Finding and Supporting Your Open Leaders

1. 1 Finding and Supporting Open Leaders Charlene Li Altimeter Group May 14, 2010 #openleader

2. 2 Open Leadership Having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control, while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals How to give up control, and be in command © 2010 Altimeter Group

3. 3 Think of your favorite leader Why did you follow that person? © 2010 Altimeter Group

4. 4 The Optimistic Leader  Believes that most people want to do their best want to be responsible, trustworthy, and honest. • Pessimists believe that most people cannot be trusted because they are looking for an advantage.  Two characteristics of optimistic leaders. • Curiosity – driven by a deep quest to learn constantly and see social technologies as a way to do this. - E.g. Dell and Starbucks • Humility – able to admit when you need help or have made a mistake. - E.g. Kodak © 2010 Altimeter Group

5. 5 The Collaborative Leader  Believes that more heads are better than one. ―It is very arrogant to think you can make better decisions than the thousands of people below you.‖ - Cris Conde, SunGard CEO  Recognizes and rewards collaboration. • As opposed to individual accomplishments.  Cisco shifted from command-and-control individualistic approaches to collaboration over seven years. • Accelerated in last two years thanks to social and collaboration technologies. © 2010 Altimeter Group

6. 6 Find and develop your open leaders Cautious Tester Realist Optimist Collaborative Worried Skeptic Transparent Evangelist Independent Pessimist Optimist © 2010 Altimeter Group

7. 7 Convincing the curmudgeon It’s a fad and waste of time. What’s the ROI? It’s too risky. Who can best work with a Worried Skeptic? © 2010 Altimeter Group

8. Examples of Realist Optimists Lionel Menchaca Dell Lovisa Williams US Dept. of State Ed Terpening Wells Fargo © 2010 Altimeter Group

9. 9 Supporting your archetypes  Realist Optimists  Cautious Tester and Worried Skeptics • Help them understand the value of being open. • Keep Transparent Evangelists nearby to learn how to work with Pessimists.  Transparent Evangelists take on outward facing functions and responsibilities to open up the organization. © 2010 Altimeter Group

10. 10 Best Buy’s First Social Media Experts Steve Bendt & Gary Koelling © 2010 Altimeter Group

11. 11 They harnessed Best Buy’s biggest asset The Blue Shirts © 2010 Altimeter Group

12. BlueShirtNation.com supported Best Buy’s front line employees © 2010 Altimeter Group

13. 13 Steve & Gary had an executive sponsor Barry Judge CMO of Best Buy © 2010 Altimeter Group

14. 14 They kept telling him one thing… ―Barry, you gotta get a blog!‖ © 2010 Altimeter Group

15. 15 Barry’s first post ―I was so relieved when it was over—it was just two sentences to get started.‖ © 2010 Altimeter Group

16. 16 The Premier Black Fiasco 6.8 million emails sent instead of 1,000 test © 2010 Altimeter Group

17. 17 Barry’s response ―…we screwed up the execution which makes me feel sick about the customer trust that we have impacted.‖ © 2010 Altimeter Group

18. 18 Openness became a strategy Open market testing of new logo © 2010 Altimeter Group

19. 19 +2,200 Best Buy employees provide support on Twitter © 2010 Altimeter Group

20. 20 Skills and behaviors of open leaders  Being authentic  Mastering transparency  Developing and encouraging open leadership © 2010 Altimeter Group

21. 21 Being authentic  I seek out and listen to different points of view.  I make myself available to people at all levels of the organization.  I use social technologies effectively to communicate.  I actively manage how I am authentic. © 2010 Altimeter Group

22. 22 Mastering transparency  I take the time to explain how decisions are being made.  I reach out to customers frequently via social technologies, wherever they may be.  I encourage people to share information.  I update people regularly using social technologies.  I publicly admit when I am wrong. © 2010 Altimeter Group

23. 23 Develop and encourage open leadership  I identify and actively nurture potential open leaders at all levels of the organization.  I train and encourage people to use open leadership skills.  I encourage the use of social technologies throughout the organization.  I create a support network for open leaders.  I ask "What did I/we learn" when things fail. © 2010 Altimeter Group

24. Prepare for new workflows Social technologies will disrupt traditional organization structures © 2010 Altimeter Group

25. 25 Social media triage Take reasonable action to fix issue and let customer know action taken Positive Negative Yes Yes No Does customer need/deserve more info? Assess the message Do you want to respond? Evaluate the purpose Yes Yes No No Unhappy Customer? Are the facts correct? Gently correct the facts Response No No Yes Yes No Can you add value? Are the facts correct? Dedicated Complainer? No Yes Is the problem being fixed? Explain what is being done to correct the issue. Yes Respond in kind & share Thank the person Comedian Want-to-Be? No Yes Let post stand and monitor. © 2010 Altimeter Group

26. 26 The New Rules of Open Leadership 1. Respect that your customers and employees have power 2. Share constantly to build trust. 3. Nurture curiosity and humility. 4. Hold openness accountable. 5. Forgive failure. © 2010 Altimeter Group

27. 27 Action Plan  Conduct the open leadership assessment and determine your archetype. • Do a 360 degree evaluation to keep yourself honest. • Create a plan to support all archetypes in your org.  Conduct a skills and behavior inventory. • What skills and behaviors do you have to support open leadership? • For the ones you are missing, how will you develop or compensate for them? © 2010 Altimeter Group

28. 28 28 Thank you Charlene Li charlene@altimetergroup.com charleneli.com/blog Twitter: charleneli For slides, send an email to slides@altimetergroup.com For more information & to buy the book visit open-leadership.com © 2010 Altimeter Group