Leadership in the Facebook Age
SUMMARY
Collins told us that Level-Five leaders surround themselves with self-motivated people who seek understanding together. They learn from mistakes and develop an atmosphere where people’s input is valued. Hirshman told us that it is very important to develop this kind of environment because it allows people to have voice, and in doing so it can increase loyalty and diminish exit. Charlene Li takes us a step farther, painting a detailed picture of how many organizations are creating leadership structures and communications channels to improve voice, feedback, and loyalty. This leadership philosophy is called Open Leadership.
Charlene Li defines open leadership as “having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals.” (18). She argues that leadership is fundamentally about relationships, and nowadays, the way people relate to each other and to information has been shaped by new social technologies. Consequently, leaders must learn how to relate to people in their organizations in new ways, while at the same time they must develop organizational mechanisms that take into consideration the new dynamics and shapes of open leadership.
REFLECTION
Even though the book is primarily filled with examples of the for-profit world, the core ideas have a direct relationship with the way we approach pastoral leadership. After all, we are called to lead in relationship, and to inspire people to grow and serve in meaningful ways in order to accomplish God’s goals together.
One important insight of the book is that for open leadership to work, it must be structured with internal systems that provide accountability. The author says, “You have to have a plan for how you will, in effect, control openness. This is not a contradiction—in fact, I believe it is a necessity that you structure and explain openness and hold it accountable.” (106) Li suggests that using covenants is a good way of building trust and ensuring accountability. “Covenants are promises that people make with each other… When leaders open up and give up control they trust that employees will do what they promise, that customers will respond and engage in a civil manner. A key part of a covenant is accountability, spelling out what happens if either party doesn’t keep their side of the bargain.” (109).
I find these insights validating. A couple of years ago, when we started developing the new philosophy of membership at Ethnos Bible Church, we created a covenant to ensure accountability and to facilitate healthy exit (we call it a Ministry Partnership Agreement). We included a list of expectations and asked the person to sign the bottom of the page. Initially, the idea of asking new members to sign a covenant seemed exclusivist. I was fearful that implementing this new system would turn people off, especially since church is seen more like family rather than as an organization. However, the outcome turned out to be positive rather than negative.
This week I attended a conference called Mosaix. It is the largest gathering of leaders from the multiethnic church movement in the US. They dedicated an entire hour to the importance of open leadership in multiethnic churches. I learned that healthy multiethnic churches make an effort to give voice to their congregation in order to ensure that people from different cultural backgrounds can share their ideas and concerns. One speaker pointed out that sometimes the best next idea might come from the most unexpected person in the church and not necessarily from the paid staff. It was good to hear these perspectives while I was reading Li’s book. They all point out to the same direction. They remind me that if I want to grow as a leader, I must be interested in what people are thinking and develop intentional ways to engage them. Wisdom, says proverbs, is found in the abundance of counselors.
The book was not only validating but also challenging. It calls me to engage with social media and technology more effectively, both at the personal and at the ministry level. Yet, it is not easy for me to be a leader in the Facebook age. I am an introvert and prefer to be connected to a smaller group. Posting on Facebook still feels awkward for me. Yet, Li challenges me to re-think the way I use social technology to connect with people. One small step in that direction was the creation of the email ideas@ethnoschurch.org. It seeks to give people the chance to send us any comment at any time they want. This may be a small step, but after all, every journey starts with one step.
Even though I enjoyed the book, I was also left wondering about the relationship between open leadership and cultural worldview. To what degree is this view of leadership compatible with different cultural contexts? If you are still looking for a topic for your dissertation, maybe you just found one!
About the Author
Pablo Morales
Pablo Morales serves as the Lead Pastor of Ethnos Bible Church in Texas. He is currently pursuing the Doctor of Ministry degree in Leadership and Global Perspectives at Portland Seminary in order to understand what it takes to develop a healthy multiethnic church.10 responses to “Leadership in the Facebook Age”
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Pablo,
Great assimilation of our reading for this semester. I like that we are being shaped into a new way of thinking about leadership. Your last question is one that is intriguing to me as well. Will this translate? I believe it will because they are facing the same cultural shift because of social media being a world wide issue instead of just an American one. Also the access to how people are treated and how leadership works is also available for the first time in history.
