The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (Management on the Cutting Edge)

by Gerald C. Kane

the core of good leadership is dramatically different because of digital challenges and capabilities. This mistake can cause leaders to ignore many tried and true leadership lessons and experience in an attempt to do things entirely differently. Good leaders can make bad decisions if they ignore valid leadership instincts honed over a career simply because they were shaped in a different environment. The second mistake is the converse of the first, when leaders think that the phenotype of good leadership will somehow be unchanged in a digital environment. While good leadership remains good leadership, it will necessarily be expressed differently in a radically new environment. Just like we don’t see carbon paper, typewriters, and adding machines in today’s offices, leaders need to update approaches to leadership that may have been forged in the dot-com era. Third, many leaders mistake the outward expression of digital leadership for the phenotypic expression of good leadership in a digital environment. Doing things digitally does not automatically make one an effective leader. For example, although effective communication in a digital environment likely involves using digital platforms, simply using these platforms does not automatically result in good communication. In fact, since these platforms can facilitate the transfer of all sorts of information, they can amplify bad leadership just as easily as good leadership.