ICELW Paper—Leadership 5.0 An Agile Mindset for a Digital Fut

ICELW Paper—Leadership 5.0: An Agile Mindset for a Digital
Future
Leadership 5.0:
An Agile Mindset for a Digital Future
https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v13i2.17033
Fernando Salvetti(*), Barbara Bertagni
Centro Studi Logos, Turin, Italy – Logosnet, Lugano,
Switzerland and Houston, TX, USA
[email protected]
Abstract—This article is about a program aimed at fostering an
agile
mindset in young corporate leaders (under 40 years old)
working in the energy
sector, who are expected to be effective leaders in an ever more
digitalized
world; the program has been co-designed with Eni Corporate
University (Milan
and Rome, Italy) on behalf of the World Economic Forum
(Davos and Geneva,
Switzerland). Digital transformation is not only about
technology. It is also
mainly enabled by leadership that is grounded in 3 pillars:
teamwork, start-up
culture, and matrix management. Hot topics and key activities
include: a
business game for launching a new cryptocurrency; scenario
analysis and

immersive simulation within a mixed reality environment (e-
REAL); online
keynotes by seasoned faculty from Harvard, MIT and Stanford
with moderated
Q&A sessions to facilitate an interactive dialogue; a
collaborative platform to
enhance online learning and bridge between modules.
Keywords—Leadership Development, Agile Mindset, Digital
Revolution
1 The Vision Behind the Program, Its Architecture and Main
Pillars
“Leadership 5.0: An Agile Mindset for a Digital Future” is a
program co-designed
with the corporate university of Eni (Milan and Rome, Italy) on
behalf of the World
Economic Forum (Davos and Geneva, Switzerland) and in
collaboration with select
corporations in the energy sector. The kick-off is imminent.
Leadership 5.0 is intended to be a one-of-a-kind program aimed
at young leaders
from the participating companies, and designed to provide a
transformative
experience based on tailored activities.
Young leaders are intended to be persons with managerial
responsibilities, both in
core business units and staff functions. They are:
─ High potential leaders aged 40 or under.
─ Currently in a managerial role – i.e., they have direct
supervisory responsibility.
─ Located in the core business area or a staff/suppor t function.

iJAC ‒ Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020 57
Future
─ Qualified by a strong performance record – likely to be in the
top 15% of their peer
group.
─ Strong potential to progress into a larger and/or more
complex role within the next
three years.
─ Fluent in English, likely to be degree-level educated.
Figure 1 features the program’s overall architecture. Figure 2
summarizes the key
topics and pillars around which the program was designed.
Fig. 1. Program’s architecture
Fig. 2. Program’s key topics and pillars
In particular, the key topics are: industry 4.0; agile management
models for
organizing work, as well as motivating and engaging coworkers;
analytics and big
data for decision making. These are key topics because,
according to the vision that
leads the instructional design process, digital transformation is
not only about

58 http://www.i-jac.org
Future
technology but also largely about a specific mindset. If people
lack the right mindset
to change, and the current organizational practices are flawed,
then digital
transformation will simply magnify those flaws [2].
Industry 4.0 is the technology revolution that is changing the
way we live, work
and relate to one another. Billions of people are connected by
mobile devices, with
unprecedented processing power, storage capabilities and access
to knowledge.
Ubiquitous super-computing, intelligent robots and “cobots” are
enabling a new era of
human-machine cooperation, self-driving cars, neuro-
technological brain
enhancements, genetic editing, the confluence of artificial
intelligence, robotics and
the Internet of (every-)things with quantum computing and a
new 5.0 world. The
evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it’s happening
at exponential speed.
(Figure 3)[3][4].
Fig. 3. Industry 4.0 in a nutshell
Digital transformation is not just about technology, but also a

digital mindset.
According to the program’s vision, a digital mindset is mainly
enabled by leadership
that is grounded in 3 pillars: Teamwork, Start-up culture,
Matrix management.
a) Teamwork is more and more diverse, dispersed, digital, and
dynamic—with
frequent changes in membership and contributors with multiple
affiliations, from
within the corporation or from different companies of the same
group or,
moreover, from the “outside” world as providers, partners,
external experts [5].
iJAC ‒ Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020 59
Future
The diverse tools, data repositories and workflows across
disparate functions
exacerbate enterprise disorganization, resulting in a work
ecosystem that is largely
analog and siloed. Young leaders are expected to rethink how
teams work together
across their corporations and apply a modern approach to work
with new systems and
models, enabled by innovative digital tools.
b) Growing a start-up culture within a corporation is very
challenging, but well worth
the effort: it inspires people to contribute their talent and
enthusiasm, and fosters a

sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. As long as this
spirit persists,
engagement is high and organizational dynamics remain agile
and innovative,
spurring growth [6].
The process of digital transformation is inherently uncertain:
changes need to be
made provisionally and then adjusted; decisions need to be
made quickly; and groups
from all over the organization need to get involved. As a result,
traditional hierarchies
get in the way. It’s best to adopt a flat organizational structure
that is kept somewhat
separate from the rest of the organization. Silicon Valley start-
ups are known for their
agile decision making, rapid prototyping and flat structures.
Ideally, they have to
merge with a matrix management frame of mind.
c) Matrix management is perhaps the main issue today. Top-
level executives in many
of today’s leading corporations are losing control of their
companies. The problem
is that their companies are organizationally incapable of
carrying out the
sophisticated strategies they have developed. Over the past 30
years, strategic
thinking has far outdistanced organizational capabilities. The
matrix has proven to
be all but unmanageable, especially in the international context
that is VUCA
(Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous). Dual reporting
has led to conflict
and confusion; the proliferation of channels has created
informational logjams as

proliferation of committees and reports bogged down the
organization; and
overlapping responsibilities produced turf battles and a loss of
accountability.
Separated by barriers of distance, language, time, and culture,
managers found it
virtually impossible to clarify the confusion and resolve the
conflicts.
Paradoxically, as strategies and organizations become more
complex and
sophisticated, top-level general managers are beginning to
replace their historical
concentration on the grand issues of strategy and structure w ith
a focus on the
details of managing people and processes. This critical strategic
requirement is not
focused on devising the most ingenious and well-coordinated
plan, but instead on
building the most viable and flexible strategic process; the key
organizational task
is not to design the most elegant structure, but to capture
individual capabilities
and motivate the entire organization to respond cooperatively to
a complicated and
dynamic environment [7].
Vertical silos of functions, geographies and business units are
very strong and
difficult to bypass. However, it is networks, communities, teams
and groups, and how
they work together in the matrix, that are far more important.
Matrix organizations

Future
will increasingly rely on the way people work together to give
them the flexibility
they need to respond quickly to change and innovation
challenges.
2 The Vision
The main activities to be included in the program are the
following:
1. A business game which facilitates a direct understanding of
the key aspects related
to the digital revolution: cloud computing and virtualized
servers, Blockchain,
Bitcoin and Ethereum, Etherscan, MetaMask, Smart Contracts,
etc., to launch a
new cryptocurrency, while cooperating with a team and
competing with other
teams.
2. Immersive simulations on decision making within a portable
e-REAL® escape
room. e-REAL is an immersive simulation of enhanced reality.
It uses projectors
and touch-tracking cameras to turn blank walls and empty
spaces into immersive
and interactive environments. e-REAL is a system where
physical and digital
objects co-exist and interact in real time (mixed or hybrid
reality), in a real place
and not within a virtual or augmented reality headset. It helps
create interactive

virtual and augmented reality environments for use in business,
industry and
education. The e-REAL immersive setting is fully interactive
with 3-D holographic
visualization, talking avatars, electronically writable surfaces
and much more
(Figure 4)[8][9].
Fig. 4. Portable e-REAL® pop-up custom designed for Eni
Corporate University and the
World Economic Forum
This virtualized escape room within the e-REAL setting has
been designed to
foster collaborative analysis, knowledge sharing, effective
teamwork, and dynamic
decision making. Cognitive biases, fixation errors and other
obstacles to overcome are
assured… and evitable!
iJAC ‒ Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020 61
Future
3. Interactive scenario analysis—within the same e-REAL
portable pop-up—to learn
from other industries that have been through digital
transformation (Figures 5, 6,
7).
4. Online synchronous keynote speeches by faculty from

Harvard, MIT and Stanford,
with moderated Q&A sessions to facilitate an interactive
dialogue (Figure 6).
Fig. 5. e-REAL® representative interactive scenarios
Fig. 6. e-REAL® representative interactive scenarios
Future
Fig. 7. e-REAL® representative interactive infographic
Fig. 8. Representative e-REAL® interactive scenario
iJAC ‒ Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020 63
Future
5. A collaborative platform to enhance online learning that is
very easy to use:
whether on desktop or mobile, morning or night, learners can
easily access training
on their schedule - no matter the device, operating system, or
connection stability.

The platform allows for training people, measuring results,
driving growth, and
bridging different modules (blended learning) (Figure 7).
Fig. 9. Ubiquitous online learning
3 Leadership 5.0
Leaders are confronted by a constantly changing, complex, and
challenging
business environment. To lead effectively in today’s world, they
need to upgrade their
understanding and practice of leadership in order to meet the
new challenges that
confront them from every direction at dizzying speeds.
Leadership 5.0 integrates four integral principles: mastering
context; aligning
competencies; constructing character; creating connection.
Mastering context: contextual elements include environmental
factors (industry,
legal and regulatory constraints, and public expectations),
internal organizational
drivers (business targets/metrics, prevailing culture and values,
norms and practices,
and working paradigms and mental models), and individual
factors (personal
knowledge and skills, as well as worldviews, assumptions, and
perceptions). All
factors affect and are affected by the entire team, organization,
and external
stakeholders.
Aligning competencies focuses on conceptual, technical,

