A community without a leader is just a random group

I’ve written before about the role of the community manager as a leader. This week I received a painful reminder to the great importance of leadership in community management. In my personal life I am part of several communities (on Facebook) that congregate around specific WOE (ways of eating, or nutrition). I have been a proud member of each of these communities and I have been active, sharing knowledge, learning from other members and helping newcomers.

It has been fun and it has been educating and it is probably the best time of my day whenever I take a break from the hectic work schedule and spend a few moments reading up, answering people and making new friends. And I do meanreal friends. There are people in those communities I have already had the pleasure to meet, host in my home and talk to on the phone and not just on the Facebook group.

But this week something happened. A valued member of one of those communities was kicked out by the admins of the community (there are 8 of them) because another member was offended by his short and “unpleasant” replies and complained.

A little background is needed here:

• The group consists of over 3k members
• The group was started 2 years ago by one evangelist who is still the “father” of the group
• The group now has 8 admins (the original founder + 7 helpers from within the group) because the original founder doesn’t have time to manage the group
• They call themselves “admins” and “group” rather than “leaders” or “supporters” and “community” (and yes — words DO matter!)
• The member who was cast out was cast out for the second time.
• The member who was cast out already has another group of his own (a sub-group he created)
• The member who cast out has a rather “unique” sense of humor and people may find him offensive, but he is a fountain of knowledge and tried to help whenever her can.
• Over the past 3 months many of the original core members left and started their own sub-groups or joined other groups.

Why am I pointing all this out? Because if this group was managed as a real community, if there was a true leader (or leaders) — and not necessarily even the original founder — this wouldn’t have happened. If they were busy leading and supporting rather than “administrating” people wouldn’t feel the need to get offended, leave, complain….

What would I do as a community manager?

I would be transparent. I would not throw out messages into the group space about “certain people” who “offended” other people and who were cast out of the group after “heavy consideration among all admins”. I would tell my community what’s going on and ask them to give me their opinion.

I would mediate. I would privately talk to both members who were involved in the incident — get them together in a joint chat and ask them to talk it out (with me as mediator)

I would create the space. I would start all the sub-groups (dedicated to specific topics/issues) and assign community leaders to them before other members break off the pact and go on their own. This way I would maintain the entire community intact while allowing for separate opinions or tweaks.

There’s lots more that could have been done. It wasn’t. Because what was once acommunity became nothing more than a random group of people running amok without a leader. The admins can only deal with so much…

This group/community is part of my personal life, but the principles of community development and community management are the same for any type of group. If you are building a community and consider one of the community channels to be a group (on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Slack…anywhere) — pay close attention to who you assign as a community manager, pay close attention to the community members and identify the leaders that grow from within. Make sure you have a community leader and not just a moderator.