It is all about motivation
Two days ago David Spinks tweeted an interesting question on community management: “Do Community Managers have to be leaders?” Although I responded two days ago, I put a bit more thought into the question (obviously the “think first, talk after” technique wasn’t employed) and decided to briefly, but in more than 140 characters, respond to that question.
A community manager should be a leader in the organization. He or she shouldn’t be an intern. He or she shouldn’t learn the latest news about the organization from the media. He or she should know everything and anything about the organization, or at least know how to find everything and anything.
A community manager should be a leader, according to my definition of the word. For me a leader is someone who listens (not simply hears), motivates, enables and empowers. A true leader knows when to step in and when to step down. A true leader knows what his/her community needs and wants. Not only does a community manager know what the community needs and wants, but he/she is what the community needs and wants on a given day as long as it aligns with the mission, values and goals of the organization.
At the end it all comes down to what motivates the community and the organization and how well the community manager serves these two groups.
So, what do you think? Do community managers have to be leaders?
P.S. I am sure David will post something on the topic on his blog, so check it out.
Photo credit: woodleywonderworks
Good question. I just wrote a blog that perhaps online communities have not been researched enough, but thee was some interesting work done by IBM on online leadership:
http://wp.me/pXfdq-3T
Best,
Luke
Your point about being a leader in the organization is interesting. I think when most people talk about community managers being leaders, they mean a leader to the community, or to the space. I like the idea of a community manager being a leader in the organization a lot. Actually, I think that’s key.
The community manager should be someone who can make decisions. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the company. Someone who can implement change in the company based on the community needs.
And when you think about it, as a user or a customer, if you’re talking to someone in a company, it means a lot more if the person you’re speaking to is in a leadership position within the company. When the “community manager” is the lowest rung in the company ladder, the community will not feel very privileged.
You’ve given me more to think about. I’ll try to get a post up for next week on this one. It’s been hard to nail down my thoughts as it’s a pretty convoluted subject.
David
Hi David,
Thanks for the reply,
Mintzberg himself refuses to use the term leadership, he prefers to call the phenomenon “communityship”, since this is in essence what leaders do, create communities.
I think he is on to something. It is very congruent with leadership as meaning creation and story telling or the “weaver of social capital”. Have a look:
http://wp.me/pXfdq-2J
Many findings point into this direction. In fact so does the IBM study in terms of enabling cooperation. Leadership can be seen as “the glue” which holds a community together.
In this sense community managers have to display leadership. Yes. good work, keep it going.
Best,
Luke
Hi Luke,
Your comment about leadership as “the glue” which holds a community together hits the nail on the head.
Online communities are not very different from offline communities, but many organizations don’t think so. The duties of a community manager should be to educate everyone in the organization about what he/she does, the importance of a strong community, and even foster some change in the organizational culture if needed.
It is a very interesting topic, especially since community management means different things to different organizations and different communities.
Unfortunately, often organizations give the social media and community management “task” or “project” to an intern or someone at the bottom of the ladder. Even if that person has all the skills and knowledge to be a great community manager, there is always the problem of waiting for a permission from 5 different departments, some of which do not know how platforms function and what is possible with each platform, not to mention that they do not take community management seriously, to do something to serve the community.
Thank you for bring up the question. I am looking forward to your post.
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