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Five Key Leadership Competences in Digital Era

Oct 27-2021   



A salient feature of the time is that many enterprises are only capable of making plans for half a year or a year in the face of rapid changes in policy and environment. The root cause lies in the internet, AI and digitalization, says Prof. John Yang in a recent forum celebrating the inauguration of Cheng Ze Garden as a new campus of the NSD.

 

Leaders need to take on a range of new challenges stemming from the inherent traits of the digital era, namely volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA in short). While opportunities come in the form of heightened work efficiency, lower organizational costs, and improved competitiveness for some firms, certain thought-provoking issues have come to the fore and begged for solutions, such as the moral and social dimensions of digitalization, job losses to robots, and escalation of human weaknesses.

 

In particular, Prof. Yang draws attention to the social aspects of management, citing Peter Drucker’s emphasis on the discipline as a part of social ecology rooted in values. What counts is responsibility and not power, customers and not profits, performance and not mediocrity, and practice and not book-bound knowledge, reminds Prof. Yang.

 

Through numerous discussions and continuous observations of outstanding alumni of the NSD, Prof. Yang has identified five core competences that leaders should cultivate in the digital era so as to expand their influence. The first one is self-motivation, which encompasses profound interests, strong curiosity, core values, dreams, mission and goals. Shimon Peres, former president of Israel, left these last words to the world: “The size of your dream determines the size of reality.” Martin Luther King and Elon Musk are two more prominent examples, according to Prof. Yang.

 

The other four competences are self-management, insights, creativity, and grit. Self-management entails self-control and self-constraint, which should be more extensively adopted by Chinese companies - ever more dominated by capital – some of which regard public listing as the sole measure of success. Insights are born out of independent personality, critical thinking, keen observations and accurate judgement. Prof. Yang commends the founding professors of the NSD, who develop divergent theories but work closely together. Creativity forms the core of entrepreneurship, which aims for creative destruction. Warren Buffet is a prime example that creativity grows out of passion, a sacred feeling making going to work tantamount to heading to church to paint murals. Grit has been proved to be the one single character trait that contributes most to the success of tens of thousands of West Point graduates.

 

Prof. Yang teaches management at the NSD and focuses his research on organizational behavior and leadership for international corporations.

Five Key Leadership Competences in Digital Era

Oct 27-2021   



A salient feature of the time is that many enterprises are only capable of making plans for half a year or a year in the face of rapid changes in policy and environment. The root cause lies in the internet, AI and digitalization, says Prof. John Yang in a recent forum celebrating the inauguration of Cheng Ze Garden as a new campus of the NSD.

 

Leaders need to take on a range of new challenges stemming from the inherent traits of the digital era, namely volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA in short). While opportunities come in the form of heightened work efficiency, lower organizational costs, and improved competitiveness for some firms, certain thought-provoking issues have come to the fore and begged for solutions, such as the moral and social dimensions of digitalization, job losses to robots, and escalation of human weaknesses.

 

In particular, Prof. Yang draws attention to the social aspects of management, citing Peter Drucker’s emphasis on the discipline as a part of social ecology rooted in values. What counts is responsibility and not power, customers and not profits, performance and not mediocrity, and practice and not book-bound knowledge, reminds Prof. Yang.

 

Through numerous discussions and continuous observations of outstanding alumni of the NSD, Prof. Yang has identified five core competences that leaders should cultivate in the digital era so as to expand their influence. The first one is self-motivation, which encompasses profound interests, strong curiosity, core values, dreams, mission and goals. Shimon Peres, former president of Israel, left these last words to the world: “The size of your dream determines the size of reality.” Martin Luther King and Elon Musk are two more prominent examples, according to Prof. Yang.

 

The other four competences are self-management, insights, creativity, and grit. Self-management entails self-control and self-constraint, which should be more extensively adopted by Chinese companies - ever more dominated by capital – some of which regard public listing as the sole measure of success. Insights are born out of independent personality, critical thinking, keen observations and accurate judgement. Prof. Yang commends the founding professors of the NSD, who develop divergent theories but work closely together. Creativity forms the core of entrepreneurship, which aims for creative destruction. Warren Buffet is a prime example that creativity grows out of passion, a sacred feeling making going to work tantamount to heading to church to paint murals. Grit has been proved to be the one single character trait that contributes most to the success of tens of thousands of West Point graduates.

 

Prof. Yang teaches management at the NSD and focuses his research on organizational behavior and leadership for international corporations.