Leaders Need a Platform

Leaders need a platform from which to lead.

That is…a platform from which they can lead.  They have an inner desire to lead people, take them somewhere, invest in others, improve the world around them, make a difference. Healthy organizations find a place to build that platform within the organization.

One nice part of the growth of the online world is the ability all leaders have now to build a platform. Leaders can lead online through blogs and Twitter and other forms of social media, all while being within the same organization.

Recently I heard of a church I respect limiting their staff’s public exposure. With their growth they apparently felt a need to get more control over what is being said about the church. Staff is no longer permitted to blog, Twitter or Facebook during “working hours”. That may seem to make sense now, to limit what leaders are saying outside the organization and make the organization more effective, but it won’t make sense longterm, in my opinion, for three reasons:

• By limiting the leader’s ability to create a platform, they are stifling the leader.
• The workplace now includes social media and we must learn to let this work for the organization not against it.
• Ministry (and most professional organizations) no longer has clearly defined a “workday”.

But the greatest reality is…

We can either let a leader create a platform…or lose the leader…

If they can’t build that platform with you…they’ll find a way to build it elsewhere…regardless of the structure you attempt to place around them.

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?

How does your church handle social media regulation?