Today I met up with Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital. I have known Peter for many years and watched as his knowledge has developed in the digital and accounting space.
Peter is generally very up front with his opinions on things and today we discussed Peter's thoughts on responsible leadership.
Peter explained that Responsible Leadership spans a broad spectrum of relevancies and fields.
As a responsible leader he is for example responsible to the other partners from Deloitte in making sure he abides by their values and parameters they work within inside their industry. He also needs to keep them informed of progress whilst achieving and working towards specific goals.
Peter also has responsibility to his employees, making sure they are provided with an environment that is encouraging, positive and helps them to grow as individuals. Providing them with successful career opportunities in an environment that is also safe is also very important.
Safety is not just OH&S, it also encompasses other elements like making sure staff are not mistreated by their peers.
Being true to promises made to staff is also very important - so they can trust the road to the future has stability and consistency.
Responsibility to clients also comes into the scope for responsible leaders. We must deliver what we say we will deliver when we say we will do it. Honesty and openness with integrity is very important with clients.
On a broader sense, Peter also feels a sense of responsibility to the industry in which he works and society in general. A lot of things he gets involved in through work have a much wider impact, such as how they are working with the emergency department to ensure there is a better warning in the case of bush fires in the aftermath of Black Saturday in Victoria.
Peter is recognised for his public speaking on a raft of topics. He is regarded as an industry thought leader, sharing knowledge - particularly in the areas of innovation and digital communications.
As an individual he needs to be responsible for what he does or doesn't make happen. This recognition through accolades and guidance is shared with the teams responsible for various projects. Everyone is accountable for when things go right and wrong.
When things go wrong, counselling through providing guidance helps ensure it doesn't happen again. Working at the leading innovative edge of their industry, it is recognised risks need to be taken and not everything is going to go right.
Working at the leading edge of technology and communications such as the micronet business, Peter acknowledges that most things go wrong due to communication breakdowns and when the wrong assumptions are made. Responsible leaders need to keep in touch with their teams - everything needs to be transparent.
Using technology helps internally within Deloitte for these communications. Such as the use of Yamma as a micro blog, and internal twitter are great for sharing knowledge alongside their internal blog.
Working with an innovation model, these communications are great for evolving staff ideas and commercialising them to market.
However the technology never takes away from the face to face.
New technologies like video sharing is a great way to extend the knowledge out through team networks and these technologies have capacity to manage a far greater network footprint, often replacing email through people connecting across broader networks.
Webinars and recorded interviews, twitter hash tags all have great value for businesses as they start to take advantage of the short and easy forms of technology available.
There are huge benefits through digital technology and communications into the future.
What is hamstringing the benefits of collaboration through the digital world is the widespread number of leaders that simply don't trust their people. They ask for trust from their team leaders and staff, then don't give the same in return.
This is shown by the widespread banning or refused access to technology tools in the workplace. It simply shows a lack of trust.
Most people - by far the largest majority come to work to work. Using these tools can make them more productive and efficient.
However, they are not allowed to use the tools because leaders don't trust them.
The largest majority of staff have access to more leading edge technology at home than they do at work.
The biggest issue is adoption of models that allow staff to absorb and learn with new technologies and responsible leaders understand this, trust their staff and encourage a culture that encourages staff to use what is available - to everyone outside of the office.
So if you are a responsible leader that encourages truth, honesty, transparency and trust, then Peter believes these are the areas leaders should be working with now and into the future.
1) Cloud computing: Why spend a fortune on your own hardware and software and its protection when you can source high quality technology through cloud computing where the providers are investing heavily into protection, service enhancements and unlimited space that is not only cheaper in the long term as you only pay for what you use. It also has great environmental benefits as hardware is shared across many clients. A blog is a classic example of how this can start and lead to outcomes based computing.
2) Mobile Technology: Smartphones and ipads etc are easier to connect ambiently than laptops and desktops. What is more - intelligence is everywhere - right out to your staff and clients at the fringe of business - carried around with them wherever they go.
3) Social Networks: Simple as uploading a graph or spreadsheet, you can have data sent out and get automatic feedback from staff and clients. Input your data and adaptation can be immediate whilst people also can add their thoughts leading to better application of the data and knowledge.
4) Data: How do we make sense so it is visible. There is so much data around it can get confusing. Though if you for example add a chat functionality or social networking profile to that data - such as an accounting function - new meaning is brought to that data through simplifying communication.
It is not just about adding data, it is where data is washed against the mediums we use to add more value.
5) Location: Through GPS functionality cloud/mobile/social/data all has more meaning as we can learn so many things - like where are the nodules of learning working best, what areas need support, how is collaboration working as knowledge is shared across continents.
Responsible leaders not only look at how they can support their stakeholders, staff, clients and the broader community and society, they also look at what is the easiest way to do this.
Adopting new technologies can help as we all share knowledge and become smarter with how we work and engage with each other.
The corporates who adapt to these smarter, easier ways of collaborating faster through virtual teams, and innovation bringing ideas to commercialisation will have success into the future.
Our desire to innovate has grown stronger over the last decade - though this still needs further enhancement and as we improve systems within our work places, we can have better and more substantial impact on the improvement of society as a whole.
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