Developing the Practice of Online Leadership

Abstract

Online leadership largely develops through practice: taking the first steps into what seems a relatively uncontrollable environment is scary. Learning to adapt one's leadership style to suit conditions in the online world is an experimental process that benefits from coaching and guidance from experienced online leaders. This chapter distils 10 years of recent experience the first author gained helping senior managers develop an influential online presence at the same time as implementing digital strategies in three organizations. It starts with a brief review of face-to-face leadership theory, which most leaders encounter in traditional development programs, identifies how online practice differs, explores the phases of a typical leader's journey from conscious incompetence to conscious competence online, and highlights practical interventions that both develop capability and diffuse change organization wide. It concludes with a summary of useful characteristics for change agents supporting the enterprise transformation, which is usually the aim of a move to online working.