interpersonal and
relational competencies. Conceptual competencies refer to the
ability to devise
constructs, paradigms, and mental models. The stronger the
alignment between
models and experience, the more effective leaders are.
Technical competencies relate
to the level of personal knowledge, skill, and experience leaders
have within a given
Future
field. Interpersonal and relational competencies involve the
skills of observation,
listening and communication as they relate to interacting and
working with others in a
mutually productive manner.
Constructing character focuses on a commitment to continuing
evolution as a
person, to growth in the ability to think, feel and act out of a
grounded, centered self.
Creating connection relates to discovering, displaying, and
conveying the passion
leaders bring to their mission and people.
5.0 leadership in a 4.0 industrial and digital society is a key
perspective in
understanding our business world [10], as well as 5.0 society,
which is a very

interesting trend mainly discussed in Japan [11]. With our
program, Eni Corporate
University and the World Economic Forum are pioneering a
crucial area of
development and launching a very innovative learning program.
4 References
[1] Helmreich, R.L., Merritt, A.C. and Wilhelm, J.A., 1999. The
evolution of crew resource
management training in commercial aviation. The International
Journal of Aviation
Psychology, 9(1), pp.19-32.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315092898-15
[2] Tabrizi B., Lam E., Girard K., Irvin V., 2019. Digital
Transformation Is Not About
Technology. Harvard Business Review, March.
[3] Schwab K., 2016. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva
and Davos: World Economic
Forum - New York: Crown Business.
[4] Salvetti F., Bertagni B.(eds.), 2018. Learning 4.0. Advanced
Simulation, Immersive
Experiences and Artificial Intelligence, Flipped Classrooms,
Mentoring and Coaching.
Milan: Franco Angeli.
[5] Haas M., Mortensen M., 2016. The Secrets of Grerat
Teamwork. Harvard Business
Review, June.
[6] Gulati R., 2019. The Soul of a Start-Up. Harvard Business
Review, July-August.
[7] Bartlett C.A., Ghosal S., 1990. Matrix Management: Not a

Structure, but a Frame of Mind.
Harvard Business Review, July-August.
[8] www.e-real.net
[9] Salvetti F., Bertagni B., 2019. Virtual worlds and augmented
reality: The enhanced reality
lab as a best practice for advanced simulation and immersive
learning. [email protected] –
University of Florence (Italy), vol. 19, no. 1.
[10] Akkaya B., 2020. Leadership 5.0 in Industry 4.0:
Leadership in Perspective of
Organizational Agility. In: Akkaya B. (Ed.). Managing
Operations Throughout Global
Supply Chains (to be published). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-
5225-8157-4.ch007
[11] Government of Japan, Prime Minister Cabinet Office:
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp
/english/society5_0/index.html
5 Authors
Fernando Salvetti (J.D., P.P.E., M.Phil., Ph.D.), Founder of
Centro Studi Logos in
Turin and Logosnet in Lugano, Berlin and Houston, is an
epistemologist, an
anthropologist and a lawyer who co-designed e-REAL, the
enhanced reality lab where
virtual and real worlds are merging within an advanced
simulation environment. He is
iJAC ‒ Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020 65

Future
committed to exploring virtual and augmented reality, cognitive
aids by artificial
intelligence, visual thinking, interactive and immersive
learning, emerging scenarios
and trends, and cross-cultural intelligence ([email protected]).
Barbara Bertagni (B.Sc., B.A., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.,
Clin.Psy.D), Founder of
Centro Studi Logos in Turin and Logosnet in Lugano, Berlin
and Houston, as well as
e-REAL co-designer, is a clinical psychologist, an
anthropologist and a practical
philosopher particularly involved with personal and
professional development,
coaching and mentoring, immersive learning and advanced
simulation. She works as a
sparring partner, a coach and a mentor advising people and
organizations across the
globe ([email protected]).
Article submitted 2020-07-14. Resubmitted 2020-07-28. Final
acceptance 2020-07-28. Final version
published as submitted by the authors.
© 2020. This work is published under
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/at/deed.en (the
“License”).
Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may

use this
content in accordance with the terms of the License.
You are the site manager for a health care center caring for an
urban population experiencing homelessness. After the
identification of patient safety concerns, you have realized the
need to institute a new quality initiative regarding how patients’
home medications are stored when they are admitted. This new
initiative involves the cooperation of the security and nursing
staff. While most of the staff understand and are following the
new policy, there appears to be difficulty any time Lisa – a
security guard – and Tom – an LPN – are working together. In
1,000-1,250 words, examine the following based on the scenario
above:
Assess three best practices in leading others through the change
process. These should be evidence-based best practices.
Discuss how you would ensure your team is working together
successfully.
List two approaches you can use in having a difficult
conversation to address conflict on your team.
Describe methods you would use to resolve conflict on your
team.
Provide three to five scholarly resources, in addition to
information from your textbook.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the
APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An
abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to
beginning the assignment to become familiar with the
expectations for successful completion.
Assessment of 3 best practices leading others through change

