Carol RozwellThis has been a month of thinking differently. I’ve been working a maverick research project with my colleague Deb Logan. We’ve been delving into the characteristics that epitomize a socially centered leader. We contend that only socially centered leaders can ensure sustainable business performance for the organizations they lead.
This is not about sprinkling social software tools across the organization, it’s about sensitizing leaders to the need for authenticity, transparency and generosity. Clients can read the complete research note due out later this year and join us in Orlando for a workshop on socially centered skills.
I’ve also been working with my colleagues Bill Gassman and Rita Sallam on social analytics. Talk about a different approach for gaining and using insight gathered and synthesized from social media. The use cases are varied, everything from product sentiment (pretty obvious) to crisis and reputation management (emerging as important capabilities).
It seems like every few days there is a new vendor asking for a briefing. You can tell it’s a new market because the have the most interesting names, many of them similar to each other. I found this to be the case during the early days of e-business, too. Lots of braggadocio – every one is “the world’s leading vendor . . . ” even if they are not yet turning a profit and their customers are still mostly in pilot mode.
Another special project is one being led by Nigel Raynor. With colleagues Chris Iervolino, Thomas Otter and Rita Sallam, we’ve been poking at what happens when capitalism goes social – when the 99% gain the power to change an organizations business in very significant ways. The thought of this happening should make some command-and-control types cringe in horror.
So where is this leading? If you buy the premise that social business is disruptive and inevitable, then organizations need to think differently about manager-employee relationships and about how they engage all the bright, enthusiastic people in the organization in a more timely, fact based approach to decision-making.
That’s going to require some of us to develop some new “skill muscles.” We will need to become comfortable admitting when we don’t know something and asking for help. We will have to learn how to quell our human biases such as rejecting information that does not support our mental models. And we’ll have to figure out what all those pretty data visualizations are trying to tell us.
Hang on, this should be a fun ride!
Category: Change management Collaboration Social media Social networks social software Strategic Planning Tags: Change management, Collaboration, Collaboration dynamics, Collective, Community of practice, leadership, Rewards, risk, Social analytics, Social media, Social networks, social software
1 response so far ↓
1 Claire August 30, 2012 at 3:24 pm
We are finding internal social business ( Enterprise Social Networking) is helping us power through the normal challenges faced by acquisitions and the resulting changing culture. We are often suprised by just who does have the answers !
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