Social business leaders know that we are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we trust, respect and care for each other. Social business leaders leverage the power of culture, people, process, and technology to unlock the full potential of the organization. Achieving full organizational potential is aimed at bolstering business agility and customer delight. In a connected economy, sustaining market relevancy is dependent on our ability to architect and maintain a modern enterprise, designed to deliver stakeholder value and drive bottom-line results. An evolving enterprise that is adaptive and engaged must be led by collaborative change agents. These social leaders exhibit a strong commitment towards improving the employee and customer experience.
Successful business collaboration requires strong leadership and management skills. Vineet Nayar makes the distinction between leading versus managing, noting that counting value, circles of influence and leading people are key leadership traits. We agree with these indicators, and believe the definition of a social business leader can be best analyzed by looking at contrasting traits.
In our book "The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence," my co-author Brad Martin and I describe how we develop social business leaders by promoting specific positive leadership traits, but also pointing out the negative traits that are to be avoided. Highlighting the contrasting behaviors provides valuable context to further distinguish between desired traits and ones to avoid. The infographic illustrates the juxtaposition traits of a social business leader. We are hopeful that this illustration can serve as a reminder of what social business leaders aspire to be. What other traits would you add to our list - please leave us your comments.
This blog was co-authored by Brad Martin, Vice President at Enterasys Networks. Our beautiful infographic was designed by Jim MacLeod.