Like you, I’ve learned a lot about leadership over the years. Why then does it still seem counterintuitive — and maybe a little uncomfortable — to read that we can achieve better results without a top-down, command-and-control strategy? I thought about this as I read Charlene Li’s insightful blog post this week.

Many years ago, as a newly appointed manager with more than a dozen direct reports — some of them in remote bureaus — I was super-diligent about staying in touch, tracking performance and staying on top of the work.

In my defense, we didn’t have IM or tweets or smartphones to connect us, and I thought my primary job was to be hands-on and to keep the momentum going. I also worked hard and thought that if I led by example, the rest would follow.

The results were mixed. We produced great products to the highest standards, but people got burnt out, including me. We weren’t enjoying the work as much as we could have, and there was a “creative tension” most of the time. Of course, the corporate culture promoted and encouraged this approach, and I was merely carrying out orders. But in fact, they weren’t the right orders for people who were already motivated, creative and talented.

Charlene’s advocacy of open leadership may have helped somewhat, but without the technology and the urgency that’s present at most enterprises today — what Peter Hinssen in his animated video calls The Era of Now — there would probably still be a disconnect between executives and workers.

Many thought leaders — such as Don Tapscott — have promoted transparency over the years, and the archives (and business schools) are full of books, courses and white papers that espouse formulas and theories about effective team management.

What’s really different right now, however, is IT. Social media really does change everything. Because it’s disruptive, old lessons don’t apply; yet new solutions—even among younger managers-- are still evolving. What does management look like when collaboration is a mantra, crowdsourcing is acceptable and customers have their say? Where do CIOs fit in when, as Alistair Croll wrote last year, the democratization of IT and the enterprise are the direct result of consumer technologies? How do you get out of the way and still be an effective leader? Do we need new strategies or new leaders?

Smart Enterprise Exchange is continuing to offer many perspectives about social media and leadership to help you answer these questions and adapt to the rapid-fire pace of change. Nathan Clevenger, author of the recent book, iPad in the Enterprise, offers four concrete steps you can take to adopt a mobile strategy. When I spoke to Nathan recently, he suggested many practical tips based on his interviews with global CIOs for the book. As you would expect, the first step is to accept, rather than resist, the notion of shared leadership — exactly what consumer technologies support.

Executive coach Dina Lichtman also addresses this topic in a recent blog and in an upcoming one where she asked Elizabeth Osder for her perspective on social media’s organizational impact.

Apparently, there’s still a lot to learn about leadership. And while you may not find a one-size-fits-all solution, as IT executives leading teams of technologists, business partners and social media-savvy customers, you must leave your comfort zone, try out the options and see what works best (then, share your experiences on the Exchange). The stakes couldn’t be higher, and there’s no time to waste.

Paula  Klein

Editor and Community Manager

Smart Enterprise Exchange

As a business-technology journalist and editor, I am fortunate to meet many great thinkers. While I am still cynical enough to believe that no one has all of the answers, nor does anyone have a crystal ball to see into the future, I do recognize fresh thinking when I hear and see it.

That’s why I’m very pleased this month that Smart Enterprise Exchange is featuring some of the very best global thought leaders in the areas of IT, cloud computing and business organization.

Since knowledge is empirical — ideas are built on earlier ideas — it’s appropriate that we offer an Insights column by John Seely Brown, a long-time industry innovator, lecturer and author. JSB, as he’s known, cut his teeth at Xerox’s PARC labs and is still analyzing major tech trends — these days at Deloitte’s Center for the Edge. His most recent book is The Power of Pull: How small moves, smartly made, can set big things in motion (Basic Books, April 2010).

His article, Unlocking Enterprise Agility, delves into the tough issues surrounding service orientation, “loosely coupled process networks” and “elastic architectures” and whether they can support existing applications and platforms. He believes they can interact with existing platforms, but not without new policies, retooling and scalable solutions. You can read more from him in the October issue of Smart Enterprise magazine, too.

Another sage leader to join our community is Timothy Chou. I don’t use the word “visionary” often nor do I use it casually, but in Tim’s case, it’s very appropriate. Tim has advocated for cloud computing before the term existed. Among his long and impressive resume it’s notable that as head of Oracle’s On Demand computing operations — then the fastest-growing business at Oracle — he was promoting SaaS models at a time when software licenses and computer architectures were solidly entrenched in global corporations. His viewpoint was strengthened in his groundbreaking book, The End of Software (Sams, 2004), as well as his entrepreneurial ventures at Openwater Networks and elsewhere.

In September, Tim was a keynote speaker at our event in Newport, R.I., and soon, the larger community will have the chance to interact with Tim in an upcoming live videocast on November 11. Look for more details and registration information on the site.

Also on our roster this month is a blog and video from another insightful IT advisor, lecturer and author. Peter Hinssen is bringing his fresh insights to global audiences in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Peter’s very serious ideas about the creative thinking that’s needed in the digital world — The New Normal (Uitgeverij Lannoo, 2010), as his just-released book is titled — are presented in a lighthearted fashion that makes the work seem easy and doable. In fact, Peter recommends radically new organizational models — including revamped IT operations and a changed role for the CIO — to bring enterprises into the consumer-led digital world.

All of these Big Thinkers have outlasted others because they get it right. I hope you will use these latest articles and blogs as you formulate new strategies and tactics for your digital business. And please join your peers for our videocast with Tim Chou and two other cloud computing experts on November 11.

Paula Klein
Editor and Community Manager
Smart Enterprise Exchange