Networked Leaders...

Following is extracted from an article by Joseph S. Nye - being posted for some insights into "soft power":

In an environment of mobile phones, computers, and Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, it is commonplace to say that we live in a networked world. But different networks provide new forms of power, and require different styles of leadership.....

Networks come in many shapes and sizes. Some create strong ties, while others produce weak ties. Think of the difference between friendships and acquaintances. Valuable information is more likely to be shared by friends than among acquaintances. But weak ties extend further and provide more novel, innovative, and non-redundant information.

Networks based on strong ties produce the power of loyalty, but may become cliques that re-circulate conventional wisdom. They may succumb to “group think.” ......Weak ties, such as one finds on the Internet, are more effective than strong ties for providing the necessary information to link diverse groups together in a cooperative manner. In other words, weak networks are part of the glue that holds diverse societies together.....

As leaders increasingly need to understand the relationship of networks to power, they will have to adapt strategies and create teams that benefit from both strong and weak ties. Information creates power, and more people have more information today than at any time in human history. Technology “democratizes” social and political processes and, for better and worse, institutions play less of a mediating role. In fact, the basic concept that is sometimes called “Web 2.0” rests on the idea of user-based content bubbling up from below rather than descending from the top of a traditional information hierarchy.

Institutions like Wikipedia and Linux are examples of social production that involve very different roles for leaders than do their traditional counterparts, Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft. Now governments are experimenting with similar means to create and distribute information, but they still have a long way to go.....

In business, too, networks are becoming more important. In some cases, one can orchestrate a complex network simply with carefully specified contracts. But the friction of normal life usually creates ambiguities that cannot be fully met in advance. In describing the success of the Toyota and Linux networks, the Boston Consulting Group concludes that the hard power of monetary carrots and accountability sticks motivates people to perform narrow, specified tasks, but that the soft power of admiration and applause are far more effective stimulants of extraordinary behavior.

Traditional business leadership styles have become less effective. According to Sam Palmisano, the CEO of IBM, hierarchical, command-and-control approaches simply do not work anymore. They impede information flows inside companies, hampering the fluid and collaborative nature of work today....

A study of a major “bricks and clicks” company (one that combines offline and online operations) found that distributed leadership was essential. In the Internet environment, the traditional view of a leader being decisively in control is difficult to reconcile with reality. Instead, effective leadership depends on the use of multiple leaders for capable decision-making. Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes that “business success increasingly depends on the subtleties of soft power.”......