Whilst streaming a documentary the other evening I was struck by a thought.
The fact that we no longer consume television like we once used to has actually impacted on our worldview. It was not that long ago that TV broadcasts were carefully scripted to present a highly curated picture. No one gave it much thought at the time, however, this did in fact funnel us into sharing a common perspective.
Now of course we have transitioned to an online world with billions of viewpoints, and the technology that has enabled us to communicate seamlessly with one and other across cultures and borders is also augmenting and enhancing our human skills.
As the co-founder of an ad-tech company I have first-hand experience of how this is changing everyone’s role, particularly that of those leading.
Beyond adapting
One of the key shifts I am noticing is that it is no longer my team who are adapting to technology – rather, the technology is adapting to us. Just think about it, every time an experience is personalised, or technology anticipates people’s needs and wants we are being placed in the driver’s seat to realise them.
Tech to disrupt ourselves
We can now put technology to work to disrupt ourselves and this is where cutting edge leadership needs to be focusing. It is that subtle shift where once our team members had to familiarise themselves with some new tech that made me realise just how effortlessly we all now use our digital tools. To continue moving forwards we now need to ensure we use our fluency with tech to re-shape and refine the way we work.
Tech for heavy lifting
Whilst none of us are floored by new tech as the changes are incremental and many of them we have created ourselves, we need to see technology as an enabler. We have the tools to do the heavy lifting which frees us up to be more creative, more innovative and continually reaching further.
Foster collaboration
Guiding my team beyond the curve has increasingly become collaborative. We now have mastered the tools required to achieve greater granularity around our projects, we can share and communicate seamlessly, even our working hours have become more fluid.
Aim for the stars
Dare I say it, we have reached digital saturation. That’s not to say we are beyond needing digital, on the contrary, this means it is woven into the very fabric of everything we do. But many of our clients and their target consumers have also reached a similar point in their digital growth. Because we have all evolved together the competitive landscape has levelled out, so now we need to deliver on the expectations we have created and aim for bigger, bolder and even more visionary goals.
An organisation’s workforce has always been its greatest asset, but in the tech fever there has been a tendency for many to use tech as the crutch and let the human side of things slide.
Today’s workforce has all the opportunities to be the most enlightened, the most agile and easily the best versions of themselves so long as they have a say in crafting their role to best suit an organisation’s needs – it is down to the leaders to guide them to do so.
About the author
Sharon has over 20 years experience in digital and social media marketing. Starting her career in telecommunications, Sharon moved to DoubleClick and then the BBC where she oversaw change management projects to advance the uptake of new technologies.
In 2007 she co-founded agency:2, Europe’s first social media agency, which rapidly grew to become an award-winning business with a wide range of leading global clients including Mattel, Microsoft, Sony, Turner and Hillarys.
She is also the Co-founder of Mighty Social, ranked by the FT as UK’s fastest growing social ad company (FT1000 – Europe’s fastest growing companies 2019). Mighty Social is a disruptor within the digital ad world, segmenting audiences in real time with dynamic creative to maximise response rates, using Mighty Social’s patent pending technology, the ATOM.