process is clear, concise and makes connections to current
research
Discuss how you would ensure the team is working successfully
together.
List two approaches that can be used to conduct difficult
conversation to address conflict on a team is clear, concise, and
makes connections to current research.
Description of methods used to resolve conflict is clear,
concise, and makes connections to current research.
Description of methods used to resolve conflict is clear,
concise, and makes connections to current research.
34 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPRING 2019
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
L E A D I N G D I G I T A L C H A N G E : S K I L L B U I
L D I N G
How Digital
Leadership Is(n’t)
Different
Leaders must blend traditional and new skills to
effectively guide their organizations into the future.
BY GERALD C. KANE, ANH NGUYEN PHILLIPS,
JONATHAN COPULSKY, AND GARTH ANDRUS
W
hen describing the new digital reality for organizations,
people tend to fall into two camps. Some argue that the
future will be more like the past than not, agreeing with

the sentiment, “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.”1 Others think the future will be
more novel, believing, “No one can possibly know what is
about to happen: It is happening, each time, for the first
time, for the only time.”2
Either way you look at it, as organizations seek their
footing in a turbulent business environment, they require
strong leaders at the helm. Senior leaders must not only
articulate a vision people can rally around but also
create the conditions that enable digital maturity, attracting the
best talent and bringing out the best in the
talent they attract. The rapid changes associated with digital
disruption can be disorienting, so many of us
assume the leadership handbook must be completely rewritten
for the digital age. Is this true? Or are greater
and greater levels of uncertainty causing us to neglect the
essentials? Is it possible the leadership challenges
of the digital world are more the same than different but we are
overly focused on what’s different because
we are so alarmed by the threats to the status quo?
There is something to be said for both arguments. Over the past
five years, in a joint research project with

MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, we have studied
how business and leadership are changing as
a result of digital disruption. (See “About the Research,” p. 36.)
We have found that while many core leader-
ship skills remain the same, the particular demands of digital
disruption call for certain new skills as well.
SPRING 2019 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW
35PLEASE NOTE THAT GRAY AREAS REFLECT ARTWORK
THAT HAS BEEN INTENTIONALLY REMOVED.
THE SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE APPEARS
AS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED.
Here, we will explore which are which and what we
can learn from organizations that are digitally
maturing — that is, those that have been transformed
by digital technologies and capabilities that improve
processes, engage talent across the organization, and
drive new value-generating business models.
What Makes Digital
Leadership Different
Leaders face new challenges as a result of digital dis-
ruption. The biggest changes respondents cited in

our research are the increased pace of doing busi-
ness, the shift in organizational culture (and the
corresponding tensions between “change makers”
and employees with a traditional mindset), the need
for a flexible and distributed workplace, and greater
expectations of productivity. So it stands to reason
leaders need to adapt or augment some of their core
skills to navigate the digital world. To identify which
capabilities matter most in organizations, we asked
survey respondents, “What is the most important
skill organizational leaders should have to succeed in
a digital workplace?” (See “What’s Distinctive About
Digital Business and Digital Leadership?” p. 37.)
Taken together, the responses paint a compelling
composite picture of what effective leadership looks
like in a digital environment. The following traits
stand out as most critical.
Transformative vision and forward-looking

perspective. Providing vision and direction have
been long-standing essential components of leader-
ship. But in a digital environment, with the emphasis
on future change, they take on new significance.
In our survey, 22% of respondents say the most
THE
LEADING
QUESTION
How can lead-
ers seed their
organizations
with the man-
agement talent
needed to pull
off a digital
transformation?
FINDINGS
* Leaders can bring in
“anchor hires” with
deep experience in
digital transformation
to jump-start the
process.
* They can update the
executive team’s digi-
tal literacy through
continuing education
sessions and
exercises.

* They can clearly
articulate strategy
to make it easier for
emerging leaders to
make decisions and
then reward those
who learn from
failure.
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
L D I N G
important leadership skill to possess in a digital orga-
nization is a transformative vision, which includes
the ability to anticipate markets and trends, make
savvy business decisions, and solve tough problems
in turbulent times. The second most important is
being forward-looking (20%), which includes having
clear vision, sound strategy, and foresight. These skill
sets are closely related. We interpret the latter as
understanding how business trends are evolving be-

