Technology & the Emperor Who Has No Clothes
I started a blog a few weeks ago about leadership accountability. I suggested one of the challenges was the higher a leader rises in an organization the greater the need but less the chance people around him/her would speak the whole truth to… “tell the emporer he had no clothes.” I do not want to be one who just comments without offering a solution so here’s a radical one (at least in the eyes of some) for your consideraton and comment:
What if….
An organization created a page on the wildly popular social networking tool FaceBook. They could set up a page for each of the organization’s leaders. This could be further linked to a blog site encouraging folks to give them honest feedback and evaluation. All of the organizations workers and customers would be invited to view and participate in the blog. This could be a forum where the leader put his core ideas and values into print. He or she could even write about their views on current events and organizational goals in lite of current cultural, political market conditions. Visitors to the FaceBook site would be invited to make comments positive or negative depending upon their perspective of the leaders recent actions. The leader could choose to respond or not but they would at least indicate that they had read the responses to their blogs. They could receive both criticism and praise.
Courage | Robert A. Moore, Jr. October 27, 2009
9 Comments to “Technology & the Emperor Who Has No Clothes”
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By Jeremy Caraway, October 27, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
It seems that we today either feel that we need to impress or be impressed. The exec feels the pressure to impress those under him in order to keep his status, so he writes what he hope is what others want to hear, then those who respond, respond in a manner to show there approval of this exec. but what seems to always lack is individualality men see only what they want to see or only what another allows them to see. No one in this scenario accomplishes anything for each to be themselves allows the best qualities to shine in each. The exec’s weekness are shown so he pulls in others who are strong in these area’s and he trains others with his strengths it is here that the corp gains the most from all parties involved.
By Robert A. Moore, Jr., October 31, 2009 @ 3:05 am
I agree that leaders may feel pressure to impress and or perform. We all need affirmation at times. We also need folks around us who will tell us the truth…even if it is not pleasant. The strongest and most effective leader is one who will do exactly as you suggested. He will be self-aware enough to learn his weakinesses and strengths and will surround himself with folks that will compensate for his weakness.
By Ray Waldo, October 28, 2009 @ 7:41 am
Your basic idea of a public forum is not only sound, it is highly encouraged in the corporate world. A great resource for help in these issues is http://hubspot.com. Their primary business model is to develop SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for websites. But they are also involved in corporate openness and brand development. Both of which are significant for ANY public organization.
However, I see two primary faults with using Facebook:
1. There is no way to post anonymously. (Well, there IS but it is illegal under FB’s TOS.) Until ALL participants are totally convinced that the leader has truly adopted an openness to comments, they are extremely hesitant to post under their own names.
2. All users must be convinced of the fairness of the owner of the page. This is similar to #1 but the owner of the page may be different from the person you wish to respond to. Unless the user is totally convinced that there will be no retribution from either the owner or the leader, they will not be truthful in their responses.
I will post some suggestions in my next comment…
By Ray Waldo, October 28, 2009 @ 8:27 am
One way that probably would work is to have a forum operated by a neutral 3rd party. The widely avertised “Angie’s List” is such a forum. Users are allowed to post negative or positive comments about professionals in their area. Other users then can read these accounts and make decisions about whether to use that professional or not.
The most important issues for such a forum to work in our environment are:
1. True neutrality of the forum owner. This is not evident immediately. Sometimes, those we think are our best friends turn out to be our worst enemies. However, a significant degree of trust in the forum owner is essential for both the user and the leader to participate.
2. No fear of retribution. As in the previous post, users must feel some degree of isolation from retribution by the leader or they will not participate.
3. Accountability of all participants. Each person in the forum must have some accountability to the others. Users could post anomously but they must provide their real name and email (which would not be publised) to hold them accountable. The leader must have some mechanism to require him/her to participate and hold them accountable. The owner of the forum must be accountable to both the leader and users to assure that they remain neutral and do not delete comments to which they may not agree.
4. Fake comments. It is always difficult to determine whether a single person writes several comments to try to bias the overall result. Policing this is difficult or impossible. Facebook its self has an ongoing debate about this (http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=13124)
5. Likelihood of more negative than positive comments. Most people who are in their “comfort zone” will not comment about the quality of the service they receive (from any business or organization). It is only when a person emotionally involved will they take the time to comment on a public forum about their leader. And it is MUCH more likely that they will be emotionally involved over their dissatisfaction than over their enthusiasm about a leader’s ability.
The last issue is one of critical mass. Unless the leader is aware of this bias toward negativity, he or she will quickly become distrustful of the forum and its results. Also, casual users who are just browsing the comments may be influenced by the overwhelming number of negative comments and assume their leader to be much worse than they had thought.
None of this is so difficult as to make it unusable. But these are some of the things that must be considered before such a system is initiated – if it is to succeed.
By Robert A. Moore, Jr., October 31, 2009 @ 3:21 am
Ray, thankx so much! Those are very helpful and practical suggestions. I’ve had much more private and than public response on this forum. It lets me know that what you are suggesting is key to making this work. I’m really just posting these comments as a way to make people think. In my view, one of the greatest pitfals to an effective leader over a long period of time is a sense of infallability and/or a sense of entitlement. Once the leader’s influence is estended he can become the victim of ‘group think’ and no one will risk telling him/her the truth. He is soon surrounded with folks who hope to curry his favor and will not tell him the truth. He loses the valuable honest feedback that had previously helped him be good leader. He also, if not careful, can soon fall into a ‘entitlement mentality’. He does not hear the entire truth and then will also feel like people “owe hm,”
By Ray Waldo, November 1, 2009 @ 7:15 am
Considering the topic, one has to wonder why people prefer to post PRIVATELY. Does it have anything to do with any of those things mentioned in my previous comment about a desire to be anonymous?
By Ray Waldo, October 28, 2009 @ 9:50 am
Bill Isaacs posted an article about some of the leadership lessons he has learned over the years. The first of these is that you cannot do it alone (in his terms, “The banana that leaves the bunch is the first one to be PEELED!”)
This is very similar to what is being discussed here. You can check out his post on my http://chiefshepherd.com/2009/10/leadership-bananas/ or directly on his site at http://forwardleadership.org/blog/?p=1017
By Bruce Kuhlman, November 5, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
To give constructive criticism ‘constructively’ is almost a gift as most givers of the same will sometimes form it into a complaint from their personal perspective. I believe that the leader must formulate in his mind, on paper, and project it right up front with his subordinates, what and how much feedback he is willing to have. It will take time to assimilate said feedback and apply to the leadership style that the receiver has. The concept of ‘mentoring yourself out of a job’ requires a unique leadership style. If you are receptive to critique, you can promote the same in a junior subordinate and he will inturn be more receptive to your leadership style. Soon we have a group of leaders that have the reputation among the subordinates as “somebody is listening to me…I am a valuable piece in this organization”. There is the ‘win-win’.
By Robert A. Moore, Jr., November 6, 2009 @ 12:24 pm
What you are talking about Bruce, are perspective and process issues–both vital to an effective leader. It takes wisdom, integrity and security in the leader. It’s really the model of Jesus wasn’t it. He put the needs of the mission and the ‘leaders in training’ above his own. We so desparetly need this model as opposed to the attitude of entitlement we often see in today’s leaders. I know that you speak these things from long study and observation. You have proven these concepts on the field of leadership where men flourish and live or languish and die. In reality, sometime men will help others to flourish but will ‘die’ themselves. They’d rather see the misson and their mentees succeed than to hurt either one while they try to defend themselves. thanks for your input Bruce. I ALLWAYS listen when you speak or write. I repsect the well of experience from which you draw your observations.