Leadership Behaviours in Digital Disruption – Balancing Tensions

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Digital disruption is not a distant event that organisations can prepare for in advance. It is here, unfolding daily and accelerated by generative AI, shifting regulations, and changing customer expectations. Technology is not the only challenge. The bigger test is leadership: how leaders behave when the rules of business keep being rewritten.

Our instincts in times of disruption are often to default to what worked before. Yet research from IMD and Harvard Business Review shows that the most effective leaders navigate disruption by blending traditional and emerging leadership behaviours. These behaviours are described as tensions because they are not simple choices of one style over another, but opposing pulls that leaders must consciously balance depending on the situation.

Healthcare, in particular, illustrates these dynamics vividly. Leadership in digital health services is being redefined, requiring not just technical competence, but the ability to navigate human factors, culture, and trust. As Laukka (2022) highlights, digital health leaders must balance operational authority with relational sensitivity if they are to drive adoption successfully.

So what are these behaviours, and why do they matter so much today?

Seven Tensions Leaders Must Master

1. Teller vs Listener

This tension is about communication style. Do leaders push their own viewpoint, or do they engage and absorb what others are saying?

  • Teller: Directs and instructs.
  • Listener: Creates space for input and learning.
  • Healthcare example: A hospital CIO who dictates an EHR rollout risks backlash, while one who listens to nurses and clinicians uncovers workflow challenges that smooth adoption.

2. Intuitionist vs Analyst

This tension reflects decision-making style. Should leaders rely on instinct, or lean on data?

  • Intuitionist: Uses experience and gut feel.
  • Analyst: Anchors decisions in data and evidence.
  • Healthcare example: A medical director may expand services based on clinical instinct, but predictive analytics might reveal entirely different patterns of patient demand.

3. Perfectionist vs Accelerator

This tension addresses speed versus accuracy. Should leaders slow down to get it right, or move fast to stay ahead?

  • Perfectionist: Prioritises thoroughness and safety.
  • Accelerator: Prioritises speed and responsiveness.
  • Healthcare example: During COVID-19, hospitals had to accelerate telemedicine rollouts overnight. But patient safety checks could not be ignored.

4. Constant vs Adapter

This tension is about consistency versus flexibility. Should leaders stick to one clear message, or adjust as circumstances evolve?

  • Constant: Provides stability and reassurance.
  • Adapter: Updates direction and messaging as new information emerges.
  • Healthcare example: Public health leaders who adapted communication as new vaccine data emerged maintained trust, while rigid messaging undermined credibility.

5. Tactician vs Visionary

This tension weighs short-term execution against long-term direction. Should leaders focus on getting today’s job done, or inspiring with a bigger picture?

  • Tactician: Executes detailed plans with precision.
  • Visionary: Inspires with long-term purpose and future focus.
  • Healthcare example: A digital claims platform must go live on time (tactician), but leaders must also show how it fits into a 10-year roadmap for connected care (visionary).

Here, leadership structure matters. Lemak (2024) emphasises that health systems must rethink executive teams, aligning strategy, culture, and technology so that both tactical delivery and visionary leadership are present.

6. Power-Holder vs Power-Sharer

This tension explores authority. Should leaders retain control, or distribute power to others?

  • Power-Holder: Centralises authority and decisions.
  • Power-Sharer: Involves others in ownership and execution.
  • Healthcare example: Ministries that co-created national HIE frameworks with providers achieved higher adoption than those that dictated top-down mandates.

7. Miner vs Prospector

This is the most critical tension. Should leaders dig deep into existing systems, or look broadly for new opportunities?

  • Miner: Extracts full value from what already exists.
  • Prospector: Scans widely for threats and opportunities.
  • Healthcare example: Leaders must mine existing EHR systems for compliance and efficiency while prospecting for AI tools that can transform diagnostics and patient care.

Empirical evidence supports this. Kludacz-Alessandri (2025) found that leaders who blend transformational behaviours, both prospecting for new ideas and mining existing systems, drive greater digital intensity in healthcare institutions.

Going Wide, Then Deep

The most successful leaders do not choose one behaviour and discard the other. They sequence them. They go wide to prospect, scanning the environment, listening to signals, engaging with external ideas. Then they go deep to mine, committing resources, building discipline, and extracting value. And then they resurface to prospect again, asking: Has the environment shifted? Do we need to adapt?

This rhythm, wide, deep, wide again, is especially critical in the era of AI. Fail to prospect, and you miss opportunities altogether. Fail to mine, and your innovations never reach maturity.

Lessons for Healthcare Leaders

Healthcare illustrates these tensions vividly because it sits at the intersection of high regulation, high stakes, and rapid innovation. Leaders must:

  • Listen deeply to clinicians and patients while also telling a clear story about transformation.
  • Ground decisions in data, but not dismiss frontline intuition.
  • Move fast when crises demand, but ensure patient safety is never compromised.
  • Adapt messages as evidence evolves, even if it means admitting prior assumptions were wrong.
  • Deliver projects on time while inspiring teams with a vision of patient-centred, connected care.
  • Share authority with providers and staff, while maintaining accountability for outcomes.
  • Prospect broadly for transformative digital health opportunities, while mining deeply to embed proven solutions into practice.

Closing Thought

Digital disruption will not slow down for healthcare, or for any other sector. The leaders who thrive are those who embrace duality. They recognise that disruption demands both the curiosity to explore and the discipline to deliver. Both the humility to listen and the courage to decide. Both the patience to mine value and the energy to prospect for what’s next.

The future belongs to leaders who can blend these behaviours seamlessly, turning disruption from a threat into a catalyst for lasting transformation.