Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

by Charlene Li

Book Overview

An essential guide for leaders who want to use social media to be "open" while maintaining control

"Be Open, Be Transparent, Be Authentic" are the current leadership mantras-but companies often push back. Business is premised on the concept of control and yet the new world order demands openness-leaders do not know how to be open and be in control. This must-have resource will help the modern leader understand how to lead in the new...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470597267
• ISBN13: 9780470597262
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Are you ready for Open Leadership?

From co-authoring Groundswell, to founding Altimeter Group, and now in her newest book Open Leadership, it is clear that Charlene Li is one of today's leading thinkers in the evolution of business. In Open Leadership How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, Li goes well beyond the hype of social media and discusses how to transform your organization to lead in the 21st century. This book is a must read for every executive who remains skeptical to the advantages that being open can offer. She provides practical advice, clear thinking and you'll find that Li's writing is intelligent, guiding, and packed with truth and direction. Early on Li breaks down and discusses what all executives fear about the open web - giving up control. And presents the argument that by conceding and doing so, you actually put yourself and your organization in a position to gain more - with your customers, employees, and partners. Li puts the focus on how open you need to be, but she does not force your hand in Open Leadership. She does not prescribe one path, nor tell you what not to do. Rather she suggests that it is your decision to determine the depth and breadth of your openness, as well as defining the boundaries and policies that will govern your organization. In one of the numerous examples and interviews that litter the book, Li describes her time on the USS Nimitiz and uncovers a US Navy that is "open in some ways but not at all in others." They promote a culture of openness and sharing and at the same time adhere to strict rules for decision making and operations. There are numerous examples like this that make the read both enjoyable and educational. Each one provides insight to help you begin thinking about how to make your organization more open, and how you can succeed as an open leader. Bottom line Open Leadership is a must read. Li gives you the framework, complete with audits, checklists, assessment tests, and online resources at [...] to begin your needed transformation. The question is "Are you ready for Open Leadership?" Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

Open Leadership will be one of your reference books

In the eighties, IT folks and executives had qualms about providing desktop computers to their employees - the idea of empowering them boiled down to relinquishing command and control. Yet, the world didn't stop turning. The accelerated rise of social media poses a similar problem, albeit much larger by an order of magnitude, because this time employees and customers didn't ask anybody for the permission to show their power. So, either you try to fight it (with virtually no chance of winning), or you realize that you too can leverage social media, understand what Open leadership is about, and "how social technology can transform the way you lead," in just the same way people understood how social media technology would enable them to stand up in your face. The book "is about how leaders must let go to gain more," "open leadership" being defined as "having the confidence and the humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals." The task is not easy, and Charlene is well aware that calls from various management experts for leaders to remodel their management styles for the last fifty years "have gone largely unanswered." Why does she feel she can succeed while so many have been preaching in the desert? I see two main reasons why this book has a much higher chance of impact. 1) The context: "Giving up control is inevitable." While many books on management have characterized the traits and mindset of open leaders along similar lines as Charlene does throughout her book, the reasons for people to change are structurally different. For the last fifty years, these reasons had somewhat of a normative undertone, ranging from becoming a more charismatic person to preparing for an undefined future. Today, the future is here, and command and control executives had better move quickly because the world where sharing, relationships, conversations, and higher levels of transparency are becoming prominent paradigms, is slipping under their feet. In short, addressing self-preservation instincts in people could be more efficient than exhorting them to greatness. 2) A measured and pragmatic approach: Open leadership through "Open-driven objectives" No matter how convinced one may be that social media technologies will revolutionize the planet, each business is local, with its own spots of both inertia and vitality. One of the best aspects of the book is the clear acknowledgment that there are many degrees between open-door and closed-door leadership policies. This is often a fairly natural stand for a consultant to take, but harder to express positively in a book. Charlene remarkably sidesteps the problem by offering relevant examples, looking at the scope of benefits from the point of view of the various stakeholders, and establishing the checklist of any open strategy. While expounding on a correlation (although not a causality) between deep, broad engagement and financial performance, and presenting a

