I love Twitter… ever present on my iPhone, my Twitter page keeps me connected. To some it’s a communication tool, to others a gossip aggregator, and to others a beloved time-waster. But I believe that the way in which Twitter works should remind leaders of some truths about effective leadership. Thankfully, in many places, the old command and control style of leadership is pushing up the daisies. As Sony puts it “we live in exponential times” and I believe these times call for a serious rethink of our leadership models.

So what can we as leaders learn from Twitter?

People follow you by choice (and can opt out any time)
There’s nothing I can do to make people follow me on Twitter. They choose. In fact anyone can choose to follow me whether I know them or not. And most importantly, they can silently opt out of following me at any time. Today’s effective leaders realise that people are following only because they choose to. Gen Y get a lot of bad press for being less loyal to their employers, but all too often they are simply leaving leaders who appear to think that they can force people to follow them.

You’re being watched
Common sense says “watch what you tweet”. It amuses me when people are shocked that some employee gets fired for Twittering that they’re at the beach after telling their boss that they’re sick. I believe true leaders understand that accountability isn’t just a fact of life; it’s something they signed up for when they accepted the role of leader. Instead of fighting that reality I want the realisation that I’m being watched to cause me to lift my life and leadership to a higher level.

Say it in sound bites
Twitter forces you to distil your ideas down to their essence – 140 characters. That’s a good discipline for leaders. As a speaker I use the one sentence test… don’t speak for one hour until you can explain your point in one sentence. In a day of overwhelming access to content, only the well-crafted sound bite has a fighting chance of being remembered… let alone acted upon.

People retweet what you say
I always think of it as a compliment when people retweet what I say on Twitter. In that moment my words are exposed to an audience with whom I hadn’t had direct contact. Of course even my misguided ideas, spelling mistakes and general ignorance can be broadcast too (think: Hugh Jackman’s tweet about the “Sydney Opera Centre”). Leaders must remember that everything they say has an audience beyond the immediate. So craft what you say with retweeting in mind.

Leaders follow others as well as being followed
My favourite people to follow on Twitter follow other interesting people themselves. By contrast we can sometimes subscribe to the stereotype of the leader that follows no-one. They don’t care what others think; the only thoughts that matter are their own. Yet the best leaders have heroes too. There may be thousands following you, and just a handful that you follow, but all the more reason why those influencers should be well chosen because…

Who you follow says something about you
I can’t choose who follows me but I can choose who I follow. Something I seem to do by impulse whenever I look at a person’s profile is to see who they are following. On some instinctive level I believe that I can tell a lot about a person by looking at who they choose to follow. So do the people you follow represent you well?

More often than not the struggles we deal with as leaders revolve around the ways in which people are different. Perhaps two team members have very different communication styles or personality types. Or maybe we’re mediating disagreements between middle managers with opposite concepts of what it means to be a leader. People are different, that’s clear. But it’s the extent to which you can manage those differences for the good of the team that greatly impacts your effectiveness as a leader.

I sat with a leader recently who described his 2IC as the opposite of himself in many ways. “How’s that going?” I asked. In response he laughed, shrugged his shoulders and said “Well… we’ve worked together for a few years now. We used to fight but I guess we’ve learned how to put up with each other”. I got a real sense in that moment that he’d figured that was about as good as it could it get. So I drew this for him on a napkin…

In my view there are four levels on which we can deal with the differences between us

1.    Conflict is the lowest level. Conflict says, “Difference is bad”. When we stay in a place of sustained conflict over the differences between us, each of our contributions to the team is significantly impacted and in all likelihood we also make the work environment unpleasant for those around us. A little conflict is a part of life and can even be good for teams. But when conflict defines a relationship nothing good is likely to come of it for anyone.
2.    Tolerance is a step forward but it’s not a worthy goal for effective leaders. Tolerance says, “Difference is a fact of life”. Great teams do more than just learn to get along. Tolerance takes very little skill, just the ability to put aside our differences and get on with the job. In fact novelist William Somerset Maugham called tolerance “another word for indifference.”
3.    Appreciation is the ability to recognise differences, then move beyond conflict over them and then see those differences as worthy of praise. Appreciation says, “Difference is good”. So the visionary then recognises the contribution of those dealing with the details of their grand ideas. The free thinker realises the value of critical thought. The diplomatic communicator becomes grateful for the person who “calls it as they see it”.
4.    Leverage is the ability to turn those differences into an advantage for the team. Leverage says, “Difference is an opportunity”. It’s one thing to tolerate or even appreciate what’s different about another individual, but it’s a true leader that can capitalise on the contribution those different views or strengths can bring to the organisation. Great leaders don’t just embrace diversity they seek it out. They resist monocultures. No sports coach worth their salt wants a team who are all the same, and neither should you.

Take a moment and write down the names of a few people who are very different to you
•    On what level are you seeing those differences? Conflict, Tolerance, Appreciation or Leverage?
•    If you’ve settled for tolerance, try writing a list of things that you could begin to value about their unique outlook or methodology.
•    Better still, how could those differences present an opportunity for the competitive advantage of your team? What could you do to better leverage what every individual brings to the table? That’s a worthy goal.