things forever because it’s shown us that what was once thought to be the throne of power has flipped. The customer drives the pace of business now.  Customer Experience is a business-wide priority and Digital neither resides within the siloes of IT or Marketing. In fact, digital is not owned, digital just is.

Seize the moment

If you are a CEO, I hope you have already actively embraced digital and matured beyond allowing it to live in those siloes. I hope you have seized the moment, and that you are learning and awakening an almost youthful passion for experimentation and change. I hope, also, that you are beginning to experience and realise that honest and open communication is reciprocated tenfold in sales and advocacy.

On the other hand you might be about to head into a meeting to assess the business Quartile results thus far, only to realise sales are down, morale is at an all time low and the board wants answers… If so, commit to digital!  Think not about how you are currently performing. Think about how you are currently losing out because you haven’t already started to drive change in a way that is adaptive; your opportunity to really increase market share, enter new markets and gain competitive edge. We need a call to arms.  Those of you who have taken onboard the role of a true leader, I encourage you to share your stories, to seek out other peers and help them make the move.

Becoming Digitally Adaptive is no buzzword, but a call for all leaders to ensure they are aware and actively addressing the transition required to stay in the game.