Leadership As A Practice Is Broken, But Social Media Can Fix That

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

By Rob Wright

I recently had a conversation with Mike Myatt, author of Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual. From his perspective, leadership has become accountable to far too many of the wrong masters. “When you look at C-level leadership their ultimate accountability is to shareholders,” Myatt said. “But really, they have sold shareholders out in my opinion and have become accountable to analysts, market makers, media, underwriters, rating agencies. They have deluded themselves into thinking that pandering to the aforementioned crowd somehow serves shareholders well.” This is the height of flawed logic and has resulted in much of the chaos and systemic problems that we see in the media today. Myatt believes one of the biggest problems with corporate leadership in America today is that their allegiances are misaligned. “What a lot of these guys have to do is unlearn their MBA and operate in a world that exists today, instead of operating in a world that they grew up in that was built on business logic of a prior century.”

Myatt is a big proponent of servant leadership, a term that was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay first published in 1970. According to Myatt, “It is a time-tested principle that never fails.” The servant leader is a servant first, with a prime objective of serving those that fall under your care. If you do that, Myatt believes, you will be very successful.

One suggestion that Myatt thinks would help executives be more servant oriented is the utilization of social media. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, many C-Level managers have stayed away from this technology. Whether it is the advice of corporate legal council, cowardice, or naiveté, the refusal to use social media facilitates a leader becoming aloof and out of touch with those they should be serving. Social media can assist leadership in understanding what is happening at the granular level within their company.

The FDA recently announced a delay on issuing guidance on social media. As a consequence, I would not expect many members of the pharmaceutical industry to take the plunge into the social media fray any time soon. Certainly, not before the guidance is released and then reviewed by a gaggle of corporate lawyers. It is regrettable that the industry has gotten to the point of having to be told how to do what is right, instead of being able to figure it out on their own.