#Leadership

20/2/2016

Hashtag leadership. What’s going on in the social media world and what could it mean for leaders and organisations? In a nutshell, it’s simple and complex, clear and confusing. If you need structure and control to feel safe and secure, have tissues and paracetamol ready. Think rollercoaster – but on tracks that keep changing, shifting, evolving. The ride is far from certain and so is the destination.

Yet it can be so exciting! Social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook have made networking possible between people, professions, sectors, countries and continents that would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago. It’s self-organising, self-selecting, unpredictable and emergent. At heart: ‘Great conversations with interesting people about stuff that matters.’ (Euan Semple, 2016).

This all means that ideas can be accelerated and amplified at incredible speed with all the potential and risk that carries (Steve Hearsum, 2016). We can learn, share information and ideas and thereby increase our resourcefulness faster than ever before. We’re also responsible for how we exercise wise leadership, what voices and messages we amplify or not and how we self- and peer-moderate.

And, as leaders, we have never felt so exposed. It’s a double-edged sword: exposed in the sense of accountable in the public domain along with unprecedented opportunity to influence ideas, culture and behaviour. It shapes the focus of leadership in organisations too from positional to distributed, from control to trust: noticing who exerts most influence and how to work creatively with them.

What have been your experiences of social media in leadership and organisations? What have you encountered, or tried, and how? What have been the pros and cons? I’d love to hear more!

14 Comments

Hamish Taylor

20/2/2016 03:44:19 pm

Nick, I'm definitely becoming a bit of a fan club member of your posts - as they are always interesting and thought-provoking...

I believe that social media has enabled the voices of independent leaders and SME's to be heard much more clearly and more widely; but I am not sure that it has been possible for large organisational leaders to make their voices so clearly heard... I say this because my feeling is that the capacity for mean-spirited individuals to mercilessly twist the meaning of words that are posted and to completely misrepresent the original intent is an active inhibitor for anyone who has "corporateshareholder responsibility"...

It is far too easy for bullies and overly sensitive individuals to pollute the message and conversations that individuals enter into with good intent and genuine purpose in social media platforms. The asynchronous nature of the conversation creates scope for deliberate misinterpretation and gross offence to be taken and minor disagreements quickly blow into massive mole-hills (they are never mountains except in the minds of those who make them such). Consequently the riks of negative exposure may outweigh the benefits of positive purpose as expressed by corporate leaders...

Nick Wright

20/2/2016 03:59:22 pm

Hi Hamish. Your fan club member comment made me smile. :) I always find your comments and reflections interesting and inspiring.

I understand what you describe as some of the risks of social media exposure. On Twitter, for instance, it's hard to hold a nuanced conversation in 140 characters and, as Ana Karakusevic commented at a workshop I took part in recently, tweets tend to come across as a series of monologues rather than dialogue in the wider sense of engagement.

I've noticed, too, how comments on, say, Twitter are often far starker than they might be in face-to-face conversation. I imagine this is partly to increase potential for cut-through, to be heard, in the virtual crowd. It may also be to do with less sense of social accountability than in, say, a conventional community or organisation.

As you say, this creates enormous potential to be misheard, misrepresented or misunderstood. As senior leaders, that can present risk to brand reputation as well as to individuals which can make some leaders feel very nervous about using social media. What if it all goes badly wrong and we're unable to manage the fallout?

At the same time, social media present opportunity to rethink how we engage with one-another in the public arena. In a sense, it democratises conversation. At its best, it invites widespread participation and creates amazing opportunities for shared learning, improvement and innovation, including within organisations as well as between people, organisations and communities.

I think that, on the whole, is a risk worth taking. Time will tell what happens psychologically, socially and politically as a result. All the best. Nick

Martine Bolton

22/2/2016 03:11:12 pm

Hi Nick. Was lovely to read your post this morning - you always write so beautifully.

