Reflecting on my personal leadership perspective
A common thought that comes to mind upon hearing the word leadership is the role of the person who steers a boat: the captain of the ship. Could this be the reason why the word ends in ship? It might make sense considering ancient times when people walked or sailed to go places. Any group of people being led could get dispersed but not while on a ship, on board they were contained within the vessel thus subject to the route the captain chose for the journey.
Leadership has come to be an important term in many venues conveying the same old meaning although not necessarily with regard to a physical containment within a vessel. Nowadays there are new settings where leadership is required, and also new challenges to be an effective leader. Take the digital environment for one, it involves conditions that did not exist before which the leader must deal with in order for the leadership to work.
There are new dimensions in the environment in general—family, work, sports, social, or education. Digital literacy is the first new dimension mentioned by Hunt (2015) in her article stating that leaders as well as those being led by them should be digitally literate. It is important for the leader to bear in mind that digital fluency is a state of mind available to anyone instead of a chronological factor, thus making the distinction between digital immigrant and digital native counterproductive.
The second dimension Hunt (2015) included refers to applications of social and digital technologies. Leaders must accept that as disruptive as the applications (apps) have resulted in some cases, they also served to expand the reach of business as well as internal communication and collaboration. Such technology is continuously changing the nature of work, generating the third dimension which considers implications that impact the management of the workforce as well. For instance, some jobs shall require new descriptions, security posts shall include technology aspects that did not exist before, and the language of contracts and warranties shall cover technology-related clauses unimaginable a few years ago.
The fourth dimension refers to the digital transformation of organisations. Hunt (2015) stated that nearly every organisation is destined to come to that point, and leaders must approach it with a marathon-like mind set rather than a sprint race. The reason being there is a list of requirements that take time to develop to have the organisation ready, such as devising a strategy and foundations; identifying cultural values; creating an internal governance structure; and making sure people are ready for the change.
The fifth dimension has to do with leadership styles. Leadership in the digital era might not need new features (Hunt, 2015) but it will require new combinations of traits that might acquire new meaning in a new context as well. Although traits like flexibility, adaptability, openness to experience, and tolerance for risk already existed, now have more importance under the light of the digital context.
My recent and ongoing experience in the digital context for learning implies additional challenges for the distant learner, because there are new requisites to sort in order to cope with the contents of the class, interact with classmates and instructors, and be able to submit the work in time. Through the courses at Royal Roads University I have appreciated the flexibility, patience, understanding, and coaching of instructors to help me deal with technology-related issues that caused delay in turning in assignments. The attitudes of my instructors allowed me to see their willingness on supporting my success, which instantly increased my motivation to achieve the goals, and made me realised they were doing what they like.
I tend to approach leadership from a shared perspective. Unless in a context in which my role has to be the undisputable leader, like in a Kindergarten classroom for instance, and in that context the example of the captain of a ship mentioned at the beginning comes in handy, since it is a simple way of helping the young students understand their role and mine, and it can be lots of fun. Acknowledging myself as not totally current in handling the latest technology, social media included, makes me be careful when dealing with tech-related aspects of leadership. I prefer to be a follower in order to learn from the leader instead of being the leader that depends on followers to teach me to advance, I think it would not be fair for the audience.
In a digital learning environment the effectiveness of the leadership would depend on the keen eye of the leader, and that is because combining traits would go a long way. Taking O’Toole’s descriptions I would include in the toolbox the bright spark and virtuosity of the paternalistic leader; the flexibility and adaptability of both the situational and the shared leaders; the servant leader would get those who need help out of trouble; and without a doubt the values-based leader to make sure followers achieve their true values (O’Toole, 2008).
As a final comment I want to add that values-based leaders as well as transformational leaders are urgently needed judging from what is daily on the news, and that transcends the digital learning environment impacting the actual world with a crisis of values.
References
Hunt, C. S. (2015). Leading in the digital era. Talent Development, 69(6), 48-53. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.royalroads.ca/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1688590339?accountid=8056
O’Toole, James (2008). Notes toward a definition of values-based leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1).