Still feeling uncomfortable about signing up to the social/digital age? There is now increasing evidence 
that one of the critical leadership qualities is familiarity with social/digital media.
In this article,(The Seven Traits of Effective Digital Enterprises), McKinsey & Co points out, “To succeed, management teams need to move beyond vague statements of intent and focus on “hard wiring” digital into their organization’s structures, processes, systems, and incentives.”
Becoming adept at using social media is integral to that. Here are some steps that make it simple:
- Change my mindset. Park your ego at the door and acknowledge that, “If I want a modern, customer-intimate organisation, I need to change my behaviour”.
- Accept that the first step is the hardest. Often it’s simply making a little time: reorganising the diary to, say, spend 30 minutes on your social media, early in the morning, three times a week.
- Start with small steps. So don’t start with blogging, that’s hard work for the uninitiated. Instead, take a couple of months to learn how to use LinkedIn by joining and interacting within a group. Or start posting on Facebook. Or start making short sharp video broadcasts.
- Watch others. I’m a great believer in this. If we watch politicians, we’ll see how they do it: most of the grunt work is done by assistants and minders, but the real value is the tweet or video from the Boss.
- Interact with the social/digital team so you begin to understand how the multiple touch points work within the organisation.
- Develop followers. Talk about what you are doing with your executive team, so the more creative members can follow your lead.
- Be patient but persistent. The change will feel slow. But if you’re now leading the social revolution, others will follow.
For more read: The Social/Digital Revolution: have you, the Leader, become the Laggard?
