Business leaders are tasked with the often tricky obligation of steering organizations to the financial ‘happily ever after’. This is a big responsibility, and as a business leader, you need to be able to foster cooperation across all the levels of an organization, be agile, and be flexible. All these will help you move towards a more lateral type of management. Good leadership is about being able to do away with the conventional, hierarchical structures that only end up in stagnation and bureaucracy and many business leaders are aware of this. Still, many organizations continue to hang on to familiar hierarchies as they always find themselves in some sort of organizational limbo if they try to make any changes, resulting in what one can only describe as contemporary organizational structures.
Technological innovation and business leadership
However, the world around us is constantly changing and nothing is what it was a few years back. This wave of changes has been spurred by technological advancements, and business leadership hasn’t been spared either. Technology is the one thing capable of driving business leaders to a new paradigm. Technological developments have made it possible for business leaders to create more participatory businesses. They can now use technology to increase productivity and improve their leadership via technology. Business leaders can apply technological innovations to improve their leadership through the following ways.
Improving collaboration
Collaboration has always been the keystone to modern leadership. Instead of acting in a bossy manner, collaborative leaders blur the lines between the boss and junior employees by focussing on garnering participation across the board, creative thinking, and team building. With collaborative leadership, it’s not about who’s in charge. You are probably wondering how technology fits into all this, aren’t you?
Well, experts cite social media and the internet in general as the source of all this collaborative spirit. The internet has changed how we organize ourselves into groups and share information. The internet makes people equal. These individuals then group themselves into different social circles and communicate. On the internet, it’s all about engagement and participation. Business leaders who come to this realization and tap into this enthusiasm achieve greater things than their counterparts who don’t.
Using Influence to Inspire People
To build upon the fact that good leadership, due to technology, is not about bossing people around, success is no longer hinged on power, it’s inspired through influence. Leaders need to model what employees need to do and explain the purpose of doing it. Experts cite generational contrasts as the reason behind this trend.
Millennials grew up with technology, they know what it’s capable of and simply assigning them tasks without explaining why they need to perform them won’t cut it. As a business leader, you can use technology to your advantage to influence your employees and get the best out of them. Companies can use technology to conduct the more effective executive assessment before appointing business leaders to determine the people best suited for these positions.
Changing the definition of success
The world is increasingly becoming reliant on technology, for so many things. As a business leader, you need to concentrate on technology and what it means to your organization. Some major business leadership titles such as CEO are changing and sometimes taking the backseat of positions such as CIO or the chief information officer, an individual charged with the task of creating new business via technology and making sure that the organization is maximally exploiting available technological resources.
Business leadership positions are solely driven by success; knowledge, relations, power, and authority have no place. The success of a business leader is now based on how well they can apply technology towards the realization of the company’s goals.
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