cause of technology and the former as being able to
guide the business in response to those trends.
Leaders with a transformative vision are equipped to
provide purpose and direction. How is that even pos-
sible when you’re facing an uncertain future? John
Glaser, senior vice president of population health at
Cerner, a health information technology provider,
had this to say when he described his approach to us:
“Work on things that are likely to be relevant to many
possible futures. Tell me a future in which engaging
patients to manage their own health is a bad idea, be-
cause I don’t see that future at all. So I may not know
how it’s going to play out, but under almost any con-
ceivable circumstance, these things will be relevant.”
Digital literacy. Understanding technology is the
third most important skill. Such a requirement may
seem obvious at a glance, but our survey respondents
define it in a particular way. They put a premium on

previous experience in a technology leadership role
but also say leaders need to have general digital literacy,
as opposed to hard-core technical skills like program-
ming or data science. Digital literacy is critical for two
reasons. First, it supports the first two leadership skills
cited: having transformative vision and being forward-
looking. A leader who is not digitally literate will
struggle to keep abreast of emerging trends and devel -
opments and will fail to grasp how those trends can
bring new value or represent a threat to the organiza-
tion. Second, understanding at a high level how
technology does (and does not) work enables leaders
to make more informed decisions in an uncertain en-
vironment. We observe in our research and consulting
work that it is often much easier and more effective to
help established business leaders become digitally
literate than it is to teach technologists the strategic
knowledge they need to lead effectively.

Adaptability. Tied for the third most important
capability, a leader must also be change-oriented —
that is, open-minded, adaptable, and innovative. Like
digital literacy, this skill supports other traits reported
as valuable. It helps leaders respond to a fluid envi -
ronment and change course if the technology and
market environments evolve in unanticipated ways.
This mindset also enables a digital leader to continu-
ally update his or her knowledge stores to account for
changes in technology and avoid obsolescence.
Leaders can replenish their knowledge stores through
formal continuing education, in-house training,
cross-generational reverse-mentoring programs, or
any of an abundance of online programs.
What Stays the Same
Of course, even though some things change with
respect to digital leadership, that doesn’t mean ev-
erything does. Indeed, one of the biggest pitfalls is
to ignore the fundamentals of good leadership in

the face of digital change. We find that leaders often
become so focused on the technological aspects
that they forget why they are engaged in these ef-
forts in the first place: to improve the way their
company does business. So here, we’ll call out a few
core skills that remain essential.
Articulating the value change will bring — and
investing accordingly. Digital transformation is
driven by new technology, but that technology is only
as valuable as the new business strategies and practices
it enables. Before leaping into any new technology,
leaders must be able to clearly articulate why they
need to invest in it. Too few executives display this
kind of discipline in the midst of all the digital noise.
Making matters worse, leaders also tend to expect
projects to go well without giving them proper finan-
cial support and resourcing. But not surprisingly, 75%
of survey respondents who say their company has

made appropriate levels of investment report success-
ful initiatives, while only 34% of those who say their
company does not commit sufficient time, energy,
and resources report successful outcomes.
Owning the transformation. When executives
delegate responsibility for digital business to
the technologists, it is a recipe for near-certain
failure. For example, we’ve seen technologists
flawlessly implement enterprise social media or col -
laboration platforms without conducting any
training or behavioral change initiatives to accom-
pany the launch. The result is often a beautiful
technology platform that employees don’t actually
ABOUT THE
RESEARCH
Over the past five years, we
have surveyed more than
20,000 business executives,
managers, and analysts
around the world to under-
stand the challenges and
opportunities associated

with digital transformation.
Each year, we have received
between 3,700 and 4,800 re-
sponses, capturing insights
from individuals in more than
120 countries and 28 indus-
tries, from organizations of
various sizes. More than
two-thirds of the respon-
dents are from outside the
U.S. The sample is drawn
from a number of sources,
including MIT Sloan Manage-
ment Review readers,
Deloitte Dbriefs webcast
subscribers, and other inter-
ested parties. We have also
interviewed more than 140
business executives from
a number of industries,
thought leaders, and aca-
demics to understand the
practical issues facing
organizations today. Their in-
sights contribute to a richer
understanding of the data.
A more complete treatment
of our research will appear
in the forthcoming MIT
Press book The Technology
Fallacy: How People Are the
Real Key to Digital Transfor-
mation (April 2019)

SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU SPRING 2019 MIT SLOAN
MANAGEMENT REVIEW 37
use. As with any change effort, top management in-
volvement and support signal prioritization and can
help align the rest of the organization behind a digital
transformation. It then becomes a cross-enterprise,
cross-functional endeavor, which makes it possible to
move from simply doing or adopting new technolo-
gies to being more digital as an organization. When
we asked respondents which part of the organization
was most likely to lead an organization’s digital initia-
tives, the least digitally mature companies tended to
situate projects in a functional area, such as IT
or marketing. (See “Strategy: Who Leads Digital
Progress?” p. 38.) Digitally maturing companies,
however, were nearly twice as likely to situate digital
efforts in the CEO’s office.3
Equipping employees to succeed. Another
aspect of good leadership that has not changed in-

