My professional career of four decades has been a wonder-filled journey witnessing the transition of enterprise operations from a primarily physical environment to a drastically diverse digital environment. To stay up to date, I have continually sought to improve my skill sets, tool sets and mindset. The right mindset can simplify the processes of updating relevant skill sets and tool sets. Habits are fundamental to the development of the mindset. Once a professional possesses the right mindset, they can meet the challenges of changing technology to remain relevant and foster digital trust.
Enterprises today often employ digital-first policies to achieve accelerated growth. Digital trust is the most critical factor in enabling and sustaining this growth. It is incumbent on digital trust professionals to enable digital trust for all stakeholders. There are seven habits of digital trust professionals that can be derived from habits first explored in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by US educator, author, and businessman Steven Covey, and applied herein to digital trust.
Consider this anecdote to better understand how digital trust can be mapped to a common mindset. A young man sitting at the foot of a mountain was contemplating the risk of climbing it. He saw an older man happily singing and climbing down the same mountain. The young man asked the older man, “What is your secret for climbing the mountain?” The old man smiled and replied, “To climb the mountain, you must send your mind first and the body will follow.”
In an era of accelerating digital transformation, enterprises and professionals must climb the mountain of digital trust by selecting the right framework and implementing appropriate policies, procedures and practices. Digital trust professionals must first develop a digital mindset and the skill sets will follow.
To best understand this philosophy, it is important to explore key concepts related to digital trust, mindset and habits:
- Digital trust—ISACA® defines digital trust as “Confidence in the integrity of the relationships, interactions and transactions among suppliers/providers and customers/consumers within an associated digital ecosystem.”
- Paradigm—According to Steven Covey, a paradigm is a frame of reference, model, perception, assumption, or manner in which concepts are perceived, understood and accordingly interpreted and judged (i.e., a mental map). Digital trust professionals must rapidly enhance their skill sets to meet the challenges of deploying ever-changing technology. This may require multiple paradigm shifts of mindsets, skill sets and tools (e.g., software, technologies).
- Production/production capability (P/PC) —To effectively use resources, P (usage)/PC must be properly balanced. Digital trust professionals deploying a new technology must weigh its risk vs. return.
- Habits —Habits are the intersection of knowledge, skills and desire. Knowledge is what to do, skills are how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it and why to do it.
Mapping Habits to Digital Trust
The 7 habits of highly effective people can also be mapped to digital trust (figure 1).
Figure 1—Mapping Highly Effective Habits to Digital Trust
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7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Habits Adapted to Digital Trust Professionals |
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1. Be proactive—It is important to take responsibility for every aspect of life. Between stimulus and response, one has the power of free will to choose how to respond. |
1. Think from a macro perspective—Digital trust professionals should identify a mission, vision and strategies per their career/enterprise objectives. |
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2. Begin with the end in mind—Envisioning what one wants in the future allows them to plan and work toward achieving it. |
2. Begin with the end in mind—Envisioning what one wants in the future allows them to plan and work toward achieving it. |
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3. First things first—It is advisable to prioritize how time is spent, considering both important and urgent tasks, with a focus on what is important rather than what is urgent. |
3. Learn to prioritize—A framework should be developed for prioritizing work that is aimed at achieving both long- and short-term goals. |
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4. Think win-win—Mutually beneficial relationships should be strived for in every business deal. |
4. Think as team—Developing an attitude of working in the spirit of teamwork and cooperation helps deliver beneficial solutions to all stakeholders. |
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5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood—Developing empathetic listening to understand other people creates an atmosphere of caring and positive problem solving. |
5. Understand and align with enterprise goals—Developing communication skills with humility and empathy helps achieve common goals. |
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6. Synergize—Combining the strengths of relevant team members through positive teamwork helps achieve common goals. |
6. Develop congruence between enterprise and career goals—Personal goals should align with enterprise objectives and relevant stakeholders' needs. |
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7. Sharpen the saw—Balancing and renewing one's resources, energy and health creates a sustainable, long-term and effective lifestyle. |
7. Implement a kaizen approach— Developing a continuous improvement mindset in all spheres of activities—from planning to delivering results—leads to success. |
Conclusion
The modern digital era requires digital trust professionals to be creative problem solvers who can add value using relevant technology, with frameworks implemented as required. Hence, it is important to adopt the right mindset and learn relevant skill sets by using the appropriate tools.
It has been said that the bird sitting on the branch of a tree does not worry much about the strength of the branch, the height of the tree or the blowing of the winds. It has confidence in its capability to fly. As digital trust professionals, we must have the confidence to use our core competencies and a willingness to learn to apply frameworks and effectively deploy technology. Developing the 7 habits highlighted here enables a digital mindset which can empower professionals to add value to enterprises and remain relevant.
Abdul Rafeq, CISA, CA, FCA
Is the managing director of Wincer Infotech Limited. He specializes in IT governance and analytics.