Over the years I've constructed several web sites around instructional design and education technologies. I'm constantly amazed at how many people contact me about these sites. My one site, Writing Educational Goals and Objectives, is the second Google hit on an "instructional objectives" search, so I have to assume many people are linking to it.
I didn't set out to do all this. I just wanted to share what I knew with others. Yet the end result is the same. In today's world, if you share something over the net, you are leading by doing, even if it's by accident.
Carrying this forward, are today's leaders with an online presence providing leadership with every post they make? That's pretty scary, considering the breadth of social tools out there. Many (like Twitter) can be used for personal info (I just ate a steak at XXXX and loved it!) as well as professional info. Or are we just receiving a more holistic picture of our leaders, one that will allow us to better understand their thoughts, humor, likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams?
Will the new generation of techno-savvy leaders that use these tools actively bend them to promote their leadership visions, or will they not think about it before they unwittingly share their leadership in this arena? I'm seeing both things happen here. I'm curious as to what others are seeing. How is the Web 2 affecting leadership, and how are leaders utilizing Web 2 tools, deliberately and unwittingly?
I didn't set out to do all this. I just wanted to share what I knew with others. Yet the end result is the same. In today's world, if you share something over the net, you are leading by doing, even if it's by accident.
Carrying this forward, are today's leaders with an online presence providing leadership with every post they make? That's pretty scary, considering the breadth of social tools out there. Many (like Twitter) can be used for personal info (I just ate a steak at XXXX and loved it!) as well as professional info. Or are we just receiving a more holistic picture of our leaders, one that will allow us to better understand their thoughts, humor, likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams?
Will the new generation of techno-savvy leaders that use these tools actively bend them to promote their leadership visions, or will they not think about it before they unwittingly share their leadership in this arena? I'm seeing both things happen here. I'm curious as to what others are seeing. How is the Web 2 affecting leadership, and how are leaders utilizing Web 2 tools, deliberately and unwittingly?
Wow, that is a really great observation Brett. Are we getting a more (and possibly more valuable) holistic view of the leaders in our space? I think being able to reach so many so quickly is a great thing to establish leadership in a given field -- maintaining it can be exhaustive. I also wonder if we are building levels of leadership by providing easy ways to share vs. more traditional ways. As an example, is someone who spends their time publishing blog posts that anyone can read less of a leader than say someone who publishes more lengthy pieces in journals that only a few have access to? Both have intense value and while one may be more aligned to the notion of pop culture celebrity I think we need to find ways to value both.
Even with that said I return to your example of the Twitter stream ... does knowing that someone you think a lot about spends a bunch of time grumbling about the quality of a steak lunch help or hurt their identity. To me that is the really interesting question.
About levels - will the leader of the future's (perhaps the present!) correspondence exist on multiple channels of communication, each giving us a piece of the individual's thoughts? Perhaps the "traditional" channels - peer-reviewed publishes articles, white papers, etc. will be forced to share space with Web 2 channels.
In business and industry, I can see this as a great way to open communication across an organization. In academia, especially research-oriented institutions, I believe it will not be initially embraced by many - unless organizations like ETS can sponsor innovative faculty to conduct research that demonstrates value here. Then we need to promote the heck out these faculty, their findings, and the leaders they've researched.
As a start, it would be great to survey faculty and administrative leaders in academia to see if/how they are using Web2 communication tools to reach out.
In my opinion, that's what we've been doing with projects like the faculty success stories (promote the heck out of the faculty) and Carla's faculty fellowship (more research oriented).
As to your question "Will the new generation of techno-savvy leaders that use these tools actively bend them to promote their leadership visions, or will they not think about it before they unwittingly share their leadership in this arena?" A fundamental part of being a leader is being able to share a vision. That can be done through a blog, YouTube, televised speech, fireside chat, or a well-written book. A really good communicator and strategist will know how to use all of the above.