A Pastor's Review of Open Leadership

Probably wouldn't do much good to simply say, "Go get it right now!" but really that is what I want to say. After writing Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies with Josh Bernhoff, Charlene Li offers up a thoughtful book that helps folks to navigating all of this social technology hubbub, this time from the perspective of leadership. Open Leadership is a nuanced, yet practical guide for those who believe that the world is open source, flat, fluid, etc. and now want to thrive in the midst of it. This book is for those who want to lead that. While she does a good job of justifying some of the reason why the world and the business sector, in particular, must adapt to an open posture, my guess is that this will really only jive if you already believe this is so. Before I get into some of the specifics about the book, let me also say that I am reading and reviewing this through the lens of a pastor that has fully embraced this open world and trying to figure out how much of the business language can translate into church life. As I read this book, especially the - ahem, Inviting Customers Into a Covenant section (p122) - I had VERY little trouble translating this into my religious context. While non-profits and churches do not have a financial bottom line that is the driving force, we do want to lead well and in a way that is attuned with elements of culture and technology that are important. So, if you are church person, please do not dismiss this book because it is for the business community. That would just be silly ;-) The major assumption that Li makes is that the world is open and everyone needs to figure out how he/she will lead their organization. Couple that with social technologies and any power that we think we may have to direct and control as we have in the past is kaput. And in her words - . . . unless you are Apple and a combination of brilliant engineers and designers, a charismatic CEO, and a brand that everybody loves, openness be damned! - otherwise, we best all get on the Open Leadership train. Like any good book on systems and leadership there are some profound nuggets sprinkled through out. Honestly, the whole book is quote worthy and my copy is littered with post-it flags to the point that they really are very useful for figuring out what to include in this review. Still if I had to choose a few great chapters, I would start with Chapter 2, The Ten Elements of Openness" that gives a good breakdown in how she would define "openness" in regards to both "Information Sharing" and "Decision Making." I also really appreciated Chapter 5 on setting up "Covenants" of behavior when it comes to social technologies within an organization as well as with clients/customers. Also how she talks about "transparency" versus "visibility" were profound in Chapter 8, Nurturing Open Leadership. There were, of course a few gems that I think are really worth noting: On the need for leadership to give up c

Leadership + Social: A good read

Disclosure first: Charlene Li was my coauthor on Groundswell and my company now competes with hers. I was impressed with this book. Charlene starts out with this thesis: Open leadership is having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals. This is not just a paean to openness. First of all, Charlene makes the case that social technology gives customers and employees access to all sorts of power and information now, and more openness is the only response. And second, the book includes tools to help you, for example, assess your own level of openness and what your organization can tolerate. I found some parts of the book a lot more useful or interesting than others. Here are three good parts. 1. Sandbox covenants. These are the rules organizations set up to determine what sorts of limits and conventions there are on openness. The book includes a link to social media policies of a bunch of corporations, not yet live, but I am looking forward to seeing that. This discussion, in Chapter 5, goes a long way to helping bridge the gap between social media backers within companies and corporate policymakers. 2. Organizational models for openness. Charlene describes three types of organization: organic, centralized, and coordinated, and shows when each one makes sense. Given all the questions I get these days about organization for social, this is quite relevant. 3. Leadership mindsets and traits. Chapter 7 classifies leaders according to whether they are optimistic or pessimistic, and whether they are independent or collaborative. Anyone who has ever had a boss will find this instructive. This is a fascinating way to look at leadership. I did not love everything about this book. The biggest question in my mind is, who is the audience? CEOs can benefit, and there are leaders throughout organizations, but the challenge is for the millions of workers in the trenches in management, customer service, and elsewhere in companies. Transforming an organization to become more open is a huge task, and there is a lot here about what companies should do, but not enough about how to get there and how ordinary employees can participate. I also experienced some confusion around the central idea of the book. If you are a social technology strategist or participant, this will read a lot like a book on social technology -- a sequel to Groundswell. At a recent event, I asked Charlene about how social relates to open, and she clarified that social creates the need to be open. But the book slips back and forth between the two concepts of social and openness without enough explicit attention to this difference. If you are a social media wiz (that is, if you've already read Groundswell), you'll find the four objectives described here awfully similar to the the five objectives in Groundswell, and the concept of "socialgraphics" highly parallel to our Social Technographics. There are new ca

Open Leadership

I would recommend this book to anybody involved at all stages of creating, implementing, and monitoring Social Media efforts. I was one of the privileged people to get an Advanced Copy from Charlene Li. I had listened to the Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies Audio Book (which I got as a Gift from a Good Friend who I met via Social Media) and was intrigued by the content and the ideas presented in her previous book. For this reason I started following her on Twitter where I got the opportunity to request an advanced Copy of Open Leadership. I am half way through the book and I have already been able to use her ideas and guidelines to explain to some of my clients who are running social media efforts, how important it is to be an Open company. Being an IT Governance and IT Auditor involved in Social Media, I can see the benefits of Charlene's message regarding the "Importance of Social Media Guidelines". Open Leadership also includes guidelines on various subjects to get any organization off the ground with adequate best practices in approaching Social Media. I think the title fits well with her approach and it differs from other authors writing about the subject. I can say that she follows and executes in what she preaches. I have written two postings related to the book and my opinion Feel Free to visit the links. * Social Media Relationships Land Me 2 Great Books - [...] * Importance of Corporate Social Media Guidelines - [...]