Open Access

Haroon Abbu, Sarah Khan, Paul Mugge, Gerhard Gudergan

• Digital leaders play a pivotal role in the success of digital transformation initiatives. They increase the confidence of their organizations during these often risky and disruptive transitions. The most pressing question is how they can lead their companies into a future that is continually shaped by digital innovations. Several methods for effective leadership have been theorized, and many of them have been substantiated and used in practice. But digital leadership demands a certain set of new dimensions ― human traits and technical skills ― to meet the challenges of the digital age. The digital leadership self-assessment scale helps leaders assess and improve their performance, no matter where they sit in the organization—CEO, CDO, functional leader, or program manager. Companies can use it to develop a digital-ready talent pool and the management teams necessary for leading successful and responsible digital transformations. In this article, we administer the self-assessment scale and assess how early career managers — professional MBA students — internalize these digital traits as they develop their careers and leadership abilities. We summarize the findings under three levels of understanding — knowledge-based, experience-based, and aspiration-based — and discuss their interconnectedness and collective role in strengthening the success of a digital leader's efforts.