Most leaders still see the world as fixed borders.
We plan by country, by region, by the drawn lines on a map. Yet business now runs on flows - of data, capital, talent, and ideas - that cross those lines every second. If our leadership model stays static while the world moves, we miss what matters.
This point is made in a 2019 review in Frontiers in Psychology by Laura Cortellazzo, Elena Bruni, and Rita Zampieri: The Role of Leadership in a Digitalized World. Traditional command-and-control models don’t work in connected, tech-driven environments. Leaders today benefit when they act as digital enablers: breaking silos, fostering collaboration, and navigating networks that don’t respect borders.
Why this matters.
Static leadership mirrors static maps: fixed structures, clear borders, predictable lanes. But the real economy is networked. Customers find you on platforms, not in provinces. Talent works across time zones. Cloud regions, not country borders, determine latency and customer experience. If we cling to a border-first view, we design strategies for yesterday’s world.
The study points to practical shifts:
Orchestrate distributed teams – make collaboration the default and reduce handoff friction.
Decide fast with data – use clear dashboards and pre-agreed trigger points.
Balance performance with ethics – treat data privacy, fairness, and overload as leadership priorities.
Model flexibility – swap “prove and approve” for “test and learn,” especially in markets you don’t yet know.
Three moves to break the static view:
Map your flows. Track where customers actually find you [search, marketplaces, partner referrals]. See how value crosses borders [payments, platforms, cloud regions]. Replace country lists with network diagrams.
Stress test your model. Ask: What scales as an intangible - IP, services, data, know-how - at low cost across borders? Where does friction remain, and why?
Run a weekly global scan. Thirty minutes, at the same time each week, using prompts with the generative AI tool of your choice:
– “What signal this week changes how we price, package, or partner internationally?”
– “What’s the smallest test we can run in a new corridor to learn cheaply?”
See the bigger picture. Play a smarter game.
Digital connectivity is producing new smart tools and technologies. And, it’s producing new forms of leadership. Leaders who update the maps they manage, by shifting from borders to flows, will move faster where others hesitate.
They show us that when we see the bigger picture, we can play a smarter game.