When Erik Qualman speaks or writes, I listen. He’s been at the cutting edge of digital thinking for a number of years now and I deeply respect how hard he works at explaining the significance and implications of digital technology in our personal and vocational lives.
In his first book, Socialnomics, he argued that companies, institutions, and even individuals who did not adapt to and harness the new world of social media would severely limit their usefulness and effectiveness.
In his latest book, Digital Leader, Erik calls leaders to face and harness the changes that digital technology has brought into their workplaces and businesses. If you’re familiar with leadership books, you’ll probably already be familiar with some of what Erik writes about. However, his unique emphasis on the technological challenges and opportunities of leading in the digital age make the book a valuable, even vital, read.
As you can find full reviews on Amazon, I thought I’d explain the value of the book by producing a Digital Dictionary (today) and a Digital Decalogue (tomorrow).
We start today with the Digital Dictionary for Leaders. I’ve gone through the book and picked out key phrases that challenge us to understand and harness the new world we live and work in:
- Digital footprints: the information we post about ourselves online
- Digital shadows: what others post about us online
- Digital legacy: what people will find online when they search for you 100 years from now
- Digital celebrities: people who become famous for what they are and do online
- Digital realm: the merged public and private world that means we can no longer have both a private and public life—they have become one and the same
- Digital profile: 81% of children under the age of two have images of them posted online. 25% have an online presence before they are even born!
- Digital tools: whatever technology simplifies life rather than complicates it
- Digital native: grew up with technology as part of their world (opposite of digital immigrant)
- Digital mining: collecting of all online information about someone
- Digital bouquets: the passing on of encouragement using technology
- Digital therapy: counseling given online or over the phone rather than face-to-face
- Digital peer pressure: works the same way as the flesh version
- Digital deputies: using Facebook and Youtube videos to catch looters and rioters (I remember a Scottish policeman telling me how many criminals he caught using Facebook!)
- Digital oysters: the multiple online wealth-making opportunities
- Digital log: posting online of daily goals to increase accountability and motivation
- Digital currency: connections (the more friends, followers, etc., you have, the richer you are)
- Digital drain: the amount of time a company devotes to responding to negative online publicity
- Digital hugs: responding to customers and connections that post positive feedback and comments
- Digital voice/tone: What your online communications say about you
If you had no idea what most of these phrases meant before reading this post, and you want to influence and lead in the church and elsewhere, you should probably buy Erik’s book with your next click!