Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Shape an Advanced Corporate Board with “Digital Character”

Either individually or collectively, understanding character is very relevant and timely for those leaders who are seeking new ways to deepen leadership influence or maximize human capital in their organizations.

Digital is fluid, digital is also complex. It becomes complex if things do interact, particularly in the case of nonlinear interaction and interdependent relationship. To steer the organization in the right direction, contemporary Boards of Directors today need to present strong character and high digital acumen in order to overcome challenges and drive transformative changes smoothly. Character-based leadership is authentic, energetic, and motivational. But more specifically, how to shape an advanced corporate board with digital character?



Overseeing the character of strategy: A strategy is a ways chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal. Strategy is a living ever-evolving pivoting mechanism. However, without integrity of character, the best strategy will fail to inspire confidence. The corporate board oversees organizational strategies by asking senior leadership teams: Would a solid strategy still be plausible or does strategy suffer too where the character is flawed and trust is lost? The strategy is how that state is realized externally. Without character, the strategy is just a style without substance. Without integrity of character, the good strategy will fail to inspire confidence. There is a lack of passion, motivation, and engagement to implement the strategy. In fact, without character, no strategy can save you from many barriers and numerous pitfalls on the way.

Practicing character-based leadership in the boardroom: Character is more than intelligence, integrity, ethics, judgment, self-awareness, empathy or emotional health. Top leaders’ character will make a significant impact on shaping business/societal culture which is the collective mindset and attitude. Character-based leadership is how to lead with authenticity which comes from both heart and mind, demonstrates self-awareness and fair judgment, and provides you a well-rounded baseline of the "character,” To assess and develop the corporate board with “digital character,” it’s important to break down assessment types to multiple aspects such as critical thinking, creativity, cognitive skills, decision-making biases; motivational drivers and passions; behavioral styles and patterns, etc. Shape an advanced corporate board with digital character is more about nurturing the board room culture engendered by the character of board leaders who set the digital leadership tone and governs the corporate boardroom behavior.

Character builds trust in the boardroom: The corporate directors need to be diverse by mindsets, industry background, skills, experience level, and perspectives. Thus, trust is critical for an environment that thrives on useful dialogues. Trust allows the corporate board’s energy to continue forward even though the strategic plan has not yet been well articulated. If there is a trustful relationship in the board, conflicts within the group can stimulate deep discussions, spark collective creativity, improve decision maturity and streamline the corporate board productivity cycle. The desire to not understand much beyond your singular area of expertise can cause miscommunication and decelerate business speed. Building trustful corporate board requires leaders to share insight and wisdom, voice and influence in the areas and ecosystems they concern.

Either individually or collectively, understanding character is very relevant and timely for those leaders who are seeking new ways to deepen leadership influence or maximize human capital in their organizations. To steer the organization in the right direction and improve business performance effectiveness, it’s not about fixing weaknesses, it's about maximizing sound thinking and eliminating the negative influence of "weaknesses" and habits so that maximized value in all forms can be created.

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