Leadership in the 'always on' world

THE DIGITAL WORLD

With millions of mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders in use in North America we are living in an ‘always on’ world, and any recording of you can be displayed via podcasts, ‘youtube.com’, or video camera – an event that would have been, seen only once by one person and then allowed to fade from memory is now available for everyone, forever.

This is having a profound impact on business politics and society – as it did with John McCain’s presidential bid. His selection of Sara Palin as a running mate gave the Republicans a push following the party’s convention. Palin’s speeches were carefully scripted to pull former Hillary Clinton supporters, and independent and female voters to the Republicans. It was a powerful strategy given the long and divisive fight between Clinton and Obama. It all worked very well until Palin had to leave the script behind and sit down with an actual journalist. The interview with CBS’s Katie Couric wasn’t just disastrous, it was fatal!

If all of this had happened just five years ago, its impact would be muted, but Palin and her inability to handle even basic questions, were viewed by many more than those watching the show in its actual timeslot. In the past, by next day commentators would have had their say, and a few days later the whole episode would only live on as a fading memory.

But not today, many who missed the interview went to ‘youtube.com’ to see it. It had almost 7,000,000 views in one form or another within the first week. This was followed by Tina Fey’s portrayal of the candidate on Saturday Night Live, in which Fey used lines cribbed directly from the interview in the Saturday Night Live script. These comedic portrayals have collectively drawn 10s of millions of additional views.

The First Time

The Rodney King beating in 1991 by the Los Angeles police was video recorded and it was sensational when it occurred: today it is commonplace for the public to feel emboldened to record things they find offensive or have a judgment about. Our police departments record statements as evidence: it has become an always on world.

Today’s media reports that Christian Bale’s profane tirade was caught on video, now released from an unknown source. In the past that would have been spoken about in a small group of people, but treated as hearsay. Marlon Brando was notorious for similar tirades, but we never saw them.

More recently the RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport were recorded tazering Robert Dziekanski on video by a passenger leaving the airport. It’s been over a year since that occurred but the video has come repeatedly to the forefront of the public’s consciousness as the RCMP make their statements to the Braithwaite inquiry. This has encouraged other people who were present to testify at the inquiry. This has cost the RCMP a very large portion of public confidence – they may never recover from this video. We are always on in this modern society, it affects all leaders in all positions all of the time.

So what is a leader to do?

Just be them-selves or do they need to have a public persona? The problem with a public persona is that it sooner or later it is recognized as a persona, not the real you. I believe the leader needs to ‘show up’ authentically – as they are – most of us are very understanding of an occasional act of frustration or even testiness or fatigue, this is easily forgiven.

As I watched President Obama on CNN in his press conference this evening, I recognized his pragmatism and straight forwardness, but as quickly as he finished, clips of his responses were being analyzed, reviewed, repositioned and spun by everyone on the CNN panel of experts. It is truly an ‘always on’ world.

The challenge for the leader whether it be in office, as the team leader managing a group of people, the manager of a telecom branch or a new politician facing the glare of the spotlight of the media – the challenge is to be yourself and still manage your message and your understanding of the environment.

Whether you’re a manager, a coach, a parent, an administrator, or a president, the most important resource is your people. The leader’s crucial element of success in creating a vision is the ability to influence, inspire, motivate and encourage people. This ‘always on’ world may reveal you as a good communicator or a poor communicator or someone with a bad temper. You may not be any of those things; you might be all of those things. A video clip could be revealed to the world available for all people to view,  forever. So as a result leaders of today are always ‘on’. Their skill and ability to communicate has become the ‘critical’ leaders advantage in all senses of the word.

Authority alone doesn’t make you a leader; the ability to get your message across and persuade is key. Nothing happens until communication begins; great ideas have no impact until they are given voice. Power comes from the leaders his ability to use his or her own unique set of personal attributes to their best advantage. Those who develop this leadership skill will have the knowledge and the courage to change to advance and succeed. In this ‘always on’ world – always show up.

All the best, Geoffrey