Guest
post by Ed Muzio
Author of Make Work Great: Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture,
and Gain Influence -- One Person at a Time
Recently
my desk phone rang, and the caller ID showed the name of a large, well known
organization. I answered with my name, as usual. But judging from
the reply I received, I might as well have been a prank caller at three in the
morning.
“Who
is this?!” The caller’s voice was incredulous, and more than a little
annoyed with me. When I replied again with my name and company, I heard
only an annoyed sigh, a click, and silence.
In the moment, I found the whole interaction more
amusing than anything else. It was only on further reflection that I
realized the potential peril in which the caller had placed herself: As
it turns out, I have some relatively influential contacts in that organization,
and thanks to Caller ID, her direct number. I have no intention of taking
any action, but the whole situation reminded me something I’d seen on Facebook
recently: a status update from a friend that said, simply, “you never
know who’s listening.”
I think one of the reasons that sites like
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn are so enjoyable is that they give us
insight into what our friends and colleagues are thinking and doing.
Whether someone is recounting a vacation, a conference, an enjoyable dinner, or
even just a mundane meeting or grocery run, status updates provide a little bit
of insight into someone’s life that we wouldn’t otherwise have. Perhaps
this makes us feel more connected. Whatever the reason, we obviously like
the feeling, because so many of us keep returning to the sites!
But there is a down side to giving such a wide
audience visibility into your thoughts and actions: the potential impact
to your reputation.
Reputation is not a new idea. We’ve known
for decades, for example, that if you become known around your office as
someone who doesn’t follow through on commitments, your chances of career
advancement decline considerably. As children, we all were taught various
forms of the maxim that actions speak louder than words; as adults, we have all
seen what can happen when that maxim isn’t followed at work: diminished
trust, diminished output, and diminished morale. Nobody wants to work
with someone who acts unpredictably, erratically, or
inappropriately.
The problem with social networking sites, from the
standpoint of reputation, is that they give people visibility into parts of
your life that they wouldn’t otherwise have: they connect otherwise
detached social networks. Think about it: would you want your boss
eavesdropping on a conversation with your significant other about your
workday? Would you want your toddler son or daughter carefully absorbing
your choice of words during an adult night out with your best friends?
Many of us have been to a bachelor or bachelorette party at least once; few
brought our parents along. These are detached social
networks!
And yet, many people seem to think nothing of
posting a status message that is intended for only one of their networks, in
full view of all the others. After all, it’s so easy to do! Just
key in your thoughts and click send. Who really remembers everyone on
their “friends” list anyway? Worse yet, the information provided by such
status updates is usually vague and open to broad interpretation. The
fact that it is text-only just compounds the problem. (If you’re unsure
what I mean by this, take a few moments to watch “Why Email Starts Fights” and
you will.) So, the chances for misunderstanding and misinterpretation
multiply, even for an innocent posting.
In other words, be careful what you say. As
in the case of my aggravated caller, you never know who’s listening.
When it comes to social networking, I don’t think
anyone has a perfect solution to this problem. Some people closely
control who gets to be on their lists, or simply decline to post updates.
These are certainly valid approaches; exercising discretion in terms of list
membership and status content is surely wise. And yet, too much
restriction here will defeat much of the benefit of social networking.
At the
other extreme are those who simply don’t give any of this a second thought, and
post whatever occurs to them. There is merit here too, I suppose, but
personally I would be worried about the long term implications of this
strategy. And my worry is not without supporting data; there have been at
least a few well-publicized instances of social networking faux pas that came
back to haunt their owners, in tangible and even economically measurable ways.
My suggestion is this: your brain is better
with clusters than with individual list items. So, don’t try to remember
everyone who is on your friends list. Instead, come up with around five
categories of people who appear there, and then personify those categories with
individuals you know. Before you post a status update, think about those
five individuals, and mentally check whether you would be ok with each of them
reading it. If it’s OK for that sample population, it’s probably fairly
safe for your wider audience.
Personally, my five are my mother, my nephew, my
client, my close friend, and my spiritual advisor. And I will admit that
on more than one occasion, this seemingly innocent list of people has stopped a
status update in its tracks. “On second thought,” I muse, “I’ll just keep
that one to myself.” Of course, this process isn’t infallible, but it
only takes about ten seconds, so it is a pretty cheap insurance policy.
It
is also far less of an imposition than one might think, at least for me.
As it turns out, I’m rarely at a loss for words. There are plenty of
things I can talk about in front of all five of my test people – not the least
of which was a recent anecdote about an odd telephone encounter in which I was
treated like a prank caller.
© 2010 Ed Muzio, author
of Make Work Great: Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and
Gain Influence -- One Person at a Time
Author Bio: Edward G. Muzio, CEO
of Group Harmonics, is the author of the award winning books Make Work
Great: Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence One
Person at a Time and Four Secrets to Liking Your Work: You May
Not Need to Quit to Get the Job You Want. An expert in workplace
improvement and its relationship to individual enjoyment, Muzio has been
featured on Fox Business Network, CBS, and other national media, and he has
been cited in many publications including the New York Post,
the Austin American Statesman, and Spirit magazine.
He lives in
For more information
visit www.makeworkgreat.com and
follow the author on Facebook.
