My hybrid roots
Talent that is born digital versus those who go digital often pursue different roles and trajectories.
Executives who are digital natives often hold roles that call for deep expertise and are more singularly focused. Born-digital executives tend to be motivated more by independence; going-digital executives are more often motivated by challenges — learning, growing, and pushing themselves.
In contrast, going-digital executives rank higher in people-oriented competencies: interpersonal savvy, collaboration, managing conflict, building teams, communication, persuasion, and inspiring and developing talent. These leaders tend to be strong at building relationships and influencing others — critical capabilities given the scope of most digitization strategies.
Going-digital executives are 28% more likely to score high in building collaborative relationships than their born-digital counterparts; born-digital executives are 20% more likely to score high in being flexible and adaptable.
I see myself as a hybrid of both — Gone Digital.
Another article — “How Digital Transformation is Shifting Talent and Hiring” — captures the broad scope of the experience I bring to every engagement.
Business rapidly changes course with the advent of new technology. Virtually every type of industry worldwide has transformed its practices in the face of new breakthroughs in connectivity and how people work.
Hiring practices have changed drastically, and a new type of talent is in high demand. I like to call them generalists. There has been a huge shift in what traits are desirable: agile, adaptable, and quick-learning employees are crucial for businesses that want to move at the pace of the rest of the business world.
A good generalist familiarizes quickly with new tech and business models while knowing where to find the best information available today. Sifting through the mind-boggling amount of available information may seem impossible — impossible for the person who doesn’t know where to look. That’s where generalists come in.