leadership 2020 vision Manifesto

A 5 (five)-Point Manifesto for all leaders around the world to join. Let’s start a movement to help build the leadership we need to thrive in a digital age.

This Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto has been started by the team here at Adapt2Digital, but we want this to be more and bigger than that, we want you to join and have your voice heard - to help build a global leadership community that can lead us through the digital age - an active, adaptive and authentic leadership community.

The Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto is at the heart of our campaign of the same name. A campaign with a mission to share the insight and bring clarity to what it means to be an effective leader in a digital age.

The 5-Point leadership Manifesto

What are you signing up to? The following 5 points are a start, just the beginning, and with your support and your help spreading the word, we can add to this or expand it.

1. Redefine and reposition leadership away from command leadership

   Embrace wider definitions of the term leadership 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.

Join the movement

Pledge your commitment today by signing up to the manifesto, even if you commit to just one of these points.

Join us and help build on this manifesto to create a single global understanding and definition for leadership in a digital age that’s active, adaptive and authentic.

Spread the word

More than anything else, please spread the word out as far and wide as possible. Let’s build a voice and start to share and hear the stories of leaders from around the world role modelling these 5 points and others.

Click here to head to our Manifesto Blog to share!