Is Open Leadership Important To You?

by Computer Explorers

As a franchise leader I read a lot of leadership books. Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey and John Maxwell are just a few of the authors. In our new era of social technologies and how it is changing the way people relate socially and in business I have integrated authors Seth Godin, Tony Hsieh, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and Jeff Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak whom I had the opportunity to meet and discuss his recent book The Mirror Test.

In May, Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, released her new book Open Leadership, How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead. This book should be added to the must read list to anyone in business or entering into business that remains skeptical to the advantages of social technologies or believes in the advantages of social technologies. She lists numerous examples, case studies, action plans and open strategy checklists guiding an organization to build open leadership and how to implement a new culture of sharing. She explains the shift has come about because of three trends: more people are online, the widespread use of social sites and the rise of sharing.

In Chapter 7 “Open Leadership: Mind-Sets and Traits” she explains how “leadership is about relationships, and because social technologies are changing relationships, leadership also needs to change.” She indicated in her research and interviews, there are two mind-sets that define and determine how open a leader is by their view of people. Leaders are either optimistic or pessimistic about people’s intentions. She diagrams “The Four Open Leadership Archetypes” where leaders can be plotted along two dimensions, optimistic versus pessimistic, and collaborative versus independent. In detail she describes four specific Open Leadership archetypes. Li believes you can find leaders representing these archetypes at all levels in an organization.

• The Realist Optimist – most effective and powerful of archetypes, somebody who can see the benefits of being open but also understands the barriers. They can work through tough situations. They have the rare combination of both optimism and collaboration and embrace social technologies but also realize the need to work with people who are not as optimistic as they are.

• The Worried Skeptic – are pessimistic and see themselves as the hero with the finger in the dike keeping the flood of bad things from happening in their organization. They are skeptical of social media and they rely on their analytical and intuitive skills to work through problems.

• The Cautious Tester – understands the need to collaborate and see the benefits to the organization and to them involving a greater circle of people. They are willing to test options and new ideas giving something new or strange a chance. They may not be ready to totally abandon their practices of control.

• The Transparent Evangelist – they believe only in themselves and that they are the ones who are right. They do not think through the implications of how being open could hurt the organization. They lack a collaborative mind-set. “They don’t have the relationship capital and ability to go to the other three archetypes and be able to translate the opportunity they see, in the marketplace.” They may not truly understand how technology needs to be coordinated or collaborated inside an organization to make things happen effectively.

If open leadership is important to you then assessing the attributes of the leaders of an organization and understanding your own mind-set will help determine if a particular franchise and/or business opportunity is a good fit. You will need to know whether the leadership of an organization shares a similar mind-set when it comes to open information sharing and decision making. To learn more visit http://www.charleneli.com/resources and take advantage of some of the free resources offered.

-Deb Evans
President and CEO
COMPUTER EXPLORERS

Learn more about Computer Explorers at www.franchisebusinessreview.com.
 

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