Charlene Li on social media and leadership
Last week in Austin, award-winning author Charlene Li gave a room full of SXSW attendees a preview of her soon-to-be-released book, “Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead.”
A follow-up to her best-selling book “Groundswell,” Open Leadership argues that a new organizational structure is required to accommodate and benefit from the culture of sharing that social media has fueled over the last four years. The information flow we all experience daily can no longer be organized into neat org-chart silos, she posits. Instead, it demands a new kind of leadership — one based on letting go of the command-and-control model and embracing openness and relationship building.
Information sharing and dialogue, both internal and external, are key to the openness Li prescribes. But how can leaders be open in a world where they need to be in control? “If you think you are in control, you’re fooling yourself. As soon as you start listening, you realize you’re not in control.” Li proclaimed. “And letting go will yield more and better results.”
Here’s a distilled version of the five steps she laid out for achieving open leadership:
1. Have an open — but not undisciplined — strategy. Align openness with your organization’s strategic goals. Examine your 2010 goals, pick one in which both openness and social media can have an impact, and start there. “Every organization is both open and closed. You must be strategic with what you are open about and not,” Li advised.
2. Understand the upside. Clearly define your goals. What is the value of an open approach — beyond ROI? Customer lifetime value, for example, should include the value of new customers that come from referrals, the value that their new insights bring to your product offering and the value of their word-of-mouth support. New customers who come with valuable networks — which you can then tap into — are the most valuable. The more open and engaged you are, the more you’ll be able to get value out of these expanded networks.
3. Find and support from others who are realist/optimists. Seek out leaders on your team who are open, rather than the pessimists or worried skeptics who are conditioned to default to a command-and-control mindset. The stakes for embracing openness are high, but the costs of not engaging optimistic allies are also high.
4. Manage risk with sandbox covenants. Clearly define the outlines and risks of your experiments so your team members feel secure rather than threatened by change. At the same time, be sure to let them know that these experiments in openness are not going to stay small forever.
5. Embrace failure. In same way you have a success file, keep an accessible failure file. This is an important way to stay authentic and open to the fact that not everything succeeds. Team members will recognize that all true relationships involve failure and success.
Image credit, Maxx-Studio, Shuttstock
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Posted by Ideas on “open leadership” http://smar… « A Wider Lens on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:41 am
[...] http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/03/22/charlene-li-on-social-media-and-leadership/ [...]
Posted by Storytelling Social Media Marketing PR Technology & Business Curated Stories Mar. 22, 2010 on March 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
[...] Charlene Li on social media and leadership Published: March 22, 2010 Source: SmartBlog On Social Media Last week in Austin, award-winning author Charlene Li gave a room full of SXSW attendees a preview of her soon-to-be-released book, “Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the W… [...]
Posted by Put this book on your Buy List. « Mr. Jones' Journal on March 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 pm
[...] Charlene Li on social media and leadership [...]
Posted by @Diannecrampton on March 23rd, 2010 at 1:09 am
I agree with your blogg post. In addtion I would add that we are also seeing a shift in corporate culture from Individualist, internally competitive organizations to more agile, progressive organizations that are team based and collaborative. There is an excellent new book on the subject titled TIGERS Among Us, Willing Business Team Cultures and Why They Thrive (http://www.TIGERSamongUS.com) where this is outlined more. One of the companies that is demonstrated in the book uses social networking and media in very unique ways. One is to assign people to tweet daily.
Posted by Dan-Leadership Freak on March 23rd, 2010 at 11:32 am
Merritt,
Thanks for sharing this useful information. As I was reading I started thinking about Seth Godin's book, Tribes. If memory serves, he describes leaders who get out in front. Social Media is the opportunity to get out in front.
Seeking new leaders who are open and optimistic is easier said than done. Established power structures keep the old in and the new out. I've brought new "leaders" in by giving them tasks without giving them official titles. It's a foot in the door.
Once bringing the outside in becomes part of the business culture, leadership teams begin looking for young, forward looking individuals to assume responsibility. It's not an easy transition but once its done organizations change rapidly.
