Mastering leadership in a technology-disrupted world

Mastering leadership in a technology-disrupted world

Being a leader is not an easy task, made ever more challenging by the fact the economy, society and the workplace are being consistently disrupted from new technology. Read on to discover how RMIT’s Leading in the Age of Digital Disruption course aims to give tomorrow’s leaders a foundational understanding on how to navigate these turbulent times.

The world and the workplace are experiencing a profound shift due to digital transformations. These changes bring forth enhanced interconnectedness among individuals, organisations and machines, resulting in greater speed and agility, while at the same time presenting a significant leadership challenge. In this fast-paced digital era, leaders must adeptly navigate through dynamic complexities such as blurred boundaries, fluid collaborations, and agility pressures. Furthermore, they must embrace new skills and a different mindset. 

These qualities are so important in today’s global workforce that RMIT’s “Leading in the Age of Digital Disruption” course is offered for both the University’s MBA and MIB degrees.  

This course is carefully curated to empower students with a comprehensive understanding of crucial leadership matters in the digital age, gaining the necessary skills to lead confidently in a world where digital disruption has become the new norm.

Postgraduate students discussing codes on a screen

“You need to think about transformation before strategy,” Dr. Trung Nguyen, Associate Professor and Head of Department for Management at RMIT, states. “Transformation is in itself already hard, and learning the necessary skills on leading a team is an ongoing process. But leaders should start by knowing where they are presently, and looking ahead to where they want to go, before instituting the four phases by which digital transformation happens.  These phases are framing the digital challenge, beginning to focus on investment, mobilising the organisation and then implementing the transition.”

Dr. Trung acknowledges that although being a leader today requires a progressive mindset, RMIT does still teach classic and relevant leadership theories, supported in class by case studies and industry guest speakers.  Dr. Trung notes that in his class, he emphasises a few key leadership theory takeaways. Some of these are that leaders should manage for creativity amongst their staff and be adaptable to a complex and fast-changing environment. Leaders should also make their decisions using emerging technologies. As well, due to the imprecise nature of decision making, leaders must encourage “failing forward,” where both failures and breakthroughs can be celebrated. 

This semester, Dr. Trung shares that a number of guest speakers are lined up to visit his class. These include Mr. Mai Lam Dong, Cluster President for Vietnam & Cambodia at Schneider Electric, Mr. Hien Ngo, Chief Technology Officer of IBM Vietnam as well as Ms. Mai Nguyen Thanh, Inclusion & Diversity & Employer Branding for KPMG, visiting. “It’s important for me to bring in leaders from both tech and non-tech firms as a way to showcase the different approaches to leading their teams through digital transformation,” Dr. Trung notes.

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