Transformational Leadership crucial for DT success
Despite huge investment in Digital Transformation in recent years, the success rate is significantly low; between 15% - 30% and when you translate this to a $6 trillion dollar pluss industry, the impact is somewhat of a throat punch to the goals of businesses and organisations looking to jump on the wave of technology as an enabler to increased productivity, innovation and customer satisfaction.
So if agile, change management and project management are not getting this work across the line (although very necessary), what will?
Find a way to get the business leaders to the digital table
Technology and Business Strategy are intertwined - if leaders want strategies realised, they need to build their digital literacy and support the governance and coordination of multiple projects that pop up across the organisation. Technology must be embraced as an opportunity to create and deliver value, and supported accordingly.
Clearly articulate Digital Transformation success
In research conducted by Michael Seals, SVP of Strategy at Hussmanns, he found 14 leadership practices that positively correlated to the success of digital transformation projects. One of the highest-scoring practices was the ability to articulate success:
What does this look like? Feel like? Sound like?
How will we know we are successful and how will we measure this?
He found that organisations (mainly incumbents which I found very interesting) that did this had nine times greater odds of being successful in their digital transformation journey.
Build & leverage Transformational Leadership to elevate the capacity and capability of your Tech Teams
There is an urgent need for Transformational Leadership in the technology domain. I believe one of the key blockers, and simultaneously, enablers to success is the capability and capacity of your Tech Team and organisation at large. Ways to build this include:
Implement clear prioritisation methods for initiatives. So many times, I see tech teams deliver fantastic work but it is not strategically aligned to the business goals, and so gets devalued. Those that possess more effective methods of prioritising initiatives across the organization have a lot of advantages over those that do not. Most importantly, you can resolve conflicts that come up when there are competing initiatives.
Create end-to-end teams with diverse skill sets. Diversity can be your superpower.
Invest in leadership training, particularly for technical leaders who to be effective must be able to give and receive feedback, build psychological safety for people to speak up, and embrace innovation and creativity.
If you are interested to find out more or discuss how to align, connect and leverage your Tech Teams for brilliant outcomes, book a quick chat with Claire.