Keeping Relationships at the Center in the Digital Age

We are now in the Digital Age, or what is called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which presents us with a growing demand for responsibility and accountability among leaders, as well as systems, technology and entrepreneurial leadership, adaptive leadership and a need for leaders to shape societies. A recent Accenture white paper recommends three questions we must consider as we enable our workers in this Age:

  1. Is the changing nature of work in production continuously being anticipated? With skills now having a half-life of 5 years, leaders must make proactive decisions about their workforce today.

  2. Is the ability to attract and engage the best talent by tailoring development initiatives for workers improving? Global executives think only one-fourth of their workforce is ready to work with intelligent machines. Organizations increased spending on intelligent technology by over 60% five years ago, yet only 3% planned to significantly increase the investment in training the following year.

  3. Is the broader enablement environment and ecosystem being reshaped for the workforce? 67% of people want business leaders to take the lead on policy change, instead of waiting for government.

Transformational leadership behaviors that support people at the center include

  1. inspiring with empathy and vision

  2. innovating with purpose

  3. advocating humanity, trust and transparency

  4. collaborating across the ecosystem

  5. orchestrating for agility and growth

  6. embracing social responsibility.