In-demand Digital Transformation Leadership Skills

A digital transformation is a long-term, continuous effort to reimagine how an organization improves and changes by deploying technology at scale. With this effort, digital transformation leaders seek to maintain a competitive edge by creating a clear digital transformation strategy that, like technology, is constantly evolving. Digital transformation leaders are looking to improve the customer experience and lower costs by not just using digital but becoming digital. 

Leadership for a digital transformation can consist of a multidisciplinary team of individuals committed to promoting new technology, or an organization may choose its chief information officer, chief digital officer, or chief technology officer to lead the transformation. Either way, the success of a digital transformation hinges on support from the executive suite. Companies with a C-suite leader at the helm of their digital transformation are 1.6 times more likely to report a successful transformation [1].

Explore this fundamental concept and learn more about essential digital transformation leadership skills and how you can develop them to prepare you for a career in this field. 

What is leadership in digital transformation?

Skilled leaders of digital transformation initiatives aim to facilitate the capabilities necessary for successful digital transformations—a clear and focused strategy, a sufficient talent pool, a scalable operating mode, distributed technology, and strong adoption and change management. 

• Clear and focused strategy: A successful digital transformation starts with a clear understanding of digital transformation and a strategic focus on specific programs within your business that generate the most significant value. A successful strategy likely also details the solutions and resources needed for transformation within the targeted domains.

• Sufficient talent pool: Hiring a robust staff of in-house engineers who work side-by-side with business colleagues is essential to achieving digital excellence. Additionally, a vital digital transformation leadership skill for successful transformation includes the ability to attract and retain quality talent and foster an environment that supports adaptability and openness to change.

• Scalable operating model: A digital transformation generally requires many people from teams throughout a company. Operating models that can bring together and support on a grand scale will likely differ from the cross-functional teams a company already has. When selecting an operating model that can offer large-scale support, you might consider the digital factory, the product and platform model, or the enterprise-wide agility model. 

• Distributed technology: A commitment to distributed technology grants access to every team, delivering the necessary data, applications, and software development tools. In this environment, you and your team can innovate and develop independently. Ensure the data you provide your teams is current and reliable, easily retrievable, and readily available when they need it.

• Strong adoption and change management: Flexibility and adaptability are key components of a digital transformation strategy. Rather than following a traditional, linear technology adoption model, your digital transformation can benefit from a more iterative approach that involves prototyping, feedback, and improvements. Make resources for implementing process changes, user training, and change-management initiatives part of your strategy from the start to increase the likelihood of a smooth digital transformation. 

Why does digital transformation leadership matter?

When embarking on a digital transformation, strong leadership can propel an organization’s efforts forward.  A digital transformation leader can help you break through roadblocks, clearing a path to success. They can also help ensure large strategic goals remain a focal point among smaller initiatives. Finally, an effective leader can assign focus and monitor progress to keep transformation efforts moving forward.

Essential digital transformation leadership skills

Digital transformation leadership skills can be categorized into leadership and culture, technology, and data and analytics. With over 80 percent of chief information officers expecting to increase their investments in foundational capabilities and technologies such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and data analytics, or integration technologies in 2025 [2], professionals with digital transformation leadership skills will likely be in demand.

Leadership and culture

Skills in this area include strategic thinking, change management, and business relationship management. 

1. Strategic thinking and vision

As a digital transformation leader, part of your role may require you to encourage teams to think strategically about how they can collaborate with others outside their typical scope to discover new opportunities. Your understanding of unmet needs and demands, and your ability to identify the right questions and when to ask them, can help industry leaders use digital technologies to expand beyond their core business to develop new products and services.

2. Change management

Change management involves the human aspect of digital transformation. As a leader skilled in change management, you can help your teams seamlessly transition to the organization’s future identity, effectively and efficiently achieving your organization’s goals.

• Cultivate digital-savvy leaders who are fully committed to the change effort.

• Develop talent and skills throughout the organization, ensuring individuals’ roles align with the transformation goals and that employees understand how new digital methods and processes work and integrate with their existing methods.

• Proactively influence growth by empowering employees to adopt new ways of working, such as participating in continuous learning or an open work environment, and promoting engagement with a safe environment for experimentation and risk-taking.

• Effective communication is a key digital transformation leadership skill. To help employees understand where the organization is going and why, communicate a compelling story that outlines the details. Share targets for key performance indicators and ensure the transformation’s timeline is clear.

3. Business relationship management

Business relationship management refers to internal and external relationships. During a digital transformation, it is essential that internal stakeholders from all teams understand each other’s efforts and objectives. Externally, understanding your customer’s needs, expectations, and feedback is fundamental to giving them an ideal experience. Your skill in influencing behavior and employing tools to measure a customer’s experience can help you provide leadership in business relationship management during a digital transformation.

Technology

The technology skills that digital transformation leaders prioritize often depend on where your organization is in its transformation. In the early stages of transformation, when you are likely integrating data and building digital platforms, you and your teams may need to rely heavily on technology skills like cloud architecture.

As you move through the transformation process, use your skills to optimize your organization’s technology for agility, rethinking information technology (IT) strategic goals to create scalable architecture for growing business needs. Consider the following tips for successfully guiding your IT teams through a digital transformation:

• Employ automation to reduce complexity.

• Balance control with agility. 

• Prioritize hiring and retaining quality talent. 

• Streamline your tech stack.

• Make IT priorities clear.

• Build a roadmap to guide you.

Data and analytics

Establishing a solid analytics foundation and infrastructure at the start of your digital transformation is crucial. Your understanding of data usage and how you can incorporate it into your organization’s operations, service offerings, and products opens possibilities for your organization’s future. Additionally, because a digital transformation will likely increase the amount of data flowing through your organization, it is likely that, as a leader, you will analyze a lot of data and promote data-driven decision-making to optimize processes and improve customer experiences. 

How to gain digital transformation leadership skills

For those working in digital transformation, a bachelor’s degree in an area such as IT, computer science, or business administration is a common starting point. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in information systems or digital innovation can enhance your qualifications.

To acquire skills or demonstrate your commitment to remaining current with digital trends, you may consider a specialized certification or certificate program. Various universities, colleges, and organizations offer certificate programs in digital transformation or related skills, such as cloud computing, data analytics, cybersecurity, and project management.

Additional options for increasing your digital transformation leadership skills include the Digital Transformation Specialist certificate from the BPM Institute or the Digital Transformation Series from the Project Management Institute. You can also find various digital transformation courses on Coursera. 

Build digital transformation leadership skills on Coursera

The leader of a digital transformation initiative facilitates a long-term strategy to reimagine how an organization uses technology to improve, change, and maintain a competitive advantage. You can learn more about the art and science of leadership with the Strategic Leadership: Impact, Change, and Decision-Making Specialization from Dartmouth on Coursera. To explore ways you can manage talent to improve employee performance, development, and retention, consider the Leading People and Teams Specialization offered by the University of Michigan on Coursera.