The Seven Secrets of Leadership - Secret #6

Secret #6 - It’s the era of the digital leader

What makes a great global leader? Page Executive interviewed over forty business leaders across Asia Pacific and Australia, Europe and the Americas for their views on leadership. The result of this work is a series of short articles on the topic of leadership that we are pleased to share with you. These articles encapsulate the opinions of the global leaders we interviewed, who generously shared their views on what constitutes success in a global leader, as well as offering advice to the next generation of leaders.

Communication strategies are now decided at board level, demonstrating the growing importance of strategic and tactical communication in a world where everything is transparent.

From monologue to dialogue

Moreover the nature of communication has changed: from one-way, where the company informs its public, to holding an interactive conversation. Companies have to optimise their use of technological advances to communicate efficiently both internally and externally.

The scandals and crises that regularly hit the headlines provide an impetus, if one were needed, for leaders and companies to reengineer their communication strategy to support greater transparency and establish a channel for market and employee feedback.

The voice of the industry

This situation is fuelling investment in social media. Today’s leader does not hesitate to share company news via social media platforms. PageGroup’s CEO Steve Ingham regularly posts on Twitter, for example. Leaders are capitalising on technology and digital media to expand their outreach to target audiences, raise their profile as an industry voice worth listening to, and even influence their stock price in a more direct manner.

This expansion in the utilisation and availability of technology has far-reaching consequences, one of which is that we are seeing the demise of privacy. With leaders being openly evaluated and judged on their actions, they must become skilled at communicating in an authentic manner. They must foster greater transparency and interaction with their own teams in order to motivate and engage them towards a common goal (that of improving performance).