Category Archives: Blogging for Leaders

Leveraging Your Influence: An online course for MN K12 Education Leaders on using social media

Charlie KyteMy conversations and work with fellow Northfielder Charlie Kyte, Executive Director of the Minnesota School Administrators Association (MASA) and Voice of MN Education blogger, have led to discussions about a course in leadership blogging/social media for members of MASA, MESPA, MASSP, and MASE.

Those are Minnesota-based associations of K12 school leaders: superintendents, principals, and other education program managers.

We had planned to offer the course this spring but that’s now been pushed back to fall.

 

Fear and Loathing in the Executive Suite: Why Leaders Avoid Blogging and Other Social Media

PDF version of this blog postMost every leader is feeling the effects of the waves of social media technologies that are increasingly washing up on the shores of their organizations. It’s primarily been blogs since 2005 but now it’s also Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Leaders cannot help but notice the demands for more organizational transparency, authenticity, responsiveness, and engagement from employees, customers, constituents, members, citizens, and the media–all of whom are increasingly adept at using social media technologies.

If you’ve been reluctant to use social media technologies yourself in your role as a leader, you’re not alone.

ceobloggingstage_tnThe problem was noted as early as 2006 when the New York Times published an article titled All the Internet’s a Stage. Why Don’t C.E.O.’s Use It? Author Randall Stross cited only one active CEO blogger among the Fortune 500.

Fast forward to January, 2009 when social media consultant Steve Borsch authored a blog post titled Why Executives Don’t “Get” Social Media. When he asked one executive, the response was, “Because I’m getting sh*t done and I can’t invest my attention or energy there.”

GeorgeColonyIn the spring of 2010, Forrester CEO George Colony published a series of blog posts titled The Social CEO. In Part 1: Most CEOs Are Not Social he noted that not only were few CEOs using social media, but that even CEOs of the big social media companies weren’t exactly active users.

Colony and others have some theories about why so few executives use social media technologies such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube in their roles as leaders. In Part 2 of his series titled CEOs Aren’t Social For Good Reasons, Colony listed these factors:

  • Age
  • Risk and regulatory constraints
  • Time
  • The social heavy model breeds blowhards

In August, 2010, the principals of corporate social media consulting firm DemingHill published a paper titled Why Executives HATE Social Media citing that executives:

  • are “non-narcissistic in a YouTube world”
  • are inherently introverts and gravitate towards solitude versus socializing
  • have difficulty with the lack of control required for social media to be fully unleashed
  • fear and feel vulnerable around the technology in the social arena, even as they depend on it in other areas
  • wonder if social media is yet another technology whose promises will go unfilled

In my work as a leadership blogging coach the past five years, I’ve heard all these reasons and a few others. In this blog post, I address them and suggest some alternative ways to think about them. Continue reading Fear and Loathing in the Executive Suite: Why Leaders Avoid Blogging and Other Social Media

Empowering Voices Online (EVO): community leadership blogging

Evo-logo I’m working with my Gallomanor colleagues, Shane McCracken and Mary Reid, to deliver a series of one-day community leadership blogging workshops in the UK called Empowering Voices Online (EVO) .

Shane and Mary will be delivering the face-to-face sessions while I concentrate on the coaching and feedback via various tools, including the Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) on Blogging for Leaders.

First up on the 6th of February: participants from the city of Dewsbury in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. They’ll be meeting at the Ravensthorpe Community Centre.

Blogging 101 for Civic Leaders

With my NCO/Northfield.org civic hat on, I’m giving my first blog class for 8-10 local civic leader bloggers here in my hometown. See my promo-blurb below, with a few details removed. And watch for stray audioblog posts and moblogged photos. – Griff

02.03 update: Class attendees last night, with links to their blogs:

Back row L to R: Rob Schanilec, Northfield Historical Society; State Rep. Ray Cox; Bruce Morlan, Dundas/Bridgewater Planning Commission; Dan Bergeson, NDDC Board.
Front row L to R: Betsey Buckheit, Northfield Planning Commission; Diane Cirksena, Northfield Board of Education; Bardwell Smith, NDDC Board; Margit Johnson, League of MN Voters Northfield.
Not pictured: Jim Pokorney, Northfield City Council, whose blog is not quite ready for primetime.

Are you a Northfield area civic leader with a weblog?

Are you interested in learning some technical aspects of blogging that’ll make your weblog better, more interesting to your readers, and easier for you to maintain?

Are you interested in learning more about the types of weblog posts that makes for a good civic leadership weblog?

Then this class is for you. We’ll meet in a computer lab where each blogger will have a computer. We’ll provide individual coaching as well as whole-class instruction.

Bring your weblog username and password.

Here’s the FAQ:

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?
I’m hosting a blogging class for you and your fellow civic leaders.

WHO’S BEHIND THIS?
It’s being offered as a joint effort between Northfield Citizens Online and Community Ed and Rec.

WHO CAN TAKE THE CLASS?
It’s not open to the general public… invitation only, going out to about ten of you. You probably all know each other. Maybe even like each other.

WHEN IS IT?
Wednesdays, Feb X and Feb X. We may host more sessions in the spring.

WHERE IS IT?
xxx computer lab

WHAT TIME?
7-9 pm

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
It’s free.

WHY IS IT FREE?
Because you’re worth it. And the blogosphere needs you.

HOW DO I SIGN UP?
Reply to this email and I’ll let you know. It’ll be an online form via the Community Ed and Rec web site but it’s not quite ready yet.

WILL THERE BE HOMEWORK?
Nope.

WILL I BE GRADED?
Nope.

WILL I BE REWARDED?
Probably not in this life. But I am working on getting blogging t-shirts of some kind.

ARE THERE PREREQUISITES?
You have to have your own weblog (or a group weblog) and know your username and password to access it. You also have to be completely sober at the start of the class.

WHAT IF I CAN ONLY ATTEND ONE OF THE NIGHTS?
Sign up anyway. The class does not have a scope and sequence. It’ll be informal coaching, mainly, with occasional “Hey everybody, let me explain something that many of you seem to be struggling with” asides.

WILL I BE PHOTOGRAPHED FOR a NORTHFIELD.ORG PHOTO ALBUM?
Yes, with your permission. So get your hair done.

CAN I BRING MY DIGITAL CAMERA?
Yes. I might even help you learn to use it.

WILL I BE BLOGGED?
Incessantly, by me and your colleagues.

WILL THIS BE FUN?
No. I’m a teacher from hell. But we might have fun after class, retreating to a pub.

WHAT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS?
Contact me.