22/2/2016 03:12:44 pm

Hi Martine. You always write such heart-warming things! All the best. Nick

Melissa G Taylor

22/2/2016 03:46:10 pm

Great post!

22/2/2016 03:46:39 pm

Thanks Melissa! All the best. Nick

James Rowe

24/2/2016 02:48:39 pm

Nick,

A great piece reflecting on the changing needs of organisations and leaders to what has quickly become a global communication phenomenon. I agree with Hamish that for larger organisations, the challenges are as different in this medium as they are in many others, with the added complexity of a global audience to the communications. It's certainly not impossible though, and I think there are several examples of excellent leaders who use social media incredibly effectively. I'm a big fan of Richard Branson's blog posts on LinkedIn for example.

Speaking of which, you might be interested in a blog I posted myself about 18 months ago where I explore what was then a rising trend for using social media as currency: https://goo.gl/0YxIs6

Keep the posts coming, great stuff!

25/2/2016 08:33:57 pm

Hi James. Many thanks for your encouraging feedback and for sharing the link to your blog post. I love it, love the creative spirit! It opens up all sorts of interesting ideas in the realms of e.g. mutuality, exchange and innovation. You've inspired me to look at Richard Branson's blog too. All the best. Nick

Jasmin

28/2/2016 09:28:06 am

I like the phrase...It's a double-edged sword...A wake up Alert for all social media addict like me. Your literary Works Is Uk's Pride!# Count me In Dear Coach and My Best Writer!#lookin forward to scan the thought of Your New Book#RADICAL EMBRACE!!

2/3/2016 05:36:17 pm

Thank you, Jasmin. I need to confess that I didn't write the book, Radical Embrace. I wrote a review of the book for BACP Coaching Today journal. All the best and thank you for your encouragement. Nick

Steve Hearsum link

3/3/2016 08:16:53 pm

Thanks for the name check Nick :-)

And apologies for the late response. Reflecting on your post, a few questions come up for me:

What do we mean by 'social media'? Is it still relevant, in the context in organisations, or has it become synonymous with the echo chamber of what we experience in wider societal contexts?

You use the word 'exposure'. this gets be thinking about shame - shameof not knowing 'enough', of being seen, of not being seen.... Of vulneribility and how Ok that is to reveal as a leader, and the spaces in which it is Ok to do so. And who decides. And how does 'social media' relate to that?

And how are these feelings and fears different to what leaders have always felt, the more they become the focus of attention?

4/3/2016 09:08:55 pm

Wow, Steve. Lots of mind-bending questions! I'm particularly struck by the notion of exposure and vulnerability and the whole question of what is OK where to reveal and who decides. I guess there is one sense in which leaders are self-regulating, choosing what to expose in the public domain, at least insofar as such exposure is initiated by the leader him or herself.

It raises all sorts of challenges around authenticity and representation (e.g. who is the leader representing explicitly and implicitly when he or she Tweets), especially in spaces like Twitter where it's possible to make a short statement and, in spite of the leader's intention, to be misunderstood or misconstrued with all kinds of consequences.

I had a curious experience that illustrates this latter point recently. Having spent most of my life working in NGOs, I posted a Tweet about the so-called migrant/refugee crisis in Europe. Within minutes, someone who identified themselves as a 'refugees welcome' supporter told me I was promoting nationalism. A few minutes later, someone who identified themselves as Nordic far right accused me of supporting the liberal left. Fascinating!

In response to your last question, I don't think these fears are substantially different to those that many leaders have always felt. I guess what's different is (to quote your good self!) the accelerating and amplification effects of social media that, perhaps, increase the sense of exposure, risk - and associated angst. With thanks again and best wishes. Nick

friv 2 link

15/3/2016 09:47:40 am

I came across a website that is focused on discussing the value of traditional college degrees in the American educational system.

yepi 2 link

15/3/2016 09:48:16 am

Very impressive article. I have read each and every point and found it very interesting.

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