Regards,
Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
My recent post Changing a life
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 23rd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for the book recommendation, Dianne. I'll have time to read that while we wait for Open Leadership to be released!
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 23rd, 2010 at 1:20 pm
I think you're right, Dan. Tribes is the touchstone for so much of marketing and strategic management these days, and I love your idea that social media is the opportunity to get out in front.
Posted by Who’s in charge? | Web Business Woman on March 23rd, 2010 at 11:34 am
[...] Merritt Colaizzi discusses what Charlene shared at the recent SXSW conference. This quote stands out, to me, “If you think you are in control, you’re fooling yourself. As soon as you start listening, you realize you’re not in control.” Charlene recommends letting go. [...]
Posted by Leadership and baby turtles « kansas reflections on March 23rd, 2010 at 7:46 pm
[...] Charlene Li on social media and leadership (smartblogs.com) [...]
Posted by DR. WHAW? – March 23, 2010 « One True Sentence on March 23rd, 2010 at 8:42 pm
[...] Charlene Li on social media and leadership by Merritt Colaizzi – I’ve been trying to avoid anything coming out of SXSW (jealousy, whatever) but I liked this article about a discussion Li had with attendees regarding her upcoming book, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead. “…Open Leadership argues that a new organizational structure is required to accommodate and benefit from the culture of sharing that social media has fueled over the last four years. The information flow we all experience daily can no longer be organized into neat org-chart silos, she posits. Instead, it demands a new kind of leadership — one based on letting go of the command-and-control model and embracing openness and relationship building.” Also, as Gen Y continues to participate in social media and climb the ranks of companies, we’ll also be in positions to lead (well, even when you’re entry level, you still have an opportunity to lead by example) and I think we’ll change the traditional structure of the workplace. [...]
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on June 13th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Good news! The book was released May 24! Voila: http://amzn.to/aSlNhl.
In the meantime, here's a little more to chew on, an interview our contributing editor did with Charlene Li just last week: http://bit.ly/dnTarR
Enjoy!
Posted by Tax Relief on June 15th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Leader in social media?
Great because many of experts are trying to get a good grip in it but they can’t do it.
So,at the end,nice post with a great news.
Posted by James on September 13th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Many forget that like with everything else in life, you need a strategy. Social Media is great, but it’s not a miracle worker. You need to make a plan, or your just waste your time running around.
My recent post Security Issues on Social Network Websites
Posted by Simon on September 21st, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I agree with the point that you should be open with your staff in admitting that you have a big plan for your experiements, and they aren't just an insignificant offshoot of an adventurous leadership style, that instead this is where real change comes from.
My recent post Leadership Development
Posted by spurl on September 25th, 2010 at 7:23 am
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Posted by Solar Panel In India on October 1st, 2010 at 11:25 am
If you think you are in control, you’re fooling yourself. As soon as you start listening, you realize you’re not in control.” Li proclaimed. “And letting go will yield more and better results.”
Posted by Dive Watch on October 9th, 2010 at 12:46 am
Such a nice topic to read and learn.
Posted by Open Leadership « Leadership and Management / Turning Adversity to Advantage on October 9th, 2010 at 2:02 am
[...] Last week’s ‘SXSW’ – ‘South by SouthWest’ – is one of the top events in the calendar for creative and innovative trends featuring a broad range of top artists and thinkers. The 2010 event, complete with Cube Grenade (see above) by friend Hugh MacLeod, included Charlene Li, author of the best-seller ‘Groundswell’ (thanks for the tweet Dr. Bret). Li was talking about her upcoming successor called ‘Open Leadership’. It caught my eye as, like this blog, it wove the themes of Leadership and embracing failure together. Here are some summary notes from Merritt Colaizzi in her own social media blog… [...]
Posted by It Takes a Village to Make Media Social « Entertainment Marketing and Media Essentials on February 18th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
[...] leadership itself needs to shift and become more comfortable letting go of control. As quoted in Smartblog article by Merritt Calaizzi “If you think you are in control, you’re fooling yourself. As soon as you start listening, you [...]
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