Web 2.0 Hot Topics

by Deborah Kendell on April 30, 2009 · 0 comments

in Leadership Development

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Welcome back!

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series 3 Free Ways To Develop Leadership In Your Organisation

Marshall Goldsmith refers to the World Wide Web as the global mind—a culmination of collective knowledge. These days, if you want to know more about any topic from mountain climbing to making roast pork crackling, you can just Google it. There is a virtual sea of information out there that anyone can access. However, this flood of information has given rise to a new problem.

For a busy manager trying to get a little guidance in how to be a better leader, it is easy to drown in a seemingly endless sea of information. The web is information overload on a grand scale. To make matters worse, much of what is written on the web is little more than pop psychology and unfounded opinion. Using the web as a quick way to find trustworthy information has been fraught with danger, at least until now.

That’s where you come in. I’m assuming that as a HR or L&D professional, you have some expertise in what it means to lead well. Couple your expertise with that of your colleagues, and you have a small panel of intelligent critics who can easily sort the wheat from the chaff. And now, thanks to the Web 2.0 revolution, you can actively and easily connect your managers to those nuggets of wisdom that pass muster.

What is Web 2.0? Put simply, Web 2.0 refers to the suite of applications that have allowed even the most technophobic of us to publish material on the internet. Facebook, YouTube, eBay and Blogger are all examples of Web 2.0 in action. You can easily post information about yourself, upload items for sale or keep an online diary. This article is about one specific Web 2.0 application that not only can help your managers become better leaders, but also costs nothing to use. It is called Squidoo.

Squidoo allows you to highlight what you consider the best resources available on a particular topic. It is a place where you can help managers cut through the fog of misinformation and shine a light on some recommended reading. People can create Squidoo pages about any topic, but for our purposes I am talking about collating a resource page (called a Lens) about current hot topics in leadership. You can view a sample lens here. It is about Emotionally Intelligent Leadership and was created by a colleague of mine. However, we don’t want you to simply rely on our lenses. Rather, you should create a bank of your own. Then publicise your lenses among your managers to help connect them to high quality knowledge in areas that interest them.

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Get Your Leaders Blogging

by Shaun Killian on May 5, 2009 · 7 comments

in Experiential Learning, Leadership Development, Learning Journals

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series 3 Free Ways To Develop Leadership In Your Organisation

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:

  1. Captures their thoughts in one place, where they (and others) can draw on them at any time.
  2. 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.
  3. 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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