Blogs are, of course, a means of communicating one’s ideas on topics of general interest, or one’s daily activities, and for soliciting comment on them, and even generating discussion threads from them. It is certainly of potentially great benefit for a CEO to have a vehicle for communicating his or her ideas, and for learning what people think of them. However, a CEO will want to be very careful about who such communications are open to.
Having a blog that is inside a corporate firewall and available only to employees can be an excellent idea. Such a device can help address two of the greatest weaknesses of modern organizations. One is execution, which is definitely made more focused and effective when everyone knows what it is directed at and how. The CEO’s comments on topics like this would quickly become daily reading on the corporate intranet for employees.
If employees are allowed to comment openly and freely on the CEO’s observations and announcements, then the other great weakness would be promisingly addressed: planning that is impractical and ill-informed by the real world as faced by one’s own organization; in other words, insulated and out-of-touch senior management.
Furthermore, if managers and employees at all levels are allowed to open discussion threads arising from the CEO’s postings and everyone else’s comments, and to follow those discussions wherever they lead, then you will begin to develop execution at every level that is more tightly and realistically bound to corporate goals than managers returning from an off-site retreat could ever make it.
In fact, it could be quite useful to open the CEO blog, or special versions of it, to shareholders, suppliers, distributors, and customers, allowing them password-access. Sharing corporate goals – but especially learning from the responses to them of these groups, could develop into a real competitive-enhancing tool for the organization, both by informing it of moods and changes in industry dynamics and of market developments in an especially timely manner.
CEOs and senior management, however, should be careful to consider what they are asking for. They will likely be opening up a robust and bracing discussion of corporate direction, goals, and policy that could be upsetting for them if they aren’t ready for it, and even alarming if they incorrectly interpret it defensively.
As for opening a CEO blog to the public, this should be approached with the greatest caution. There is the potential for legal complications for both the CEO personally, and the organization. Remember that a real blog is a platform for observation of contemporary events that moves along with those events, and that maintains viewership by maintaining currency. This means that there is pressure to make posts in step with the events that they are offering observations and insights on, and that means that they might not be as contemplative, carefully thought-out, and fashioned to properly address all of the corporation’s constituencies in an appropriate manner as they should be.
In my view, however, the greater danger is that a public CEO blog might tempt the CEO to think of him- or herself as a public personality, a star, chasing ratings and page hits and, perhaps, producing posts designed for that end rather than specifically tailored to the advancement of corporate goals. If, as CEO, you want to think of yourself as a leader, fine; there will be no avoiding that error if you ar so inclined, but at the least you can mitigate it by addressing your leadership to your team. The public stage is for politicians and entertainers. The CEO’s responsibilities are to shareholders, the organization, and its various constituencies. Accordingly, establishing a public blog – by the CEO – should be avoided. Let the PR team, or, perhaps a corporate ombudsman appointed to address concerns arising from throughout the corporation’s constituencies, open a public blog-like means of dialogue with those constituencies.
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