Power of people: How to understand the human dynamics behind digital success

How resilient you are as a manager may affect how well you cope when faced with the challenges of digital change, but you can learn how to adapt well and recover quickly, says Lyndsey Jones

Digital transformation is ‘100% soft skills’, according to Anastasia Leng, co-founder of CreativeX, and they will continue to be in high demand as the pace of automation accelerates in the workplace.

I spoke to about 50 team leaders from many different sectors for the book Going Digital and found that in their and my experience, the human side – managing and leading people – has been the critical make or break factor in change projects.

The key soft skills that will help you prepare and support colleagues and build winning teams include:

• Understanding your team
• Adding the ‘extra’ ingredient that can make the difference between success and failure, turning good into exceptional
• Building trust
• Being able to influence and persuade
• Looking after yourself.

As the use of artificial intelligence grows, so will the need for emotional intelligence – which is the ability to be aware of, express and control one’s emotions and to understand the feelings of others and handle them appropriately.

This is what will make leaders stand apart from machines as collaboration rather than competition within organisations is going to be key during an era where many tasks will be automated. Being able to deal with people effectively, as well as solve problems and develop a ‘growth’ mindset, where you can rise to challenges and learn from mistakes, will also continue to be valued.

‘In the years to come, companies in which people collaborate best will have a competitive edge, and to that extent emotional intelligence will be more vital,’ according to a summary of Daniel Goleman’s book Working with Emotional Intelligence.

The human ingredient

If the human ingredient is ignored, Mr Goleman warned, nothing else will work as well as it might. Meri Williams, former chief technology officer at Monzo, agrees. ‘The emotional journey matters more than the rational side of things. Change is an emotional process and forgetting about the human side is the fastest way to guarantee failure,’ she says. She has overseen many digital transformation projects in her career in the technology sector, ranging from the UK government and retailer Marks and Spencer to challenger bank Monzo and online print and design company Moo. ‘A relatively small set of people are convinced by logic and explanation or data, for everybody else, you need something aspirational – a picture of the future that is inspiring,’ she says.

Whether you are asked to put together a team for a transformation project, or you inherit a department, it is important to understand what skill sets you need or have. Talent management and the way we work is transforming rapidly.

At top Business Schools, much attention is paid to how to lead diverse groups to optimum performance. You should start by assessing the strengths and gaps in skills in the team and also be open to redefining roles to recruit wider, more varied perspectives. Once you have understood your team, you can look at what motivates them to perform, become highly driven and innovate.

Here, the soft skills are as essential as the ‘hard’ or technical abilities. The human factor is that ‘extra’ ingredient, which is needed in a difficult and challenging environment. Daniel Pink, author of best-selling books about business, work, and behaviour, has identified when people give you that bit more – that ‘discretionary effort’. In his book Drive, he calls this the intrinsic motivation. If you can get people to work because they want to do it, or they feel proud about it, they will give more ‘for free’.

Mr Pink identifies the following to make people go the extra mile:

1. Purpose – Understand the meaning of the project for each team member.
2. Autonomy – Give people autonomy to tackle tasks as they see fit to validate their experience and expertise.
3. Mastery – Let them learn while they are working.

If we can create this context, it is more likely that team members will make an additional ‘discretionary’ extra effort because the context is positive and supportive.

Trust

Trust is one of the most transversal themes in innovation. It is about believing that something is good, honest, safe and reliable. This is a key skill that managers need to deliver successful projects. Many of the leaders interviewed for Going Digital said the capacity to build trust was vital. According to the 2020 Edelman Trust barometer report, people grant their trust on competence and ethical behaviour. And in 2018, the barometer showed that 70 per cent of the main job of a chief executive is to build trust. Once you have established that people can trust you, you should be able to influence and persuade colleagues and inspire them to drive change.

Today, it is important to have these skills in your leadership toolkit and you can develop them by doing a mix of the following:

• Use facts to support your arguments for transformation.
• Assert yourself by stating expectations and using incentives.
• Involve people. Ask for their views and listen. Summarise their feelings and share a common vision.

Leading transformation can be exhausting and change agents can be particularly at risk of burnout so building up your resilience to manage change is key. As the pace of change only accelerates, employees generally will need to be aware of any signs of stress, such as sleep problems, anxiety and consuming too much alcohol, to look after their well-being.

Mental health

Particularly after the pandemic, companies are likely to have to spend a lot more time on the mental health of their employees. In January 2020, a Deloitte report on mental health and employers found that the costs to UK employers of poor mental health was £45 billion.

There has been a shift over the past 10 years to provide support for staff after high-profile cases such as Antonio Horta-Osario, the then Lloyds bank chief executive, who took a leave of absence in 2011 after suffering from stress-induced insomnia. That experience led him to review support for the bank’s 65,000 employees and introduce several measures including mental health officers.

Citrix has also trained up mental health first aiders. ‘People can go and have counselling without fear of it getting back to management,’ says Michelle Senecal de Fonseca. In the IT and telecoms industry, ‘your job is always at risk – especially mid to upper management. There is a merger and suddenly, the acquiring company comes in and some layers of management are booted out due to duplications and cost cuttings. ‘There are constant reorganisations and new emerging technologies to learn and master, requiring you to keep pace. Therefore, the industry tends to keep people on the edge,’ she says. You can end up suffering from an ‘ambiguous loss’, which is when you do not feel in control of your own destiny, or you do not feel safe or you do not trust your leaders to answer you correctly.

How resilient you are as a manager may affect how well you cope when faced with the challenges of change, but you can learn how to adapt well and recover quickly. Here are some steps you can take to look after yourself:

• Build your own board of advisors. Having a network of influential supporters in work and externally will help you to keep perspective and also focus on your own career. A handful of strong connections is usually more beneficial than a large number of weaker acquaintances.
• Find a mentor and join a peer support group to widen your network.
• Learn techniques to manage negative thoughts and focus on the positives and even view life’s challenges as opportunities.
• Take regular exercise to help reduce stress and anxiety.
• Finally, be kind to yourself and take a break. Switch off from the busy-ness of the day and focus your mind on something else such as a hobby, book, friends or meditation.