Reflections on Digital Leadership

In Unit 1 of the MALAT course LRNT 525—Leading Change in Digital Learning, we focus on “Leadership today.” For Activity 3, we are asked to reflect on the essential attributes of a leader when working in a digital learning environment, using our experiences and perspectives to synthesize concepts introduced in our readings.

An important distinction is that I generally operate on the management end of the spectrum, not the leadership end. As posited by Workman and Cleveland-Innes in their 2012 paper, leading and managing are not discrete roles, and there is overlap; however, they require different inputs, behaviours, and goals. I have heard this summarized anecdotally: “Managers focus on efficiency, and leaders focus on effectiveness.” Through that viewpoint, I perceive my role primarily as a manager.

Nonetheless, I have been blessed to have worked for and alongside several admirable leaders in my career. They tended to lead from a place of compassion and humility, often aligning with the principles developed by Chris Anderson and noted in his 2024 article. Reflecting on my initial leadership trait rankings, considering our group analysis, and synthesizing the core and optional readings with my previous experiences, my leadership trait rankings remain unchanged. My top five attributes for leadership are caring, fair-minded, supportive, honest, and dependable. From a praxis perspective, these characteristics are expressed through the model of reflective leadership to achieve the themes identified by Castelli in her 2016 literature review analysis:

• Creates a safe environment that promotes trust
• Values open communications
• Connects work to organization mission
• Builds self-esteem and confidence
• Respects diverse cultures and customs
• Challenges beliefs and assumptions

So, how does synthesizing my leadership trait rankings and their application through reflective practice align with the concept of digital leadership?

Applying Sheniger’s 2022 perspective on the pillars of digital leadership, authentic and compassionate leadership delivered through reflective practice can leverage technology to achieve innovation in the education sector. However, I would also posit that an additional element of critical inquiry is required to understand embedded values in technology to avoid propagating biases and perpetuating inequities in our schools and society of the future. Integrating the work of the Centre for Humane Technology, The Consilience Project, Algorithmic Justice League, Project Liberty, the Assembly of First Nations, and other Indigenous-led technology councils is fundamental to achieving equitable and inclusive digital leadership in Canada.

Changing the Scope of Digital Leadership in the post-growth world

In reviewing the reading materials for Unit 1, one perspective stood out for me on the scope of leadership. Peter Senge, known for proposing the theory of the Learning Organization, delivered the expansive definition of leadership in his 2015 YouTube interview with Russell Sarder, which stated that leadership is “the capacity of a human community to shape its future.”

I think this worldview is often forgotten in leadership or defined too narrowly to avoid recognizing the collective responsibility of leadership to achieve benevolent progress at a global level. The practice of leadership must extend definitions like James O’Toole’s 2008 assertion that the “role, task, and responsibility of values-based leaders is to help followers realize the most important ends that they hold dear but cannot obtain by themselves” (p. 10). Leadership must become a collaborative, collective practice, and “followers” should be understood to represent all people. Too often, leadership is a practice of introspection on internal goals without sufficient extrospection to understand the externalities created by an organization’s actions.

So, how can such a broad definition impact digital leadership?

Governments worldwide are beginning to see the effects of unmitigated growth that the Club of Rome warned against in 1972 in their report The Limits to Growth (Döring & Aigner-Walder, 2022). To offset the effects of unlimited growth, we have relied on technological innovation as the solution to achieve an immature progress narrative, creating rapid change without achieving betterment. (The Consilience Project, 2024). This has been clear in the recent effects of social media on mental health, democracy, and civility, as well as the insatiable demands on energy and cooling that our AI endeavours are driving (Minamitani, K, 2024; Onlaniran & William, 2020; Berreby, 2024; Stover, 2024).

Does truly compassionate digital leadership and reflective practice create a world where an affluent child in Toronto will access high-fidelity adaptive AI tutors that consume massive amounts of energy and freshwater while an underprivileged child in Bangladesh is having their education disrupted by climate change-related disasters (UNICEF, 2025)?

Change in digital leadership begins at home, and leaders and their followers must be accountable for the externalities of their choices worldwide, especially to the most vulnerable.

I am reminded of the phrase, “A raindrop never feels responsible for the flood.” It is time for digital leaders and their followers to transcend this ignorance because the flood is here.  

References

Anderson, C. (2024, December 11). Principles of Indigenous leadership and self-care in the academy. Times Higher Education.https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/principles-indigenous-leadership-and-selfcare-academy

Berreby, D. (2024, February 6). As use of A.I. soars, so does the energy and water It requires. Yale Environment 360. https://e360.yale.edu/features/artificial-intelligence-climate-energy-emissions

Castelli, P. A. (2016, March 7). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-08-2015-0112

Döring, T., & Aigner-Walder, B. (2022, May/June). The Limits to Growth – 50 years ago and today. Intereconomics, 57(3). https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2022/number/3/article/the-limits-to-growth-50-years-ago-and-today.html

Minamitani, K. (2024, May 20). Socal media addiction and mental health: The growing concern for youth well-being. Stanford Law School Blogs. https://law.stanford.edu/2024/05/20/social-media-addiction-and-mental-health-the-growing-concern-for-youth-well-being/

Olaniran, B., & Williams, I. (2020, February 27). Social media effects: Hijacking democracy and civility in civic engagement. Platforms, Protests, and the Challenge of Networked Democracy, 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36525-7_5

O’Toole, James (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1). https://scholar.valpo.edu/jvbl/vol1/iss1/10/

Sarder, R. (2015, June 4). What makes a great leader? by Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aYaj2-GZqk

Sheninger, E. (2022, August 31). 7 pillars of digital leadership in education. HMH Education Company. https://www.hmhco.com/blog/pillars-of-digital-leadership-in-education

Stover, D. (2024, December 19). AI goes nuclear. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. https://thebulletin.org/2024/12/ai-goes-nuclear/

The Consilience Project. (2024, July 16). Development in progress. https://consilienceproject.org/development-in-progress/

UNICEF. (2025, January 26). 33 million children in Bangladesh had schooling disrupted by climate crises in 2024 – UNICEF [Press release]. https://bangladesh.un.org/en/288161-33-million-children-bangladesh-had-schooling-disrupted-climate-crises-2024%E2%80%94unicef

Workman, T., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2012, October). Leadership, personal transformation, and management. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(4), 313-323. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i4.1383