volves enabling and empowering employees to carry
out new initiatives. A strong mandate from the top
isn’t enough. If you expect employees to engage in
new processes just because your company adopts a
new technology, you’re bound to be disappointed.
In the context of their existing job responsibilities,
employees typically don’t have the time or the know-
how to figure out new ways of working on the fly.
Leaders must set up employees for success. Among
respondents who report their organization provides
them with the resources and opportunities to thrive
in a digital environment, 72% say their digital initia-
tives are successful. However, among respondents
who say their company does not provide such
opportunities and resources, only 24% report suc-
cessful digital initiatives. Digital transformation is
both a top-down and a bottom-up effort.
Leaders can support employees in many ways —

for instance, by providing adequate training,
moving employees within the organization to learn
other ways of doing things from coworkers, and
giving them time and space to adapt so the neces-
sary learning feels doable in the context of their
other job responsibilities.
Developing the Right Muscles,
Mindsets, and Mettle
In the spirit of leading through others (which is,
after all, what senior executives are meant to do),
it’s critical to seed the organization with the man-
agement talent it needs to pull off and maintain a
transformation — and develop and enable the
right skills at all levels. To those ends, what can you
learn from digitally maturing companies? Here are
some lessons we gleaned from our research.
1
Hire digital leaders to get the ball rolling.
Many organizations have overlooked digital

transformation for so long that they don’t
even know where to begin. But they can make so-
called anchor hires to catalyze the process. These
are outside leaders with deep digital transforma-
tion experience who can provide the needed
expertise and perspective. For example, to begin
driving digital change, John Hancock hired a new
WHAT’S DISTINCTIVE ABOUT DIGITAL BUSINESS
AND DIGITAL LEADERSHIP?
When 3,300 survey respondents completed open-ended
questions about how
digital business differs from traditional business and what key
skill leaders will
need to develop, their responses broke down as follows:
What is the biggest difference between working in a digital
environment
versus a traditional one?
PACE OF BUSINESS: Speed, rate of change
CULTURE AND MINDSET: Creativity, learning, risk-taking
FLEXIBLE, DISTRIBUTED WORKPLACE: Collaboration,
decision-making, transparency
PRODUCTIVITY: Streamlined processes, continuous
improvement

IMPROVED ACCESS TO, USE OF TOOLS: Greater data
availability, technology performance
CONNECTIVITY: Remote working, always on
OTHER/NO DIFFERENCE
What is the most important skill organizational leaders should
have to
succeed in a digital workplace? (Only one skill accepted per
response.)
TRANSFORMATIVE VISION: Knowledge of market and
trends, business acumen, problem solver
FORWARD-LOOKING: Clear vision, sound strategy, foresight
UNDERSTANDS TECHNOLOGY: Prior experience, digital
literacy
CHANGE ORIENTED: Open-minded, adaptable, innovative
STRONG LEADERSHIP: Pragmatic, focused, decisive
OTHER: For example, collaborative, team builder
23%
19%
18%
16%
13%

10%
1%
22%
20%
18%
18%
11%
11%
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
L D I N G
chief marketing officer who brought a small team
of managers that then developed innovative digital
initiatives that were insulated from the bureaucracy
of the rest of the organization. Once the digital
initiatives began to flourish, the team used the suc-
cesses to serve as a proof of concept to begin driving

change across the organization.
So, what skills do you need to look for in anchor
hires? The focus should be on two major areas:
• Having a track record of producing digital prod-
ucts with measurable value.
• Demonstrating the ability to enable and system-
atize into the organization a new way of thinking
and doing.
Bringing these skills in from the outside will
support the organization’s transformation, but it is
also important to sustain what has been built. For
that, you’ll need an entirely different, operational
skill set, which you may well find internally.
2
Regularly refresh your senior team’s digital
literacy. Let’s say your company’s leadership
team graduated from college more than five
years ago (in most organizations, top leaders have been
out of school for much longer than that). The odds are

strong that you need to update their digital literacy if
you haven’t already been taking steps to do so. Data
and analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, auton-
omous vehicles, additive manufacturing, virtual and
augmented reality, and other emerging technologies
are poised to radically reshape the business environ-
ment over the next decade. Certainly, most executives
don’t have the time, skill set, or inclination to become
sophisticated data scientists or software developers.
Nevertheless, virtually all executives are capable of
understanding new technologies at a strategic level
so that they can make decisions accordingly.
One solution here is simply to have ongoing con-
tinuing education sessions with your organization’s
leadership. As a part of those sessions, leaders can
engage in what many in Silicon Valley call zoom-in/
zoom-out strategizing, guided by facilitators with
deep digital knowledge. In this process, your execu-

