What is Digital Leadership?

Approximately 34.3 hours ago, Digital Leadership was a mysterious and frightening concept, one that lurked in a world I was not familiar with. 

Having signed up for LinkedIn only a week before, and still falling embarrassingly short of 100 Twitter followers, I didn’t, and still don’t, consider myself  digitally savvy. But in a technical sense, at least I’m on my way.

Twitter
These logos still strike fear and confusion into my heart

LinkedIn

For the purposes of this post, I’ll explore the more interesting adaptive face of this digital frontier.
I've always seen the internet as a procrastination-trap, a time-waster, the biggest drain on my productivity since my discovery of TV. Sure, it was useful to keep in contact with friends and news from around the world, but by and large I didn't appreciate the digital world’s full potential.

Reading Schmidt and Cohen’s chapter on 'Revolutions of the Future' from their book New Digital Age, I began to realise that “the online world offers new possibilities for...branding” (2014), as well as fostering instantaneous, profound transfer of knowledge across the globe.

Schmidt and Cohen’s idea that a mass community cannot produce unique and sustainable leadership (2014)  made me realise that digital leadership means bringing your personal leadership philosophy, ethical framework and authentic personality into the digital sphere.

Exploring the worlds of Elise Andrew (IFLScience) and Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science) reinforced my newfound appreciation of both the scope of the digital science community and the potential for profound accomplishments. Garnering the support of 20 million people from around the world, or broadcasting amazing discoveries about whales’ facial nerves is impossible without the immediacy and freedom from physical boundaries that the digital world offers.

What do you think? Is the internet a help or a hindrance to the development of Leadership, and humanity as a whole? Comment your thoughts! 

Joke of the Post (from Imagining the Internet): One day a mom noticed that when her son was logging onto a favorite website he typed a very long password. She asked him what it was, and he replied, "MickeyMinnieGoofyPluto." She asked him why he would use such a password. "Because," he explained, "it says your password has to have at least four characters!"