Adapt to Technology

Today I signed up at Twitter which is a big step for me. I thought there would be no way I would ever tweet at any time. I had a conversation with a co-worker this past week that changed my mind. I went to get advice about this blog and our conversation led into Twitter. My co-worker told me that he knew of somebody that started an account there, but that he would never do that. He went on to say he didn't want people to know what he was doing, he wasn't that interesting, and that he didn't want co-workers to think they could create a friendship. I asked why the person he knew did it and he said his employees and students wanted to get to know him as a person. So I signed up at Twitter.

I think that all employees just want to get to know their leaders. They want to know there is a real person beneath the manager. I think truly transformational leaders will give people around them a glimpse into their personal world. The Internet gives us some wonderful tools to do this.

Twitter, creating blogs, and LinkedIn are all examples of web sites that allows us to show who we are as professionals and in our personal lives. This kind of technology helps build social and professional networks and perhaps can help build rapport and cohesion at work. Too many times have I heard leaders talk down about My Space or reading blogs. Leaders need to accept that these kinds of communication channels aren't going away and that many of the people they work with use these sites daily. Try something new and use new technology and web sites on the Internet to evolve as a leader.