- The art of engagement really centers
on the type of relationship you want to create
with the people who you are trying to lead,
those followers.
It's actually something I call the practice of
followership, which is different than leadership.
What followership does, it encourages you to think
about what kind of relationship you want to have
with your followers.
Is it going to be one where the followers
follow every single thing you say to the letter,
to the word?
You are dictating to them and assigning them
very specific tasks.
Or is that relationship going to be very different?
One where you aligning against a very particular goal
and you're co-creating, you're more peers
than really subordinates to you.
And it's a very different type of relationship.
The way that you work, the way you relate to each other,
is going to be very, very different
depending on what kind of followership
you are practicing.
The key thing here, though,
is that when you're cultivating followership,
is that this is not a soft, friendly feeling
of an exercise.
Rather, you have to have a laser-like focus
on the outcomes that you want to actually create.
Don't think for a minute though, that creating followership
is a touchy, feely, soft kind of thing that you have to do.
Rather, it requires a laser-like focus
on the relationship outcomes that you want to have.
For example, do you want to design the engagement
to deliver a sense of familiarity and accessibility?
That may be something that you want to pursue
in one part of your leadership practice.
But at other times, you may want to instill a sense
of confidence, and therefore the type of relationship
you have with the people who you are leading,
is going to be very, very different.
So keep in mind the type of relationship you want to create
and that will be your guide
to the kind of engagement you want to have.
I want to talk about David Thodey,
who is a CEO of Telstra, a telecom company in Australia.
One of his goals was to transform Telstra's culture
to be much more open, and accountable, and transparent.
He really wanted the company to be much more
customer oriented.
He liked to say, transparency creates accountability.
And he meant this because by knowing what everyone
was doing and being very honest about that
in the process of engagement, that was going to actually
change and transform that culture.
Back in 2014, the company actually went through this phase,
where it missed it's very aggressive
customer service targets.
And as a result, bonuses were not paid.
There was this huge outcry on the enterprise social network
and he dove right into that.
And he started saying to people,
"Look, I don't like this either.
"I'm disappointed, but the numbers are the numbers
"and we missed our goal," is what he said.
And then he shared that he didn't get a bonus either.
The outcome, is that, the employees were still unhappy
that they did not get their bonus,
but they saw that the decision was fair.
It was impacting people throughout the entire organization.
And they saw that the CEO was being firm
but also understanding in the way that he engaged with them
in this really tough time.
But they also understood something else, very importantly.
And that was the priority of the company,
making customer service the focus
and the centerpiece of the work together.
Now, David Thodey could have let this go.
He could have let all those conversations
just run it's course, let HR take care of it.
But it was his leadership, and his initiative
and his skill at using these digital channels
that help set the tone.
And it was this delivery of his leadership agenda
that really made Telstra much more customer focused.
And the amazing thing is, he was the same way
in real life, in the traditional channels
and in the digital channels.
There was no line that he drew in terms of
where that engagement began and stopped.
It was absolutely consistent,
no matter which channel he was in.
He was absolutely authentic, in the way that
he engaged with people and it was very thoughtfully done
against very strategic goals.
I think as you think about your digital leadership journey,
thinking about the type of engagement,
the type of relationship you will
develop with your followers,
is going to be absolutely key.