Noise Vs. Leadership

Noise.

A steady stream of content in the form of posts, pictures and blogs fills our eyes daily. In endless hours of thumb-scrolling we see vines, news articles, and viral cat videos. Our society's appetite to fill every moment has become insatiable.

Babies use iPads. Think about that.

How did we get here?

While I'm unsure that I have the answer, I know that for a long time, marketers and communications professionals insisted on steady content schedules. Mandates for a certain number of tweets and Facebook and posts were prescribed with the thinking that this would increase followings. And so companies and news organizations churned out articles like widgets. The unfortunate side effect: half-baked thinking, inaccuracies, and agendas with flawed data.

We've learned through this that more content, doesn't mean quality content. In fact, it has made it more difficult for worthwhile content to be noticed and receive deserving attention.

Sadly, this has affected the way that we perceive important issues like politics, education, relationships, and self-discipline. For example, the rise in content has paradoxically increased depression and shortened our attention spans. We demand digestible, easy-to-understand communications. We want 141 characters, six-second videos, and highlight reels.

I don't mean to demonize these communications vehicles. As a communications professional myself, I use them frequently.

But what about the message that are not easy to understand? What about the topics that are nuanced?

Leadership.

Where we are is reality. So, how do we move forward? Though not comprehensive, here are a few thoughts:

First, we should apply principles that have stood the test of time to the digital age. This sounds simple, but sometimes we find it acceptable to say things we wouldn't say in person on the internet. Regardless of our interaction (face-to-face or through a screen), we should:

Listen

Seek to understand

Be Courteous

Return hate with love, warmth and humanity

Second, as people - and leaders of organizations - we should ask: Do our actions and our content add to the noise or provide leadership? Third, we should also ask whether or not we are promoting truth (despite our biases).

I read recently that "data doesn’t care about your feelings." While that can be difficult to digest, sharing content that obscures reality doesn't make the world more like you want it to be. It causes confusion. And, let's be clear, misinformation leads to bad decisions.

Noise vs. Leadership

Learning how to navigate the current world to be successful is easy. Moving the world towards a better direction, however, is difficult. The relatively newfound ability to communicate with mass groups of people has, in many cases, created a competitive "me-me-me" world.

It doesn't have to be like that. Let's add leadership, not noise.