Leadership and Technology
I have a relative whose daughter started to look down at her due to her inability to navigate the latest mobile phone she received. Later on as she started to get the hang of it then the more she grew in terms of her daughters credibility; this is unfortunate but not unlike many senior managers who operate in a non IT literate world.
3 years ago I was the executive coach for a CEO, we had been discussing the poor results of the companies employee satisfaction survey and one of the areas on the survey was around trust and comments people had made about not being allowed to use the internet.
She wondered out loud at the point of it other than wasting time, I asked a simple question, “I notice you do not have a PC on your desk, do you have a PC here or at home?”, the reply was, “No, but my estate manager does.”
She then went on to say, “what does anyone actually use the internet for?”, I looked out of her office and saw two PA’s, one for work and one for personal, they printed emails, made the notes then they typed them out for her, it went on from there. This is a very successful woman, who has made her fortune through organising her day this way and has done a darn good job of it.
Though the learning for her, was not ‘how to use a PC’, but more to the point that the gradual dissociation with the world that everyone else lives in (I know for a fact I can barely function without the internet).
What’s my point? Well, there is a mental note to self here for many senior managers probably on topics more far ranging than the internet, even simple things like getting to work. Most senior managers drive and even have their own parking but guess what the people that work for you probably don’t….. many people get the bus and a train then they have to walk; most senior managers can leave their desk whenever they want to and can go out to have a meeitng, most peole can’t do that….they can’t leave their desk unless they are going to the loo and even then not to often.
Many, many senior managers (not intentionally), but this they are discontected from real living and more often than not completely disconnected from the driving factors of mortals.
As an example: This CEO now has a 45 minute once a quarter, “what’s going on in the world” session with a selection of the most junior people in the business, granted she doesn’t have a Facebook account, but she knows what one is and even sees the point.
Consider:
- Do I understand the lives my people live?
- Have I lost the understanding that I used to have?
- How can I regain not the credibility but the understanding that will lead back to the credibility?
- Who will be my council and advise me?