Núria Vilanova, founder and president of ATREVIA, published an interesting opinion article in the print edition of the important economic Peruvian magazine Aptitus, titled “Analog or digital leaders”:
“The current corporate environment includes different leaders who inspire, engage and join forces: which organizes employees. The best manager can no longer control or propel the company by itself. This new era and the digital environment have generated another type of leadership: executives who manage accomplices and not subjects are aware that much of the success has increasingly to do with the alignment of employees with the goals and values of the company. Additionally, they interiorize the online era and its resources.
Today another leadership model is necessary which is based on the assumption of environments and digital platforms that changed the relationship of companies with their public and they should include corporate plans. It is also a new inward look to achieve employee commitment by making them the most effective brand ambassadors. Now this leadership is not vertical, it is horizontal. The great managers no longer define changes alone or oversee their guidelines so that they are followed to the letter. They can inspire employees in order to join forces. Years ago it was feasible to organize by using authority and now employees need to be inspired. All of this is explained in my book MICROPOWERS.
If senior managers want to be leaders of new generations, they should not turn their back on new parameters of internal communication or social media: speaking, listening and proximity. The leader should also do it on social media. Today communication is immediate and transparent, with less control because the user has greater influence on brands in the digital environment. We see reputable companies whose leaders are active in public forums but are absent in social media. This is as if the world has not changed and it is closed to strategic communication. There are directors without an online identity, irrelevant on the internet that refuse the opportunity to incorporate themselves to a viral trend for their company who deprive this as a key role in the digital environment that the company should implement in order to grow.
Should a leader choose to stand apart from the digital environment? I think that it cannot and it should not. This is an attitude that is more than an addition to the fear of the unknown or laziness for taking time for an activity that is not solely judged to reinforce the negative attitude of some managers to be champions of online companies. This is the activity that comes to the core. Online leadership forms part of the brand and it is an indispensible process for their identity.
Today, leadership based on internal communication and digital activity is the question of supervision and a strategic factor for the business”.