SOCIAL MEDIA - MEETINGS - SELF LEADERSHIP

The new framework of business is social media. What this means? It means that organizations benefit enormously if they start to use the logic of social media as modus operandi. This is something which we all must consider very seriously and very personally; we have to clarify to ourselves what is the logic of social media and what it means to me, and also to us as an organization.

Few definitions are in place so that we will start to talk about same issues. Firstly, certainly the logic of social media can mean a lot of different things. Here it means sharing and transparency. It means that we all always think that what is secret, what can be shared with few colleagues, what can be shared in a group and what is open (I deeply thank Esko Kilpi for making this point very succinctly in our Web for Executives program). So for instance, whenever you learn something new (which happens pretty continuously I assume) you always think about sharing. You are not working alone for yourself but you are working and thinking together with others in your organization and in your network.

Secondly I started this blog by talking about organizations but hereafter I will focus on individuals and how we as individuals choose to follow the logic of social media in our daily work in our organizations. Here the way how we choose to act in our meetings is the special topic of this blog.

Thirdly, how the issue of self leadership enters to this picture? Well, it is elementary. How we decide to act in different settings is vastly important and now the logic of social media demands that we really reflect how we play our part in organizational life and in particular in meetings.

Fourthly, I wish to add that now we are talking about meetings which could be 1-2 hour long sessions. So we will focus on those short periods where professionalism should shine (like a sun in Finnish July).

This is the background and now let us proceed to two conclusions:

1) The logic of social media (and the practical tools and gadgets) means that we can communicate all the time. So coming together in the first place is a very special event. Therefore from the perspective of self leadership you may decide to make to yourself clear how very important every meeting is.

2) In the meeting most important thing is to really think together, perhaps solve difficult problems, perhaps plan future actions or do something demanding thinking together. From the viewpoint of self leadership you must be able and willing to think together. You must be able to really share and participate. You must be willing to take risks and propose some ideas which are not ready but which could be developed further together. This kind of open participation can feel very demanding.

Perhaps the topic under discussion can be difficult to you (you may not like the topic, you may not know enough of the topic and you should know, or for some other reason the topic of the meeting may haunt you), some participants of the meeting can be particularly challenging to you for some reason, your genuine interest concerning to success of an organization can be at certain level (and therefore you utmost willingness to give your best even during this short meeting can be question mark).

If any of these elements are present in your thinking you are really facing a self leadership issue here. It is plainly evident at this point that the issue of self leadership is not a fancy theoretical concept but you are truly assessing what is your own capacity to participate and contribute. Certainly this kind of self leadership issues have been always with us but now the logic of social media, the new framework of business raises these issues to new level. They become more and more important and they become more and more transparent, no matter what our personal wishes and hopes might be.

The need for self leadership and genuine professionalism has never been more important than now in this era of  social media.