Articles from iGo2 Group
How leaders allow employees to succeed in social business
2012-05-15 08:05:20 WalterA
It’s often said that business transformation, including social business, needs leadership from the top.What’s not often said is that the transformation does
not
actually depend on the leaders leading, butrather on them
getting out of the way
signal their intent
to embrace change, and to
practically embrace
the relevant social technologies. They then do
not
need to busy themselves in social, but to ensure thatthe people issues, platform issues and process issues
are aligned
with their social businesstransformational goals. The reason that they must focus on these issues, as against “being social”, isbecause these issues solved
allow employees
to embrace social andto succeed.Think of it this way – consider an organisation in which the top leadership team has embraced social toolsand media and is active in promoting the value of these to the organisation. This would look exciting, andvery promising, in the eyes of an outside observer. After all, it’s the leadership from the top which we sooften state is fundamental to social business success.However, if the employees are not afforded equal social access, equal degrees of freedom to act, equalopportunity to engage, and equal opportunity to experiment and fail, then ultimately the whole initiative will
slowly wither from within
. In a nutshell, this happens because employees quickly sense the lack of consistency of action and opportunity between what is asked of them and what they can do, and a lack of mutual commitment between the leadership and themselves with regard to the social businessoutcomes.Here’s what “a Dell employee“ said recently ina commenton ablog post:
“
… any company that thinks all of their success comes from a handful of employees at the top is on thefast track to going out of business
all studies on productivity, creativity and innovation show that empowered individuals and open communities foster continuous innovation, and egocentric leadership is the fastest way to kill a culture
“.The points that this person (
who appears to bethis person
) made really captured my attention, for anumber reasons:Firstly, Dell is a very
successful
business;Secondly, it has
reinvented itself
several times over, and come out a healthier and more profitablebusiness;Thirdly it has mastered a
succession
of different disciplines which were core to each of itsreinventions – starting with logistics and distribution, then eCommerce, then marketing, thensupport, now social business, and coming up the services business;Fourthly, it has always had a relentless focus on
driving costs out
of the business yet has
simultaneously improved employee engagement and retention.So Dell is relentless, Dell is focused, Dell is successful and Dell knows that empowering employees anddeploying social technologies is all about good business. And as icing on the cakeDell uses Telligentas its social technology for collaboration and for customer support, whichiGo2 representsin APAC, and it’s great to see such profound business results from theTelligent Communityplatform.Those are the reasons why I am so intrigued by this employee’s comment.
So what can we learn from Dell’s social transformation?
There are some major mind-shifts needed:1. The need for an executive mind-shift to a recognition that the people who will have the next greatproduct idea
could be anyone
(the teams that have empowered our success with social media areprobably inversely correlated with age and experience);2. The need for a strategic mind-shift to accept that contextualizing strategy at the regional, local, or evenat the individual level will become increasingly necessary not only for success, but also for survival in theCloud era;3. The need for a power mind-shift to
empower grassroots
movements within the organisation e.g.where leadership has been bold enough to allow and foster new ideas;4. The need for a spiritual mind-shift to
embrace the new
and unfamiliar, which will inevitably arisebecause of the points above.
The ultimate health check
Ultimately, the health of a business’s social transformation is measured by taking the pulse at theinterface between employees and executives, and I quote the “Dell employee”:
IMHO the biggest strength of Michael Dell has been to recognize these trends and help tosupport the notion that large businesses will have to be rebuilt not from the top down or fromthe outside in, but from the inside out through increasingly intelligent, motivated and empowered employees and it is only through a healthy partnership between employees and management that a large organization act as an agile, continuously adapting system
.For me, this single comment by
the unknown-Deller
gives the most significant insight into why Dell should
not be underestimated
by any of its competitors, even those that feel they are invulnerable at present. And it offers huge insights for others seeking to transform their own business by highlighting the essenceof the challenge and solutions.
What is the most important role of leaders in assisting the transformation to social business?How important is it for them to be spending energy being busy in social as compared to spending energy clearing the path for employees to fully utilize social?
Please comment below.
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How Leaders Allow Employees Succeed Social Business a la Dell
It’s often said that business transformation, including social business, needs leadership from the top. What’s not often said is that the transformation does not actually depend on the leaders leading, but rather on them getting out…
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