Why are bosses anti-social media? There seems to be a lot of articles asking this question lately ... perhaps even blaming bosses for the destruction of our social media hopes and dreams.
I've been thinking about this and think I have found at least one answer to the question in some classic management research.
One of my favorite business books is "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. This was written way back in 2001 when books had more than one idea in them.
The book is a classic and one of the lasting concepts was the "Level 5 Leader" - an executive that personifies genuine personal humility blended with intense professional will. While we may picture the prototypical executive as a charismatic celebrity dynamo like Richard Branson (perfect social media material) more than 20 years of research led Collins to believe that the most effective business leaders are more typically shy, unpretentious, even awkward.
In other words, brilliant executives who produced the most sustained business excellence in corporate America were definitely NOT the social media type!
I think there is a personality bias in social media because it is so ... social. A lot of people just DON'T WANT TO ENGAGE (frequently followed by the words "damn it!"). That doesn't make them evil, or even the bane of your social media existence. In fact, as Collins shows, they may be the greatest boss you could wish for - but they just are not going to play nice with you and tweet.
According to a recent survey by public relations agency Weber Shandwick, 64% of CEOs are not using social media, although 93% of them are using traditional methods to communicate with external audiences. That doesn't come as a real surprise to me.
But an "anti-social" boss doesn't mean your dreams of social media rainbows are over, it may just mean it will not involve your top executive. Instead of spending your time trying to "change" a perfectly good boss, look for other ways to deploy in your organization. That is a key trait of an effective leader - work with the cards you are dealt and overcome. Don't keep wishing for a Branson-boss. Deal with it. Move on.
I should end with a caveat. I am assuming that your boss is effective, but just not social. However, if your boss is stupid, all bets are off.
Even if a boss doesn't want to be social, they still have to understand it enough to say "yeah, go ahead." There is no such thing as a grassroots strategic effort. The sponsorship must come from the top.
And with that, I'll turn it over to you, the awesome {grow} community. What problems (and successes) are you having with YOUR boss and social media? Let's work it out together in the comment section.