“T” shaped leaders are not enough, we need “T” with a “D” leaders
A New Generation of leaders for the digital era
We have been talking almost for the last two decades about "T" shaped leaders and managers who have both depth in a particular subject as well as the breadth of expertise in a wide variety of areas who can integrate across the business and deliver results.
Well, that was enough for the era before the Digital era stepped in...
“T “ with a “D”
The digital era brought with it a substantial body of knowledge and tools that was altogether unavailable or difficult to realize owing to multiple reasons such as hardware limitations to the software programs and on top of it, multiple Artificial Intelligence techniques which resolve the problem were not available earlier.
In the last few years, these problems have been overcome and are successfully applied across industries. A leader with access and know how to utilize these digital tools will be able to deliver far more than what he could traditionally perceive, influence and execute. A digitally savvy "T" leader is the one who is much sought now.
The Enlightened “T” Leaders
It is often said an enlightened being is one who can perceive more of things around him and within himself which is not tapped by ordinary beings. Similarly, in a lighter sense (don't take it to heart!), these digital tools enable to perceive more of what you are investigating.
Be it the Internet of Things based sensors which sense (perceive) information or the Artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms that understand the deep patterns to deliver executions help in a deeper understanding of the system at large.
Recently, I heard Singapore echoing similar thoughts for leaders on the need for acquiring Artificial Intelligence (AI) talents, in addition to being a "T" leader
In my very own experience across O&G sector, when I revisited many of the disciplines, I found these digital tools when deployed skillfully could not only identify problems beforehand and as well deliver additional benefits and revenues in multiple millions of Dollars that were not possible earlier.
Let's perceive more in realizing our goals however small or big!