Affiliation:
1. University of Bahrain, Bahrain
Abstract
Leadership competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities that leaders must possess to perform their jobs proficiently. The current existing literature on leadership competencies is mainly focusing on “generic” competencies, such as: accountability, managing diversity, delegation, and decision making. Such competencies are no doubt important, yet, in the era of the digital transformation (DT), organizations require revolutionary changes to sustain themselves and remain competitive. The key drivers behind those changes might be surging customer expectations, engaging people with digital transformation, facing unprecedented competition, or even coping with exponential technological development. Those changes call for strong leadership at the helm to lead this digital transformation impactfully, however, leadership competencies required to lead DT are still unclear. Does classical leadership competencies holds true for those leaders who are leading digital transformation? Are those competencies enough to lead DT initiatives in organizations? This chapter seeks to answer those questions.