tives forecast what your business or industry will
look like in 10 years as a result of a particular tech-
nology or general digital trends, and then they plot
what moves will be necessary in the next 12 to 18
months for your organization to begin preparing for
that future. While it is unlikely you will accurately
predict the future, this exercise helps you avoid the
all-too-common trap of strategizing about the cur-
rent digital environment instead of the one that will
be here by the time your strategies come to fruition.
3
Create an environment where new leaders
can step up. Digital business moves too
quickly for your managers and employees to
wait for marching orders to deal with every situa-
tion. Leaders need to clearly communicate strategic
objectives so front-line and middle managers can
make sound decisions on the ground and have

enough time and opportunity to experiment with
new ways of leading in a digital environment. One of
the most critical skills everyone needs to develop is
the ability to lead networks of people and teams,
rather than leading via a hierarchy. Traditional
leaders who take a waterfall approach to managing
communications and decisions — that is, those who
favor a linear and sequential approach to organi-
zational leadership — create bottlenecks and choke
points when speed is needed. In contrast, a network
approach facilitates iterative, fast, collaborative con-
versations and decisions by proliferating many small
nodes of communication and decision-making that
extend far beyond organizational lines and boxes. If
decision rights are clear, enabling, and communi-
cated, senior leaders can enhance the quality and
speed of these expanding networks by opening doors,
removing barriers, engaging with teams in collabora-

tive work, helping them become more agile, and
focusing on innovating day-to-day work.
STRATEGY: WHO LEADS DIGITAL PROGRESS?
Respondents in digitally maturing companies say their CEO’s
office is primarily heading
up transformation efforts. In early-stage companies, it’s often
IT.
EARLY STAGE DEVELOPING DIGITALLY MATURING
Information technology
23%
CEO’s office
31%
CEO’s office
41%
CEO’s office
22%
20%
16%
Marketing
10%
Marketing
9%

Marketing
7%
Operations
7%
Operations
7%
Product development
7%
PERCENTAGES REFLECT THOSE RESPONDENTS
RANKING THE CHOICE AS NO. 1.
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU SPRING 2019 MIT SLOAN
MANAGEMENT REVIEW 39
4
Cultivate a culture of experimentation.
Finally, leaders should think like innovators
and provide the space for employees to try
new things, learn from them, adjust, and scale.
Most organizations pay lip service to the concept of
failing fast but, in fact, send implicit messages that
“failure is not an option.” To avoid conveying mixed
signals, you can actively encourage and reward

learning that comes with less-than-successful
efforts — often called failing forward. As Richard
Gingras, vice president of Google News, told us,
“It’s really not that important if the experiment
succeeds or fails; it’s what they learn from it. Good,
bad, or indifferent, it is intelligence that they can lay
claim to. Maybe it didn’t work out the way we
thought it would, but we learned X, Y, and Z, and
we’re not embarrassed by the fact that our initial
assumptions were wrong. There are no failures. We
tried something, and we learned something.”
SO, WHAT KIND OF leaders do we need for the era
of digital disruption? Commanders who study past
battles with an eye toward gleaning lessons learned,
or intrepid adventurers who believe what is hap-
pening now is nothing like what has ever happened
before? The answer is a healthy blend of both: lead-
ers who have the core skills cultivated from the

insights of the past, but with the agile mindset and
digital savvy to allow them to pivot when necessary.
In short, we need leaders who can “be the change
we seek.”
Gerald C. Kane (@profkane) is a professor of infor-
mation systems at Boston College and the faculty
director of the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entre-
preneurship. Anh Nguyen Phillips (@anhphillips)
is a researcher and author from Deloitte’s Center
for Integrated Research, where she leads research
on digital transformation. Jonathan Copulsky
(@jcopulsky) teaches marketing at Northwestern
University and serves as program director for the
Kellogg Executive Education Business Marketing
course. Garth Andrus (@garth_ot) is a principal and
global leader of Digital DNA solutions at Deloitte. They
are the authors of the forthcoming MIT Press book
The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real
Key to Digital Transformation (April 2019),
from which this article is adapted. Comment on
this article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/60309.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Stacey Philpot of Deloitte
Consulting LLP for her contributions to this article.
REFERENCES
1. G. Santayana, The Life of Reason: The Phases of
Human Progress, Vol. 1: Reason in Common Sense

(New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 284.
2. J. Baldwin, “The Devil Finds Work,” sec. 1, The Price
of the Ticket (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985).
3. G.C. Kane, “Is the Right Group Leading Your Digital Ini-
tiatives?” MIT Sloan Management Review, Aug. 3, 2018.
Reprint 60309.
Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019.
All rights reserved.
THERE’S NEVER ENOUGH DIGITAL LEADERSHIP
Whatever digital leadership consists of, one thing our research
clearly shows is
that it is very much in demand. When asked whether their
organization needs to
find new leaders to succeed in the digital age, 68% of
respondents agreed that
their organization does, indeed, need new leadership to
compete. What is more
striking is the consistency across digital maturity categories in
these responses.
As you might expect, 77% of respondents from early-stage
companies report
needing new leaders, but so do 55% of those from maturing
companies.
Respondents who answered “strongly agree” or “agree.”
There just aren’t enough digital leaders who are meeting the
challenges most
companies face. But here is where digitally maturing companies
distinguish
themselves from their less mature counterparts: They are doing
something

