Denise Sangster: World's Best Emerging Leader 2022

About: Denise Sangster has been a pioneer in the male-dominated global IT industry for over 30 years. As an American woman, some of her male counterparts were less enthusiastic about working with a woman. Denise used this as an opportunity to win them over with her in-depth knowledge of the IT industry, customer and partner trends, and the evolving routes to market. Ironically, many became clients, key professional contacts, and close friends.

WCRCLEADERS in conversation with Denise Sangster, President and CEO, Global Touch, Inc

What makes a strong leader? What key leadership strengths/traits make the strongest attributes of success?

I think about the question every day. I talk with my peers about it frequently. For me, this is the most challenging question in a generation.

Looking at today’s business and the present market, there are a number of classic responses that fill the list of what makes a strong leader including:

Always be exceptionally well prepared for every meeting and discussion, and dazzle peers, superiors, and clients with strategic thinking and readiness for anything that will move the company or client forward. This will increase their visibility in an appropriate way without being seen as boastful or arrogant.

Treat customers as customers for life, and devise ways to interact with them, even when they don’t have the budget to make short-term purchases.

Celebrate small daily successes with their teams and recognize daily successes in a meaningful way that help drive the company’s performance.

What makes a next generation or a transformational leader is quite different, particularly as this next breed of leaders will need to embed disruptive innovation into their business and finds.

Why? There are three core things combining to challenge the best and brightest leaders including uncertainty in the global economy, technology-driven disruptive innovation, and expanding risks on top of what it already takes to be a great leader. Each of these is a daunting challenge, but an even bigger one is on the horizon.

Next generation leaders will be expected to deliver at least half of their total revenues from new products, services, and businesses in the next five years built around an agile business model enabling customer-centric stickiness, lifecycle engagements, and best of class ecosystem partnerships.

Building these new businesses will challenge the best of today’s leaders who will need to prioritize strategies, resources, and priorities to keep their business from falling into a “business as usual” mindset. Yet new leaders will emerge who are focused on delivering ongoing business value to their businesses, customers, and partners without being distracted by a hot idea that doesn’t have transformative market potential.

Thus, building on today’s leadership skills, wrapped in bold next generation skills, may result in a new class of leaders.