In examining corporate and strategic leadership, I wonder how the role of a strategic leader will change with the increasingly virtual workplace. Some of the traditional mythical aspects of leadership may be harder to create in a virtual world. In 20 years, will we even care about charisma or will we be obsessed with how to inspire people through e-mail or a cool avitar.
It also relates to the idea of a corporate culture. How can a virtual company claim to truly have a corporate culture. I have this image of virtual bagels and donuts in Second Life every Friday for all of your virtual employees. There could be a new business concept around the disappearance of the traditional office. Even more retreat centers or the like could look to fill the void in human interaction and create a company culture for the day.
Virtual communication also gives people time to think before they virtually "speak." Many of the bad leadership traits arise when people act rashly. Would there be less bad virtual leaders than we have reality based leaders today?
These are interesting ideas to think about as the idea of corporate leadership evolves over time.
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3 comments:
One of the things I've noticed as we've moved from in-person to online communications is that people don't often "think before they virtually speak," as suggested in the original post. Rather, they shoot off an e-mail in a hurry and land themselves in all sorts of trouble or they are more aggressive than they might be in person. A striking behavior difference between how leaders act in person or online can negatively affect the working environment because employees may not know how to react to or approach the leader. For example, the CFO/COO at a client organization is much more direct and aggressive in e-mail than he ever would be in person to his reports, which creates a tense and strained workplace. This actually makes me think of the idea that Minnesotans generally don't tend to be very direct and perhaps use e-mail like they use their cars - to get out underlying aggression!
This is an interesting line of thought, what are the impacts of moving to a completly virtual workplace. I do not believe that virtual communication will have a significant impact on how people "speak" or respond to any given situation. I agree with Kspargo, I generally notice that people sending quick e-mails or using instant messaging do so with less formality. My thought is that if someone does not take the time to think about and formulate their response before talking in person, a virtual communication tool will not change their approach. I also think that video conferencing will continue to help bridge the gap as the corporate environment continues to evolve.
Great topic as this is becoming increasingly common. I still think that the people piece is too improtant to ignore. The virtual environment is not for everyone, and managers that do manage remote workers need to get to know them and make sure they are part of the team. I've telecommuted before, and it seemed to work best when I traveled periodically and spent a week in the office every month and a half. I've also managed remote workers. The best results I've gotten is to have them work on-site with you for a period of time to understand your expectations and to create some sort of connection. Time frames obviously vary for individuals. Should be interesting to see how this evolves.
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