Leading for Authenticity

What Women Want from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg

February 7, 2012

Facebook has a gender problem. We want Sheryl Sandberg to fix it. Facebook has had a gender problem since its beginning. Now, with the publicity around Facebook’s upcoming IPO, business analysts, portfolio managers, potential investors, and feminist businesspeople are calling attention to the most glaring symptom of Facebook’s gender problem: Facebook has only white men [...]

Read the full article →

Social Business News: Too Many Wrong Messages On Social Media? Try Leadership, Not Control.

December 5, 2011

In my first contribution to Social Business News, I’m reminding organizations that want to align their social media messages to focus their efforts on leadership. I find it pretty frustrating that so many social media advocates recommend “governance” or “policy” or “control” when an organization finds there are too many voices, not enough voices, or [...]

Read the full article →

Pay Attention to How Social Media Communities Create ‘the Organization’

September 20, 2011

Why do so many social business advocates overlook the organizational value of online communities? Too many people dismiss online communities for not being central to the organizations they serve.  These critics dismiss communities for being merely social, just another way to chat or swap tips. Even when they acknowledge how communities can be critical for [...]

Read the full article →

7 Reasons To ReThink Social Scoring Inside Social Organizations– before it’s too late

April 25, 2011

“Manager A’s results with the department’s implementation of Program X were outstanding, but her internal Klout score is only a 43. Given her low influence score, it looks like she’s not as good a leader as Manager B. I know that Manager B has been with us only two years, and hasn’t yet finished Program [...]

Read the full article →

Social Media for Social Change — Inside the Organization?

February 15, 2011

This post is featured on Social Media Today. How has the activity of organizational change been changed, with the advent of social media? Back when I was an internal OD/Org Change manager in the Soap Plant, we spread ideas about change the old-fashioned ways: meetings, photocopied paper mail, and face-to-face conversations. With the rise of [...]

Read the full article →

How Social Media Create Organizational Meaning

January 18, 2011

Social media tools can transform an organization. One of the things I enjoy so much about social media is the chance to be (more often) the person I am, with my specific sets of talents, interests, and goals. Every time I extend myself out on social media, I get to choose what I’ll say, how [...]

Read the full article →

Insights about Authenticity from the Open Community Book Tour

December 22, 2010

I’m taking part in the virtual book tour and are doing to explore concepts from . Maddie and Lindy, along with their colleague Jamie Notter, have long been some of my favorite bloggers. “Even though” they write about communications strategies, and focus on a very specific type of organization (associations), their ideas are big, broadly [...]

Read the full article →

Changing the CEO at BP: It won’t make a difference, except where it will

July 27, 2010

For the past 90 days and counting, we knew this day was coming. You didn’t need an Irish bookmaker to tell you that Tony Hayward’s tenure as CEO of BP was coming to a close. Any organization facing a crisis like the BP Oil Spill would be likely to replace the guy at the helm. [...]

Read the full article →

Could BP have avoided the Gulf Oil Spill if it had more Women Executives?

May 26, 2010

How much has the paucity of women executives at BP and the overall gender imbalance in BP’s managerial ranks contributed to the Gulf Oil Spill? I’m betting that had there been more women in the executive ranks at British Petroleum, more women (especially from inside the Company) on BP’s Board of Directors, and more women [...]

Read the full article →

3 Types of Employee Engagement Advocates: Which type are you?

May 17, 2010

Is there ever a time when our reactions don’t reflect our own perspectives on an issue? The whole wisdom behind the dictum: “Seek First to Understand” turns on our awareness of the near-impossibility of uncoupling our initial reactions from our personal standpoint. Our experience with an issue, as well as our general world views, are [...]

Read the full article →