Thoughts about social media and question based leadership

I am convinced that social media is here to stay and has an effect to the way you do business. You cannot stop it and actually you should not try stop it. The word of mouth, good and bad, will spread. Timing is becoming crucial. Even more crucial it used to be. One day in internet and especially in the social media is an eternity.

Let’s assume you have a problem with your product. In the earlier times your strategy could have been just to wait a bit and hope that not too many people will notice it. Replace or give a fix free of charge to the people who complain and it was done. These times are gone for good. You can be sure that your problem will be public in no time in the internet – whether you like it or not. People will like it and spread it like there is no tomorrow. It is absolutely crucial that you are able to respond to the “internet rumors” immediately or even better you should proactively start the “rumors” yourself before someone else does. That creates consumer trust. Are your processes, policies and organization flexible enough to do that today?

How can your organization change or evolve to match the new reality? One of the possible directions could be a setup where the employees form a self-thinking, empowered organism instead of traditional hierarchical organization. You could implement question based leadership, which enables and encourages people to think themselves, to use their talent – instead implementing what their were told to. In order to implement that you need trust. You need to trust them and more importantly you have to overcome your own fear of loosing the control. Having such an empowered organizational setup would make it possible for your business to be proactive and quick in social media. But are you willing and committed to do that?