Collecting Some Articles - Habits of Leaders
According to a recent McKinsey report on social business, each major industry has the ability to improve its margins between 60-100% by leveraging social technologies. Those improvements are based on a fundamental change in the way people work, feel about their work and collaborate. Products get developed with the customers together from early design stages, customer support is provided by customers to customers. The moment you need to pay for employees when your competitor has their customers doing part of the job — for free, you realize that there is simply no way to continue working in the traditional way. To believe you can run a business competitively without incorporating the ideas of social business is like running a factory without automation or running a bank without digital trading systems. The ROI of social is very simple: Survival!
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Social Leaders
Assuming you get my point about the inevitable need to adopt social business, here are 7 very simple and easy to apply habits that help you to get the most out of your investment in social business.
Think People: Seems obvious, right? But it’s the people that we so often forget. If you think about it, social technology lets us be human again. We can interact like we are meeting at the water cooler – now digitally. Imagine the most powerful conversations in meetings now happening globally across your entire organization; giving your people power gives them the motivation they look for in the workplace.
Think Business: You’re thinking, “social is a phase”? Don’t get caught up in this thinking, there is real business value. Every activity that involves people working together is waiting for social to add value. If studies suggest that organizations could gain 20-25% in productivity1, you need to listen. Social business will make your organization more productive.
Think Technology: Every revolution was supported by technology. With the industrial revolution we overcame our physical limitations, the digital revolution expanded our knowledge capabilities. Social technologies are expanding our emotional networking capabilities. It’s like connecting to every single employee but in a very personal way. Make sure that your social technology works with your infrastructure (e.g. SAP, Oracle or SharePoint).
Think Trust: The biggest mental barrier leaders have with social is the idea that your people should be “working,” not talking, implying that talking to each other through digital channels is not working. You need to rethink this notion. Your people want to work, they want to achieve something and it is your job trust the people you have hired. If you can’t trust your people, you’re simply not a leader.
Think Trust: The biggest mental barrier leaders have with social is the idea that your people should be “working,” not talking, implying that talking to each other through digital channels is not working. You need to rethink this notion. Your people want to work, they want to achieve something and it is your job trust the people you have hired. If you can’t trust your people, you’re simply not a leader.
Don’t Bet the Farm: With every new idea or technology, the excitement rises and best practices are thrown out of the window. Common sense and basic compliance rules still apply. You shouldn’t make your IP vulnerable, you don’t have to trust your data to an undefined network and you don’t have to accept terms and conditions that you don’t understand.
Measure It: Unlike popular belief, social business activities can be measured. The fact is, the new approach allows you to get a better picture of what is going on than ever before. Identifying communication and collaboration patterns allows you to reshape processes to the needs of your people. Filtering and sentiment analysis allows you to understand the mood your organization is in.
Get Started: The biggest barrier I see is organizations over complicating how social can be implemented. Most likely you have some sort of collaborative environment in place, that is a good start to build on. Don’t get paralyzed by plans, bite the bullet and get started. If you don’t, the competition will.
Measure It: Unlike popular belief, social business activities can be measured. The fact is, the new approach allows you to get a better picture of what is going on than ever before. Identifying communication and collaboration patterns allows you to reshape processes to the needs of your people. Filtering and sentiment analysis allows you to understand the mood your organization is in.
Get Started: The biggest barrier I see is organizations over complicating how social can be implemented. Most likely you have some sort of collaborative environment in place, that is a good start to build on. Don’t get paralyzed by plans, bite the bullet and get started. If you don’t, the competition will.
It is truly an exciting time. For many of us, we try to imagine what life was like during those prior revolutionary periods. Here and now we have that amazing opportunity to be part of such a major change. Knowing the impact these revolutions had before us, the opportunity is ours to recognize this next major shift and help to shape the future of the social workplace.
Daniel Kraft is President and CEO of NewsGator Technologies.
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1. They don’t seek fame. Fame is merely a natural consequence of what great leaders do. They make decisions that are in the best interest of their customers, their company and their community. They seek to have everyone come out winning. They surely don’t do what they do for media attention. They do what they do, because it is the right thing to do.
2. They don’t fear criticism. The world’s best leaders make decisions that are in the best interest of their customers, their company and their community. Sound familiar? Just like fame is of no importance, neither is criticism. The outside world will always have detractors and critics. This does not dissuade them. Great leaders clearly delineate what’s right from wrong and take action accordingly.
3. They don’t make superstars. Just like they don’t put themselves on a pedestal (even though the media may), they don’t put anyone else on a pedestal either. To great leaders, the hero is the team. While participants are individually recognized and shown appreciation, everyone on the team is expected to outperform. All the wins are team wins, all the loses are team losses.
4. They are part of the team. Great leaders know they are simply serving a role. They have absolute clarity that they are people like anyone else, and while specific roles may have greater importance in getting things done it does not mean the people filling those roles are greater than the others. Great leaders value all the people on their team highly and equally, and this includes themselves.
3. They don’t make superstars. Just like they don’t put themselves on a pedestal (even though the media may), they don’t put anyone else on a pedestal either. To great leaders, the hero is the team. While participants are individually recognized and shown appreciation, everyone on the team is expected to outperform. All the wins are team wins, all the loses are team losses.
4. They are part of the team. Great leaders know they are simply serving a role. They have absolute clarity that they are people like anyone else, and while specific roles may have greater importance in getting things done it does not mean the people filling those roles are greater than the others. Great leaders value all the people on their team highly and equally, and this includes themselves.
5. They kill “the cancer.” The best leaders know when something isn’t working in the business it is their role to remove it immediately. This could be a dud product, or a rogue employee. Whatever the roadblock is, great leaders instinctively remove it so that the rest of the team can do what they do best, unabated.
6. They ask ten times more questions than answers. The late, great Stephen Covey (talk about world’s best leaders) said that highly effective people “seek to understand before they seek to be understood.” Great leaders do this by asking questions far more than they wield answers. Questions are the most powerful tool in a world-class leader’s toolbox.
6. They ask ten times more questions than answers. The late, great Stephen Covey (talk about world’s best leaders) said that highly effective people “seek to understand before they seek to be understood.” Great leaders do this by asking questions far more than they wield answers. Questions are the most powerful tool in a world-class leader’s toolbox.
7. Their “God” is the vision. Great leaders know that they must ultimately answer to the vision they have set. The vision is the beacon toward which they lead their team. Even when morale is down, detractors are everywhere, great leaders always answer to the vision. Every great innovation that has ever happened, first started with a vision and ultimately came to reality because of a staunch commitment to that vision.
- See more at: http://www.beingjrridinger.com/business-building/7-habits-of-the-worlds-best-business-leaders/#sthash.4hAwG7jG.dpuf
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