Transparent Leaders Don’t Indulge in the Culture of Over-Sharing

Everything I do or say flows through my network. In fact, my actions and words influence not only my “first degree” friends, but also my friend’s friends (2nd degree) and even my friend’s friend’s friends (3rd degree). The same is true for you.

This phenomena is called the Three Degrees of Influence rule and the research of  Harvard-trained social scientists, Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, shows that “…everything each of us thinks, feels, does or says can spread far beyond the people we know.”

What’s rarely considered by professionals is that “the true nature of that impact is far greater – and wider – than any of us may have imagined” and this is especially so online.

As Mark Crowley points out:

For anyone in a leadership role, the knowledge that their behavior affects the lives of so many people bears an almost sacred responsibility.

Your online persona should reflect your passion, authority and subject matter expertise in the most human of ways. And, you want to be sincere and authentic but this must be balanced by the proper measure of transparency. So, what does being sincere, authentic and transparent mean online?

Here’s some thoughtful guidance:

Take 1

A transparent leader is not someone who indulges in the culture of oversharing, vomiting every intimate detail of his day on social media. Transparency is strategic, targeted, and purposeful.

Read: Expose Yourself: The Importance Of Being Transparent by John Hall

Take 2

Transparency is how much you share and authenticity is the truth of your words and actions. Authenticity does not require the same level of transparency with every relationship. The truth is you will and should have different relationships with different people. Relationships are human to human and are not based on cookie cutter conversations or content frameworks. We share different details about our brands, our personal lives with one another, different layers of transparency depending on who we are, industry norms, who is in our community and most importantly who the recipient/person is on the other end.

Read: Social Brand Humanization: Transparency vs Authenticity by Pam Moore

Take 3

Authenticity is about being true to oneself (even at the expense of social connection). Sincerity is about connecting with others (even at the expense of personal truth)… [I]n order to convey “authenticity” through social media, one’s message and intellectual content need to be about helping others — whether by teaching, informing, enabling, inspiring — rather than about self-promotion. Being authentically sincere — connecting with others out of a corporate mission and sense of purpose that is all about helping others — that’s how to differentiate in social media channels. Another way to put this is that both authenticity (personal truth) and sincerity (caring about and connecting with others) are required to build the kind of social media brand customers and clients are looking for these days.

Read: Sincerity and Authenticity in Social Media by John Taft — CEO, RBC Wealth Management USA

Takeaways

• Strategic, targeted and purposeful transparency requires forethought and discipline.
• Authenticity doesn’t demand the same level of transparency in every relationship — learn to discern.
• You convey authenticity online more by helping others — not by incessant self-promotion.

How do you make sure your “online wake” is positive?

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