The future of leadership: new digital skills or old analog virtues?

The digital transformation has a profound impact not only on the skills required from managers but also on the relationship between the managers and their team members. The authors of this study interviewed executive managers from companies established in Italy and Austria to find out their views on how the digital transformation will impact their role and how they interface with their team members.

According to the findings of the study, due to the rise of work-from-home options, leaders need to actively try to establish an emotional relationship with their team members to create an environment built on trust. Moreover, building on this, team leaders need to give enough time for informal information exchanges during meetings.

On the skills side, leaders need to have change management skills to shape and harness the potential of the digital transformation. Moreover, due to the physical distance, managers need to have strong leadership skills to exert enough influence to deal with conflicts quickly and ensure that the individual actions align with the strategy of the company.

The paper is structured as follows:

• Section 1 introduces the relevant literature and theoretical background

• Section 2 presents the methodology

• Section 3 illustrates the results and the conclusion of the study