Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom and Executive Coaching

Soumitra Dutta spoke to INSEAD alumni at MTV studios yesterday about ways companies are now using social networking to reach out to customers.

One of the questions that came up was how leaders can be helped to develop an online presence and, for example, whether senior leaders should be blogging or whether that is too dangerous.

For a leader to be successful at more direct, less-screened contact with the broader world, any blind spots that the leader has about himself or herself can become dangerous.

Of course, a PR person could write pieces on behalf of the senior executive that might appear to be authentic and genuine. Perhaps that might work in some cases.

However for a truly genuine, authentic web presence the more self-knowledge the leader has, the lower the risk and the greater the potential for success.

As Soumitra agreed, executive coaching can be a way for the senior executive to reduce blind spots and increase self-knowledge. If finding an effective way to connect to the broader world outside the executive bubble can be an added benefit of the coaching process, so much the better.