Leadership attributes essential for effective leadership in highly digitalized work environments

Abstract

As rapid digitalization reshapes organizations, relying on traditional leadership approaches is insufficient to meet emerging workplace challenges. Effective digital leadership requires new mindsets, soft skills, and approaches to support employees and sustain organizational performance. The purpose of this thesis was to identify the key leadership soft skills and approaches needed for effective leadership in highly digitalized work environments, and to assess their impact on various areas of work. The research focused on employees’ perspectives in the Slovak context. A mixed-methods design was applied, and 130 valid responses were collected through a bilingual online survey and subsequently analyzed.

Based on the survey results, categories of communication and interpersonal skills; together with problem-solving and decision-making skills, were rated as the most important. Across categories, importance ratings clearly exceeded perceived demonstration by existing leaders, with the largest gaps in communication and interpersonal skills; leadership and team management; and emotional intelligence and relationship management. At the individual skill level, clear and concise communication ranked as both the most important and the most lacking skill. The most frequently reported leadership challenges concerned ineffective delegation and micromanagement; poor communication; and lack of feedback and recognition. Considering leadership styles, employees perceived collaborative, delegative, empowering, agile, visionary, and people-oriented styles as more effective, while prevailing practice was recognized as more operational, outcome- and task-focused. Leadership was perceived to have a high impact on all studied areas of work. The most influenced area was workplace culture, especially the aspects of trust and transparency; psychological safety; and workplace harmony.

As a result, the findings indicated that organizations should prioritize closing the demonstrated gaps in leadership soft skills. Strengthening leaders’ communication skills, including feedback, empowerment, structured delegation, and people development, is highly recommended. Additionally, a shift toward more collaborative, agile, visionary, and purpose-led approaches would improve effectiveness in digitalized work environments. These competencies should be embedded in leadership development, evaluation, and selection.