Leadership in the Age of Social Media – Advice from Emile Haddad

Leaders who have spent their formative years using low-tech tools to implement their directives might find it difficult to transition to a more digitally savvy format.  After all, social media platforms are constantly evolving, and although Facebook and Twitter have been the gold standards for several years now, the public is fickle – new formats are always emerging and occasionally fading away forever.  Nevertheless, it is critical to get a handle on the digital social landscape in order to keep abreast of public sentiment. 

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“The information technology sector is one of those industries whose innovation potential, though still in its infancy, has the potential to change every aspect of life as we know it,” says leadership consultant Emile Haddad.  “To keep this edge in the face of global market competition, entrepreneurs will do well to listen more and talk less at their teams; they need to take a much more proactive role in being curious and inquiring in effective ways so they can mine the imagination of everyone around the table.”

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Social platforms play an essential role in the effective communication between not only business leaders and their teams, but also leaders and the public.  Many organizations have social media branches of their organizations as a type of marketing solution, but some of these same organizations fail to use social media for its most useful purpose – namely, to keep their brand in touch with societal whims and desires which may prove to be highly lucrative.  Social media platforms provide fruitful trend and information mining opportunities that should never be ignored, and 21^st century leaders disregard them at their peril.

 

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“We must be comfortable in pushing the edge; asking tough ‘why’ questions and exploring territories unfamiliar,” says Emile Haddad.  “Successful new discoveries bring to the market new opportunities, new industries and new investments.”