Day #506 - Social Leadership

I wanted to end the week with a slightly longer reflection on Social Leadership (3 minutes instead of one… i hope you’ll forgive me!).

Social Leadership is a term used to describe our Social Authority: the power we hold beyond the formal system. Sometimes i describe it as the power we wield at the intersection of systems. It’s a reputation based form of authority, held within the arms of a community.

You cannot demand it, but i may give it to you. But i cannot buy it, and you can take it away from me. So it’s a consensual mode of power.

Why Social Leadership? Because in the context of the Social Age, it’s unlikely that a ‘formal’ system alone will be enough: when we seek engagement, ideas, purpose, and agility, these things require a social context, and our formal power does not operate in that domain.

I also reflect that i bring a liberal perspective to my work on Social Leadership: i think that Organisations have a purpose to be effective, but an obligation to do so ‘well’. To operate within a broader (and really a poorly defined) sense of what is right. To seek to do no harm: to be accountable to their communities and teams. It’s a tough balance - and ‘balance’ is the right word. Leadership is imperfect - our Organisations are imperfect - so we will never complete this task. But we can be in dialogue with it.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider your own practice in this light.

I hope you’ve had a great week. Best wishes.

Social Leadership Daily is a community in practice. Everyone is welcome in this space.