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Leadership

A while ago, I wrote this post about the difference between Leadership and Management.  I stand by it.  Managers are critical, but management isn't leadership.  They are, by nature, two very different things.

As it turns out, what we once thought was leadership may not be all that makes up a great leader.  In this quarter's Scientific American Mind, there's a great piece about Leadership, and how according to recent research, a lot of traditional beliefs about the nature of leadership aren't necessarily true.  Power and charisma aren't enough.  The best leaders, according to the article, guide groups from within.

I've seen it done both ways.  Power/Charisma vs. One of the Group.  Before ever reading the article, I could tell you that the One of the Group way works better.  Apparently, now, there's scientific evidence.  But here's the catch:  If you're not really one of the group -- and there's a good chance, if you're in a leadership position, you're not -- it's not something you can fake, or simply decide to become.  You have to earn your way into the group. 

If you're a coach, you have to run wind sprints.  If you can't run wind sprints, you have to do something that will be seen as the equivalent.  If you're a creative director, and the troops are working weekends, you're working weekends too.  But here's catch number two: At least at the outset, and periodically throughout your leadership tenure, your earned membership in that group will require more work than you require of the group. You have to do more than you expect them to do.

In Jr. High, and High School, I had a baseball coach who taught me a lot.  When he wasn't coaching or teaching academic classes, he was grooming the baseball field.  He didn't have to.  The school would have.  But he did. By himself. All we did was practice and play on it.  The field was amazing.  And the coach was more than a coach.  He was a part of the team.  And, clearly, the Leader.

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Multiple Waves

The title of this post from Hugh says a lot:  blogging isn't dead, it's just a subset of something larger and more important.

He wrote it to explain his previous post about how lots of previously prolific bloggers are now blogging less. I'm one of those.  When I started blogging, it was at least a post a day.  Sometimes three.  But this is the first in a while, mainly because I've been so stinkin' busy, I just haven't been able to manufacture the time.

But, as Hugh explains, that doesn't signal the end of the blog.  Not by a long shot.  What it means is that a blog is one tool in a growing arsenal of 2.0 and post 2.0 tools that, essentially, bring the power to publish anything to everyone.  If you spend a lot of time with these tools, it's obvious.  It's now.  But if you're only just considering the use of any one of these tools for the first time, especially in business -- which defines the web understanding of the majority of agencies and clients in the world -- then just one of those tools (say, a blog, or facebook, or, well, pick one) seems like a silver bullet.  But there is no one single silver bullet.  Truth is, there probably never has been -- but in the past, mass megaphone tactics worked well enough that it seemed like maybe there was.  But that curtain has been lifted -- not by one gigantic development, but instead, by thousands and thousands of smaller things that collectively seem like one gigantic development.  Except, each one of those smaller things is targeted to a narrow interest.  Each one demands a slightly different bullet.  But what each one offers in return is the opportunity to converse on a more personal level with prospects who are actually interested in what you have to say.

What it signals, I think, is trouble for agencies who are firmly committed to making an old model work in a new environment.  Because this isn't a single wave of change.  It's now continuous, and the waves are coming faster.  Because of that, it also signals opportunity, and a heck of a lot of fun, for anyone who's nimble enough to change directions quickly, and often.

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Pretty is as pretty does.

Many years before Forrest Gump told us, "Stupid is as stupid does," my grandma regularly reminded me of how she used to tell my mama and her sisters the "pretty" version of that line.  As I recall, she almost always  mentioned it after praising me for looking nice, all dressed up for church or something else special.  And now, after all these years, I finally realize that she wasn't, in fact, admonishing me to behave at whatever function I was heading to. 

I'm certain she was talking about websites.

One of the biggest leaps I find that traditional creatives have to make when thinking in pixels is understanding pretty's new place.  Now, before I offend anyone, let me be clear about a couple of things:  First, for the purposes of this post, "pretty" is going to mean more than visually appealing.  Here, I'm going to use "pretty" to mean entertaining -- in much the same way a clever print execution or a funny TV spot is entertaining.  I don't mean to imply that pretty isn't good.  Pretty is good. More than good.  It's necessary.  And here, "pretty" is more than pretty.  The second thing I want to be clear about is that I think pretty does, in fact, have a significant place on the web.  It's just a different place, with different playmates.  As such, it has to play differently, if it's going to get along well with others.

When people engage with traditional media, mostly, they're there to see pretty.  Pretty, in the form of entertainment, is pretty much what drives the interaction.  And, contrary to what most web-o-philes say, it is, in fact, a two-way interaction.  I turn on the TV, I don't see pretty, I change the channel.  Or turn it off.  Short, yes, but definitely two-way.

On the web, though, for the most part, people are plenty happy to find pretty, but first, they really want to find information.  Now, immediately, you're screaming, YouTube! On-demand streaming episodes of Heroes!  Fan sites!  Wait, please.  Hear me out:

The web is driven by information first.  And it has caused a shift in the consumption patterns of heavy web users -- and, well, most everybody, really.  People look for information first, to determine which forms of entertainment they want to participate in. (Assuming entertainment information is the information they're looking for.)  That's why YouTube works.  It's tagged.  If you don't search tags, you can browse thumbnails.  You don't have to watch a ton of crap you're not interested in, or wait until after 10pm to get to pretty.  You get to pretty by having a chat with information first.

For twenty-somethings, that consumption pattern has spilled offline.  Or, rather, into what Ray Podder calls VirtuReality -- an event that, by definition, requires simultaneous online (or wireless) and offline components.  When I was in my 20s, we bar-hopped based on patterns, or chance, or barely remembered band listings in the weekly rag.  Now bar-hopping is driven by SMS, Twittering, or near constant cell chatter.  It's entertainment driven by information.

When great sites are concepted, function and interaction come first. Then form.  What are people hoping to find when they get here?  How can we help them find it quickly?  Then -- how can we make that process more entertaining?  How do we make it pretty?

Too many stumbles happen when pretty leads the way.  When pretty gets in front of what I'm looking for, I go look for it somewhere else.  Give me what I'm looking for first.  You get massive bonus points for making it pretty.  But you get no points at all if you slow me down -- because I've already clicked away.

As I see it, in traditional media, pretty works best as a hook to get people to notice, so you can deliver information.  On the web, it's the opposite.  Information is what they're looking for.  Pretty helps keep them there a bit longer.

It's hard to concept upside down, isn't it?

 

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Know your prospects. Give them what they're looking for.

I harp on this all the time.  Not necessarily multiple landing pages, but, yes, that is one way to express it.  The concept is bigger than that, though.  Simper, too.  Which always makes me wonder why so few agencies and clients get it.  Angela at Adrants does a great job explaining it here.

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