Real Leaders Use Social Media to Shut Up and Listen

Great article by Wayne Turmel and goes to my point that listening/communication are the #1 leadership trait! Enjoy!

By Wayne Turmel


With all the Twittering, Yammering, Foursquaring and all the other social media going on (the word I’ve coined is tweetfacelinkblogging, patent pending) it would seem that leaders have no shortage of ways to get their message out. That’s great, says one leadership expert, but it misses the point. The real advantage of social media to a leader is the ability to listen.

Jim Kouzes has been writing about leadership for well over 30 years,starting with the landmark “The Leadership Challenge” and now his latest book, “The Truth About Leadership- the No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know,” are essential reading for anyone interested in being a great leader. He doesn’t buy into the fact that leadership means anything different to Millennials (or whatever you want to call those darned kids) than it did to your parents, but technology has made a difference, and the difference isn’t what you think.

“The fact is that social media, Twitter and all that, actually makes it easier for leaders to listen to their people than ever before”, he said when I spoke to him on The Cranky Middle Manager Show. That’s right, people complain about distance and being physically far from your people, but ask yourself: how many leaders actually get unfiltered input from their folks, even when they’re in the same location?

The idea of using social media to listen seems counter-intuitive. After all, we get told constantly how easy it is to broadcast your message. You can send out daily tweets, update your Facebook or Ning page, and conduct “Town Hall” webinars but those are one-way, broadcast media, at least the way most people use them. When was the last time your CEO held a webinar that actually allowed chat or took questions with any serious intent?

It’s amazing how insulated leaders can become- just watch a treacly episode of Undercover Boss sometime. (”I never knew the people who worked for me worked so hard for so little”. Really????). Giving the appearance of listening is easy, you just have to take a look at that dusty suggestion box in the lunch room. It gets a lot of action at first and then becomes a dust bunny repository as people realize that their ideas are going into the ether.

Kouzes makes the point that a real leader listens. “Social media is a great opportunity to get input from your people and let them feel listened to and heard- if it’s used effectively”.

That effectiveness is demonstrated by not only gathering feedback, but responding to it and displaying it for all the world to see, even when it’s not flattering. Then (and here’s the hard part) taking actual action based on that feedback.

Whether you’re the CEO or first-time project manager, leaders listen to their people and let those folks know they’ve been heard. It doesn’t mean you do everything they suggest — after all, you’re the leader for a reason– but they have to know that you listen and care.