Social business leaders know that to become a team, it takes more than just working together. A team is formed through trust, respect, and mutual concern. Social leaders leverage the power of people, culture, process, and technology to unlock the full potential of the organization. In the connected economy, sustaining market relevancy depends on our ability to build and maintain a modern social business designed to deliver stakeholder value and drive bottom-line results. It requires collaborative change agents to lead an evolving enterprise that is both engaged and adaptive. These change agents are social leaders who demonstrate a deep-seated commitment to improving the customer and employee experience.

Good management skills alone do not make strong social business leaders. Vineet Nayar draws the distinction between managing work and leading people, noting that counting value, managing people, and circles of power may relate to management traits, but creating value, leading people, and circles of influence are vital leadership attributes. We agree with these indicators, and believe the definition of a social business leader is best understood by looking at contrasting traits.

In the book The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence, it is described how to develop social business leaders by promoting specific positive leadership characteristics, but also by pointing out the negative traits that are to be avoided. Highlighting the contrasting behaviors provides a valuable context to further distinguish between desired attributes and those to eschew.
By Vala Afshar

Source: inc.com