Leadership Strategies In The Digital World
By Mike Swigunski
Date Published: Feb 1, 2022
Top-down hierarchical business structures are a thing of the past and being a great leader is no longer just about qualifications and experience. Successful leadership requires participation and involvement — being right there on the ground with the troops. Becoming today’s digital-age leaders require a whole new skill set to motivate and inspire others amid the transitions and uncertainties of a rapidly changing digital landscape.
The Founder and CEO of Leadership Dynamics, Peter Cox, also known as “Coxey” believes that clued-in leaders need to be able to build teams with the tools to take ownership and make autonomous decisions which empowers them and grows their self-worth. Over the years, Coxey has mentored almost 18,000 individuals in one-on-one sessions and has spoken to over 2 million+ people on leadership and high performance.
He’s also the author of two books and the visionary behind a successful sales business in 29 countries with over 15,000+ sales agents. One of Peter’s programs, The Leading4Growth program High-performance Team Fundamentals is an online leadership program that helps leaders with highly effective strategies to grow their team and business.
Here’s Cox’s advice on how to build high-performance teams in the age of the digital economy.
Build Deep Connections With Your Team Virtually
The advent of the internet and remote work has turned the idea of business and leadership strategy on its head. And more than ever, leaders need to find a way to be engaging, rather than domineering, when steering their teams 1 on 1.
Coxey utilizes the 22 levels of Emotion from the Emotional Guidance Scale by Abraham and Hicks as a tool to identify how team members are feeling before starting an online meeting to build deeper rapport and grow trust. “To lead people virtually is to connect with where they are at emotionally. And feeling somebody’s vibe and emotional state can be extra tricky if you are interacting online rather than in person,” Coxey says.
Provide Direction And Purpose
Even in the digital age, people should always come first. As such, Coxey advises building an inclusive vision and mission for your team. A vision will not only provide your employees with a clear direction but help them work towards a common goal that they believe in. It’s never been more important to lead people to increase their engagement in their roles in responsibilities working remotely.
“In today’s business world, we are constantly in zoom calls or online meetings. However, these aren’t always productive. Rather than inundate your team with meetings, use your online time wisely to motivate and inspire,” Coxey says. “After all, when you grow people, you grow your team and organization. The product is not the product; the product is your people.”
Encourage Involvement And Accountability
Digital innovation has had a huge impact on how teams operate. According to Coxey, it’s crucial to build a company culture of accountability and respect which results in trust. This will empower individuals and teams to deal with digital processes away from the physical office space. Coxey has spent quality time with John Maxwell who advised him “What doesn’t get inspected, doesn’t get respected.” You don't micromanage people, you just inspect and this is how you grow leaders around you.
“I’ve got business partners and employees in Sydney and in India who I work with from my head office in the Gold Coast. I don't go to bed at night worrying whether they're doing a good job or not. This is because they've taken ownership of their responsibilities. They trust me. They don't want to let me down. They have something deeper than accountability, they have countability. The greatest compliment you can receive in life is being counted on,” Coxey learned from Maxwell.
Motivate And Inspire
Coxey is a strong believer in the power of Edification or promoting others. You can promote anyone but yourself. His TEDx Talk “Edification Changed My Life” highlighted the power of promoting people 1 on 1 privately, publicly in front of the entire team, or in writing/video. He also feels that great leaders need to be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes.
“When you see things from somebody else’s point of view, you are can see exactly what they need and help them. This is how you start to earn respect as a leader,” he says. “I believe in showing people that they can be superstars. This is how to develop a winning team culture and high-performance teams.”
Show Others The Way Forward
In this digital era, there is importance in a willingness to be led. In fact, for the past three decades, Coxey has sourced knowledge from several global entrepreneurs — something he believes has allowed him to become a successful leader himself.
“No one has all the answers,” Coxey says.
“To lead, first you must have the humility to be led by someone independent to your organization, someone who will stimulate and agitate you to grow in all areas of your life.” Being willing to be led gives you the authenticity to lead others which gives you the influence for people to truly want to follow you because they trust you.
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