The Social Leader’s Reading List
Social Leadership is the practice of influencing people at work using digital tools - particularly social media.
As we see consistently in the celebrity and political worlds, social media has the power to exponentially increase the audience of any story that ‘goes viral’. Positive examples of this include Captain Tom Moore, the 99-year-old war veteran who raised tens of millions of pounds for the NHS after his pledge to complete 100 laps of his garden blew up online. Jacinda Arden, New Zealand’s charismatic leader, has been labelled the Facebook Prime Minister because of her gift for speaking to her voters (and increasingly, international admirers) directly online.
Of course, social media also claims high-profile casualties in business, political and celebrity life. Toe-curling examples may be pouring into your mind already but, if not, check out PC Magazine’s ‘19 Massive Corporate Social Media Horror Stories’.
The key to reaping the huge rewards of Social Leadership whilst avoiding its potential pitfalls is to be authentic and considered. Here are my favourite books to help both find your authentic self (and also decode your organisation’s ‘DNA’) and present your plans and values in a considered way that brings people with you.
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
The Advantage gives hard meaning to the too-often soft concepts of “Vision” “Mission” and “Culture” in business. As a Social Leader, your job is to align and inspire people in service of your cause. Lencioni’s book will help ensure that you and your leadership team are actually clear on what your cause is.
Yes! 60 secrets from the science of persuasion by Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin and Professor Robert Cialdini
This New York Times bestseller is a must read for anyone who wants to get more out of people. Institutional resistance undermines many business leaders’ attempts to transform their organisations - increasingly it takes a competent Social Leader who understands behavioural science to cut through the noise and old habits.
The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard
Leaders who make themselves directly accessible to every level of their organisation are more vulnerable than analogue leaders to collecting 'monkeys' (other people's responsibilities that cling to them and prevent them managing efficiently). Blanchard’s book sets out how you can remain kind, supportive and accessible to teams, whilst fostering a self-reliant culture and operating model which keeps people accountable and productive.
The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This is a great resource to inoculate yourself against the vocal minority of ‘trolls’ online. Online trolls in the workplace are rare (because work social networks can be monitored and posts attributed to individuals rather than anonymous accounts) but not unheard of, particularly in times of uncertainty.
The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary
Although authored primarily for rookie CEOs running high-growth tech companies, this comprehensive operating manual is useful for all students of organisational leadership. Digital communication tools and enterprise social networks effectively augment traditional reporting lines and hierarchies (by enabling the CEO and everyone in between to reach the frontline and vice versa), which is enormously powerful but also potentially chaotic. Mochary’s comprehensive operating principles for startups (if adapted for your industry), will allow you to embrace ‘agile’ without crossing over into being chaotic.
I hope you enjoy them. Please let me know if you have any recommendations of your own!!
