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- Web 2.0 Hot Topics
- Get Your Leaders Blogging
Throughout history, great people such Leonardo DaVinci, Anne Frank and James Cook have all kept logs or journals as a central place to capture their observations, thoughts and ideas. Journaling also helps adults to learn; this is especially true of leaders. But it is only since the advent of Web 2.0 that researchers have studied the impact that blogging has had on leadership development.
Web 2.0 technology allows all of us to easily publish material on the web with no knowledge of computer programming at all. Wikipedia, My Space and LinkedIn are all examples of Web 2.0 technology. So, too, are blogs.
Blog is short for web log. It is very similar to an online journal, except that what you write is normally published for all to see. Your leadership blog is a place where managers can write about their experiences, offer advice, record ideas, summarize readings, distil their thinking, share opinions and analyse complex aspects of leadership.
Blogging helps managers to become better leaders because it:
- Captures their thoughts in one place, where they (and others) can draw on them at any time.
- Requires managers to critically reflect on their leadership behaviour, which in turn helps them to close the gap between knowing what to do and doing what you know.
- Builds their personal reputation, which in turn increases their capacity to influence others, a central tenet of great leadership.
Furthermore, because most blog posts are published (you can keep some private), blogging creates a shared pool of first-hand knowledge about how to lead well. Blog articles mix theory with real life examples to offer practical insight that other leaders can relate to. The fact that articles are published also forces the author to put more thought into what they write, promoting deeper insight than is typically achieved in private journals.
Best of all, blogging is free. There are many sites, including WordPress and Blogger, where one can open a normal blogging account at no cost. There is now even a site designed specifically for leadership blogs, The Between Leaders Community, where managers can share their thoughts and interact with managers from across the world.
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I believe it can Shaun, for those who are willing to learn the lessons that broadcast communication tools hold for leaders. I wrote an article last month called What Twitter Can Teach Leaders based on some of those ideas…
Paul
http://www.theleadershipcoach.com/2009/what-twitter-can-teach-leaders-paul-andrew-executive-coaching-leadership-training/
Sharing valuable content about leadership through blogging also can connect you with thought leaders whose expertise compliments your own. Readers’ perception of you as a leader naturally is enhanced by these elevated thought leader associations. Of course, these connections need to be authentic. They fall short when they do not come from a genuine affinity for particular thought leaders. After all, who you are as a person is you are as a leader and that’s in part what blogging gives readers a better sense of…how they can relate to you as a leader who learns.
Oops! Website link correction for my comment.
Blogging would be beneficial to leadership development if it was used as a vehicle for honest self-reflection. The most effective leaders take time for daily reflection and a blog could serve as a way to do that. From a growth perspective, a blog could be a good way to float ideas and generate discussion.
I think expressing, with authenticity, what one believes can make anyone a better leader, whether this is done orally or in writing. There also could be an advantage to blogging and that is that, if done systematically, it could well be a way of promoting more reflection and learning for the leader herself/himself -at least under the assumption that writing might take a bit more reflection than “talking”. One way or the other, what is essential for me is that a leader cannot lead unless what he/she stands for is known by others. In this regard, blogging might also be a good venue for becoming better leaders for those who, under the Myers Briggs, show preference for being introvert rather than extravert. According to the Myers Briggs, extraverts think through issues by talking whereas introverts prefer to think before they say something. For this reason, some would argue that it is easier to be a leader if you are an extravert. It is important, however, to keep in mind that the Myers Briggs typology is about “preferences” rather than “habilities” and thus one can have introverts who are masters at expressing themselves orally. All the same, it occurs to me that blogging would be a good practice for letting the “leader” shine more often, perhaps, in introverts. Last, but not least, it also seems to me that blogging has the great advantage of enabling leaders to put out a consistent message to more people: if blogging is considered as a type of journaling, then, in a sense, blogging might be deemed as a way of holding “one to one” conversations, at once, with many, i.e. with all those who could be reached by the blog.
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