Lately, leadership is a buzzword on my timeline. How do I become a good one? How do I improve as one? How do I work on a strategy that empowers others to also become good leaders?
If you expect me to give you an answer, stop reading. I’m just going to spawn a conversation.
I believe that, on social media media, leadership is nothing more or less than influence. Namely because that is all I have. My hashtags, RTs, @replies and all of these things are simply an exertion of my influence. It can all be ignored or ridiculed and called out for this flaw or that if I don’t do my homework.
Part of being a good influence on these sorts of things is also being influenced by correct sources. Let’s not kid ourselves; influence is circular. You are also being influenced while influencing others and that is a constant. Because of that, mitigating who was what level of power to speak into your processes is important. Very important.
In my timeline, there are a lot of people, but very few have the ability to say anything I will actually listen to in my timeline and those people are people of quality that I see doing things that I want to do as a leader and as a person. For instance, @yukarip and @snipeyhead are perfect for talking to about my website design and japanese things (and are just awesome in general). @tamadear and @ambercadabra are epic about leadership topics, social media, business strategy and just being on your a-game in general (and are genuine as can be about all sorts of things).
If @ambercadabra told me to shut down this blog, I’d probably do it without much thought. If @snipeyhead told me my site design was crap, I’d revise it. If @yukarip told me that I used the wrong verb in a japanese sentence or that I mistranslated something, I wouldn’t dare to question it. That is the power of the direct influence those people have.
HOWEVER, I have 92 people talking on my timeline and I am influenced by all 92 of them. Long after I have read and even replied or RT’d, I’m still thinking about the things that they said or did or posted just on indirect influence. THAT’S power. Influence allows you to be present in mind even when you’re not present in body. There are people you can ignore sitting right next to you as you read this, but this thing that I wrote will stick with you and I am a few hundred miles away from you. That is the power of influence.
Again, this isn’t the be-all-end-all discussion for leadership in social media or even via influence for that matter, but for me, it’s a start to understanding how I can use social media, not just to push out my own ideas, or leave a mark on the world, but maybe to make better people and a better me in the process.
What do you think?