University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Open Leadership
Book

Open Leadership

How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

Charlene Li
Jossey-Bass, 2010
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Social technology is changing the face of business as it changes the core element at the heart of business: relationships. Charlene Li, co-author of the best-selling Groundswell, moves you into tomorrow’s world of business connections with tools, cases studies and practical experience. Some of her examples might seem a bit obvious, but her advice remains sound and grounded in the real world. getAbstract recommends Li’s forward-looking approach to executives, PR leaders and managers of any-sized business seeking greater social technology involvement.

Summary

Brave Open World

The Internet and the proliferation of social media foster a more open, transparent public sphere. Most traditional corporations resist increasing their internal and external transparency. They hold outdated beliefs about secrecy and control over their image and internal affairs. Your company needs a robust, customer-facing social media presence to engage the millions of potential customers who connect to Facebook, Twitter and other online apps every day.

This new open environment requires a new, more open leadership style, based on greater flexibility and an expanded comfort zone for criticism and personal sharing. That might disconcert “command and control” leaders and threaten those vested in traditional hierarchies. This takes planning. Openness without a strategy that pursues specific objectives can yield frustrating – and frustratingly expensive – results.

Power has shifted to consumers, who can create their own media and can broadcast opinions to their own networks. Issues that companies fail to address can end up as the subject of viral tirades. But technologies that can undermine your company’s reputation can also provide additional productivity...

About the Author

Charlene Li is the founder of the Altimeter Group. She is also the co-author of the bestseller Groundswell.

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