to address the problem. When we asked whether organizations
are effectively
developing the leadership capabilities they need in a digital age,
the difference
in responses was considerable. While around two-thirds of
respondents from
maturing companies say that they are doing so, only 33% of
developing-stage
companies and 13% of early-stage companies say the same.
My organization needs to find
new leaders for it to succeed in
the digital age.
My organization is effectively
developing leaders who have the
capabilities necessary to lead the
organization in a digital environment.
100%
80
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
EARLY DEVELOPING MATURING
Leadership
Gap

Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further
reproduction
prohibited without permission.
Literature Review Explanation & Layout
Definition: A literature review is an objective, critical summary
of published research literature
relevant to a topic under consideration for research. Its purpose
is to create familiarity with
current thinking and research on a particular topic and may
justify future research into a
previously overlooked or understudied area.
The standard review consists of the following components:
1. Introduction:
• A concise definition of a topic under consideration (this may
be a descriptive or argumentative
thesis, or proposal), as well as the scope of the related literature
being investigated. For
example: If the topic under consideration is ‘wartime diaries’,
the scope of the review may be

limited to published or unpublished works, works in English,
works from a particular location,
time period, or conflict, etc.)
• The introduction should also note intentional exclusions.
(Example: “This review will not
explore the diaries of a particular group of people.”)
• Another purpose of the introduction is to state the general
findings of the review (what do most
of the sources conclude), and comment on the availability of
sources in the subject area.
2. Main Body:
• There are many ways to organize the evaluation of the
sources. Chronological and theme
based approaches are each useful examples.
• Each work should be critically summarized and evaluated for
its premise, methodology, and
conclusion. It is as important to address inconsistencies,
omissions, and errors, as it is to
identify accuracy, depth, and relevance.
• Use logical connections and transitions to connect sources.
3. Conclusion

• The conclusion summarizes the key findings of the review in
general terms. Notable
commonalities between works, whether favourable or not, may
be included here.
• This section is the reviewer’s opportunity to justify a research
proposal. Therefore, the idea
should be clearly re-stated and supported according to the
findings of the review.
4. References
• As well as accurate in-text citations, a literature review must
contain complete and correct
citations for every source.
1
RUNNING HEAD: Leadership
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN TODAY’S DIGITAL WORLD
Effective Leadership in Today's Digital World
Instructor

Institution
Course
Date
Leadership
Effective Leadership in Today's Digital World
In the current digital era, technological changes have
influenced leadership effectiveness in various ways. Thus, the
understanding of effective leadership within the digitalized
world or culture revolves around leaders having the power to
inspire, encourage, engage and lead others with clarity and
optimism (Hensellek, 2020). As a result, the need for effective
leadership remains as maintaining focus on building leadership
communication skills, encouraging autonomy among team
members, and identifying objectives. Salvetti & Bertagni (2020)
reveal that corporate leaders operating under the wave of digital
transformation are enhancing their effectiveness through
digitalized teamwork, start-up cultures, and matrix management.
In this topic proposal, the intended study issue to address
is the adaptability to handle pressure and constant changes and
taking decisions with agility. The effectiveness of digital -based
leadership enables a leader to avoid losing the significance of
various projects via faults. According to Salvetti & Bertagni
(2020), the roles of young leaders in the current complicated
and digitalized leadership settings need more agile models or
teams to cultivate a dynamic mindset that can promote
digitalized collaborative partnerships and effectiveness.

Leadership and technology are the general areas of study
within which the research falls. This area has rich sources of the
current state of knowledge and dominates the current global
debates. For instance, the current research by Kane et al. (2019)
shows that digital transformation requires influential leaders to
think like innovators to avoid failures. Innovative leadership
allows employees or followers to attempt new things and adjust
to technological changes. Thus, the best effective leadership
needed for the current digital disruption era allows a leader to
understand the past leadership challenges toward gleaning the
learned lessons (Kane et al., 2019). An exemplary blend of
leaders possessing the core skills based on past insights, but
with the agile mindset and digital savvy forms leadership that
offers the changes needed by people.
References

Hensellek, S. (2020). Digital leadership: A framework for
successful leadership in the digital age. Journal of Media
Management and Entrepreneurship (JMME), 2(1), 55-69.
Kane, G. C., Phillips, A. N., Copulsky, J., & Andrus, G. (2019).
How digital leadership is (n't) different. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 60(3), 34-39.
Salvetti, F., & Bertagni, B. (2020). Leadership 5.0: An Agile
Mindset for, 2(13).

ICELW Paper—Leadership 5.0 An Agile Mindset for a Digital Fut

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