What is a Social Leader? It is a lengthy, winding answer, and one that is largely theoretical. I have yet to see an entire organization try it out.

Before social networks, your ability to implement virtually every piece of leadership advice that you have ever been given was stymied by the communications tools that were at your disposal.

Face-to-face? Great. Until you have more than ~200 employees. Email? Spare me your managerial monologues. Conference calls? Newsletters? Do we need to talk about inter-office memos?

No. But let us talk about all of that lofty leadership advice that you have read about or, if you are lucky, have actually experienced.

Take the advice that one job of great leaders is to seed an opportunity and to lay out a believable challenge. Doing so requires you to shift the burden of thinking to the organization, asking really hard questions at the ground level, and then backing off. It requires you to share your knowledge in a way that invites contribution. I know of no better platform than Yammer in which this process can unfold.

“Because 250 senior leaders were given the opportunity to co-create the corporate strategy, they understood the challenge ahead and knew what actions would be necessary to achieve it.” — Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

From another angle, we find people to be most persuasive when they are charismatic — when they come across as warm and approachable, but also strong and reliable. Though it is a difficult balance to strike, showing warmth first yields the best results. It is why we start meetings by asking how has your day been, asking about your family. “Would you rather be feared or loved?” Both, probably. But you should want to be loved first. Traditional communications platforms make it very difficult for employees to see you as a person first. Here, in a social network, you have the runway to show that you are part of the in group.

“Is this a person worth listening to? Do they understand how the world works—in other words, are they capable? And what is their agenda in talking with you—are they friend or foe?….Your first task when you open your mouth is to get yourself in that circle.” — Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities that Make Us Influential

Global organizations often rival the size of many civilizations. How is culture created? Culture requires learning from others. Some cultural learning is explicit, but much of it is implicit. We have to see someone else acting in a certain way in order to learn from them. How can you easily be a witness to behavior in a global organization? Through transparent social networks.

“Learning from others is second nature to humans: we do it more readily and precisely than any other animal.” — The Ape and the Sushi Master

Change Management theory. Swarm theory. Evolutionary Psychology. Employees have largely been treated like children — too tempestuous, inexperienced, uneducated, and erratic to be trusted with the Truth. We have raised employees to be that way, inasmuch as, when we look to history, slaves were raised to be submissive, and women were raised to be gentle things in need of protection. It was thought that a master class was needed to guide and shepherd these groups. Plenty of managers regard direct reports in the same manner.

Being a “Social Leader,” then, is just being a good leader. It’s the “No Asshole” rule, but more nicely phrased. And more possible than ever.