Pulse Legacy Archive March / April 2011 | Page 53

Action Plan ■ ■ ■ ■ What kind of relationship do you want? Determine how open you need to be to get that relationship. Conduct an openness audit of your information sharing and decision making processes. Identify and understand where you have the biggest concerns about giving up control. control relationships. So if you have employees or customers who prefer to communicate and build relationships through these new social, open channels, then you’re going to have to use them as well—or you risk losing them to competitors (see above for action plan on creating an open strategy). them away from these compelling environments to come to your site. And if you have a presence on these sites but are not responsive to questions or inquiries, they will see you as insincere in your attempt to engage them in a deeper, social relationship. In Chapter 3 of “Open Leadership,” I discuss how people—both customers and employees—are engaging with your company, brand, product, or even in a broad topic. To help illustrate this, I use the Engagement Pyramid, which is made up of five levels, with each level representing a higher degree of engagement. Each of the levels of the pyramid has specific activities and behaviors associated with engagement that you can easily observe. Engagement Pyramid Data 3. How do consumers want to be UNITED STATES engaged in today’s social space? They spend their lives increasingly in social spaces like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. That means that if you want to reach them, you have to go to where THEY are, rather than try to pull SOUTH KOREA BRAZIL UNITED KINGDOM Curating <1% <1% <1% <1% Producing 26.1% 53.1% 52.7% 21.1% Commenting 34.4% 76.2% 54.0% 31.9% Sharing 63.0% 64.6% 79.3% 61.8% Watching 78.1% 89.3% 89.3% 78.9% SOURCE: Global Wave Index Wave 12 Trendstream.net, January 2010 The Engagement Pyramid CURATING PRODUCING Producers: Write a blog, Write a news story, Upload a video COMMENTING Commentators: Commented on a news story, Commented on a blog, Commented / reviewed on a price comparison site, Review on a retail site, Review on a consumer review site SHARING Sharers: Share videos online, Share photos, Update social network, Update micro-blog WATCHING Watchers: Watch video, Listen to a podcast, Read a blog, Visit a consumer review site, Visit a forum / message board FOR MORE ABOUT “open leadership” and to read Li’s other business insights, follow her blog at charleneli.com/blog or at twitter.com/charleneli. 4. You said “open leadership” is not about total transparency but determining how much you can let go to shape a culture of trust and earn a relationship with consumers. What steps can spa operators take to perform an “openness audit” which you identified as a crucial step to an open strategy? There is an openness audit resource online at charleneli.com/open-leadership that you can download and take for free. It tests in particular six ways you can be open about sharing information. For example, do you regularly share updates about what is happening in the spa, like disruptions as you renovate some of the treatment rooms…but that the end result is going to be a much better experience with expanded services? Or, do you ask people to suggest improvements and share those openly so that people can build on those suggestions? 5. In your book, you have identified four archetypes of today’s leaders. Which type do you think is the most effective? The most effective open leader is the Realist Optimist because this person is optimistic about what happens when you give up control and become more open— but also couples it with a healthy dose of collaboration sensibility so that he is aware of the limitations of the organization in terms of being open. March/April 2011 ■ PULSE 51