Kevin
Kevin, you sound very certain about how this model translates across cultures. I guess I am not as sure yet. At the Mosaix conference a person from Korea shared how her social views were shaped by a cultural perspective captured in their idiom, “the nail that sticks out gets nailed.” I wonder if people in this context would use their voice openly even if invited to do so. How does it work in saving-face cultures? In addition, the attempted spread of democracy across cultures has also made me wonder. We assume that everybody would love democracy if they had it, but that does not seem to be the case. I can’t forget when a friend from Iraq told me that democracy does not work in their cultural context. I am just curious how much of the elements of open leadership are based on cultural values that seem so obvious to us because we see them through our cultural glasses. I guess I’ll just keep wondering.
Pablo
Pablo,
( I wrote this question just before I read your last paragraph.) In a multi-ethnic church do you find different understandings of what “openness” means, and what degree of openness is appropriate? And, following from that, are you hearing any different cultural views of the appropriate use of media? Do you have any other thoughts than the end of your blog?
You wrote, “Consequently, leaders must learn how to relate to people in their organizations in new ways, while at the same time they must develop organizational mechanisms that take into consideration the new dynamics and shapes of open leadership.”
It strikes me that in a multi-ethnic church this could be very complex.
Marc, when it comes to multiethnic churches, every church is a world in itself. The internal dynamics are highly shaped by the cultures and ages represented in the congregation.
In our case, so far we have a mix of people who are highly westernized when it comes to technology. They are better at it than me! So I am not sure how the cultural differences translate into the use of media or use of voice. I do have some people that are more direct than others, but so far it has not been a source of struggle (Chileans being the more direct so far; and I am the only Chilean here…). I am fairly new to Chinese culture, so I am still learning. Sorry I don’t have more meat to put on the plate for you! Good questions, though!
Pablo
Your answer is good.
I suspect that cultural differences would appear when deciding what and how much to share on social media.
Pablo:
Let me take a spin at the idea of “open leadership” and “cultural worldview”….with the explosion of information made available on multiple devices, if we do not take seriously the excessive information, we can be perceived as closed or aloof. The idea of “open” must embrace that we are living in a “culture” that has excessive access to all kinds of information.
A question: how is the email working with your church? How many do you get a week?
Phil
Phil,
My questions related to open leadership and culture are more related to the use of voice. Even if people have access to massive sources of information, and are invited to exercise voice, how does the honor-shame culture affect how people exercise voice? How do indirect versus direct communication cultures shape people’s willingness to share their ideas or concerns? I am just thinking out loud right now. I do not have answers, only questions.
You asked me about the responses to the email ideas@ethnoschurch.org. So far, some people have used it but not as many as I thought. I believe we need to promote it a little bit more so people are more aware of it and can use it more. However, the people that have used it have done a good job in helping us improve or notice things in our website.
Pablo
Nice one Pablo. I have never thought about how being introverted or extroverted could effect one’s use of Facebook. That got me thinking. Is this aspect of your church something you could hire someone to do that?
Aaron, I remember that writing something on Facebook for the first time felt very narcissistic. In a face-to-face setting, I want to ask people about their lives rather than take the center stage in the conversation. However, in Facebook, we post things about us first and expect people to respond. That was the narcissistic impression that I had to overcome.
I agree with you. When it comes to the church presence in the internet, I have to give that responsibility to other people. Right now our website (www.ethnoschurch.org) is managed by another person and so is our Facebook. However, we have not developed a strategy for the use of Facebook. We will need to spend some time thinking about how to best take advantage of it.
What are some of your strategies to get the best use out of Facebook for your ministry?
Pablo
Hi Pablo a great blog, as you stated, “The book, left you wondering about the relationship between open leadership and cultural worldview.”
That is understandable, but there is a constant interweaving between culture and leadership since leaders create the context and the instruments for cultural and organizational Leadership and organizational.
The successful organizations are the result of effective leadership but also of organizational culture. These two elements are interrelated; an organization and its leadership style will always reflect the values and beliefs of its founder.
We can see the open leadership in degree to which the values of the culture are shared by the employees and also the degree of alignment with the values implied in a company strategy, in turn, will influence the organizational performance.
I agree this is a great subject to research. Thanks Rose Maria