The Rise of Social Accountability in a Modern Age of Social Media
Without a doubt, executives from United Airlines, Uber, political figures, and all those in a position of leadership have learned the hard way their days of operating with impunity have come to a bitter end. With the explosive growth of social media in modern times comes the day and age where social accountability is no longer something that corporate, political, and others in a position of leadership can simply hide from. As you’re about to see, our modern world driven by digital media is forcing the world’s leaders to hold themselves to a higher standard, or suffer the consequences as a result of their misdeeds. Social media also does something else that benefits all of us, it forces us all to think harder about our own ideas, beliefs, and actions.
For starters, there’s a new sheriff in town, its the media, and their journalists are the lawmen, while social users are the judge and jury. Sorry to have to be the one to break it to the corporate world, but this isn’t 1985, a time when big business and the political elite broadcasted a message and never had to worry about the repercussions.
Social media doesn’t just hold corporations and the political world to account either, but anybody and everybody. The media too is often blasted for their mistreatment of others, just as United Airlines was, or in the case of Pepsi, for displaying racially insensitive content in the form of an advertisement. As if a can Pepsi would somehow bring the world together and break past our differences.
The rise of social accountability is also a really good thing. Especially during a time when our world is stuck in economic turmoil, where humanity has slipped into a widespread state of demoralization, and humans have lost sight of the ethical and moral fabric that once made our existence great.
The fact is, all the chaos in this world can honestly be attributed to failed leadership, a lack of accountability, and the fact leaders don’t often act in the best interest of those they’re tasked with serving.
But social accountability itself is hardly a fix for those leaders who lack any sort of empathy for others. In fact, we’ve seen first hand just how leaders will often shift the blame on others, rather than accepting responsibility for their own shortfalls; as was the case with Uber’s CEO Kalanick, whom rather than empathize with his own drivers concerns and hardships, put the blame on the driver as if Kalanick’s own failures were the driver’s fault instead.
At the very least, Kalanick failed to acknowledge someone who worked so hard to support him was upset, and in return he offered no concern for his driver’s feelings, regardless of who was right or wrong.
In the case of United’s CEO Munoz, his statement “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United.” Upsetting to you? What about the poor guy who was beaten to a pulp and dragged around like a dead animal? Or did you forget about him entirely? How upsetting this must be for “You” Munoz. Or better yet, how pathetic of a response can you give?
The problem is, people like this not only lack empathy for others and self-awareness of their actions, but empathy itself is a quality that is not only something we’re taught, its also something that not everyone has. Having “Empathy” is literally having the ability to feel the pain of others.
The fact is, our abilities to empathize with others, or to even to have a conscience of any kind, or so much as be conscious of our own actions and how they affect others, is something we learn from an early age. If humans don’t grasp these traits during childhood, they often can become very difficult things to get a handle on later on in life.
The author in a recent article from Forbes titled, “CEO’s Fiascos Typically Start With a Lack of Empathy”, goes on to state, “[Empathy] It’s an ability that can be learned, although it does take some work”, and “We Need to Improve Our Empathy.”
While I wholeheartedly agree with the article’s initial headline, I can’t agree we can simply improve our empathy, or that its something we can just pick up and easily learn later on in life. You don’t merely improve your empathy, you either have it or you don’t!
And this all leads to an even bigger question, how did we end up with a world of leaders who lack empathy for others, who refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions, and who refuse to acknowledge their wrongdoings?
The fact is, most of those in a position of leadership in this world came from a background of wealth, and most of these individuals grew up within, and experienced a much different reality from the rest us. Those born into wealth often find much easier paths to leadership as well, and its because they have easier lives, better access to education, as well as the support mechanisms one needs in life in order to be successful.
Unfortunately, some of these individuals who’re born into the extremes of wealth often grow up living lives of self-entitlement, where they’re used to demanding from others, and they’re used to getting what they want.
Being taught to constantly demand, to take, and never being taught to be held accountable for ones own actions, often creates the recipe for disaster in leadership we see today.
Given my own personal experience with living on all sides of the wealth spectrum at various points in my life, its easy to see how this mindset of the privileged can often lead to a mindset of self-centered, self-serving, and ignorant ideologies.
I grew up poor, at times eating from a trash can, but later in my early adulthood I lived through an entire decade of wealth and privilege. Everything was simply handed to me, money, fancy cars, a college education paid for a with the simple signing of a check, and clothes that cost more than the average 3 bedroom home. I too like many of those who grew up rich was later in life taught to “Demand” what I wanted, and I have to admit I got whatever I wanted.
But I learned some valuable lessons from these experiences. For one, I learned from being poor as a kid, being forced to work for practically nothing, often working 100+ hours in a week just to survive as a teenager, that until you suffer yourself, you’ll never appreciate anyone or anything in life. I was paid just $2.00 an hour with my first job, and I literally worked to death for nothing! That hard work made me understand the value of a hard earned dollar, and it made me appreciate the hard work of others.
Likewise, that life of privilege I lived later on in life also had a profound effect on who I was and who I would later become. Even today, I often find myself demanding things I otherwise really don’t deserve. It’s not unusual for me to call a friend and state, “I ‘Need’ cigarettes, there’s no coffee here, I need new shoes, and I need it now!” I got so used to getting what I wanted, and demanding from others that it eventually became a way of life.
While that life of privilege has pretty much all but evaporated in more recent times, I still have that sense of demand that refuses to go away. Here I can hardly cut my electric bill, yet even to this very day I constantly and consistently make demands of others to fulfill my every want and need.
Can you see how such a mindset could produce an insensitive, self-serving, and ignorant leader? While I’m still demanding of the world, one thing that wealth and privilege didn’t do was destroy my ability to empathize with others, to understand I’m not in this world alone, and to realize I’m definitely responsible for my own actions. Being poor and working for nothing also instilled a sense of self-awareness I still carry to this day as well.
I’m still demanding as hell of the world around me, but I’m also the guy who will give the shirt off his back, and my last dollar to a bum in the street if I thought it would make them feel better.
I learned something else from my past as well. When I was poor, I was always forced to take accountability for my actions, but when I was wealthy, accountability itself was virtually non-existent.
For instance, when I was poor and got a speeding ticket, I was faced with a court date, sitting in line with others for hours so I could beg the judge not to throw me in jail because I couldn’t afford to pay my fines. When I was rich, I simply made a phone call, and the ticket magically disappeared. Over time it became easier for me to see how the wealthy live lives where accountability hardly exists, and this is just one example of many I could provide.
As for these worldly leaders whom not only lack self-awareness, are insensitive towards others, and live lives of self-entitlement, they’re still going to be held to account for their actions regardless. For these leaders, life is a really painful and difficult process, because they often are incapable of comprehending what they did wrong, and why others are so angry with them.
When the world of social users lashed out at United CEO Oscar Munoz for the disparaging remarks he made about his own paying customer who was wrongfully attacked, the backlash from social users sent a clear message, this kind of disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated any longer.
Likewise, these events sent a clear message to other worldly leaders that they too will be held to account for their actions. It was really a wake up call to all those in a position of leadership, one that forces them to take a good long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves, “Am I really doing the right thing?” This goes back to the idea of self-awareness we discussed earlier. It was something they lacked, and is now suddenly something they’re forced to face head on!
In another recent event, North Carolina state representative Larry Pittman voiced some pretty disgusting remarks about Abraham Lincoln, calling him quote, “A tyrant like Adolf Hitler”; and that Abe was also “Responsible for the deaths of 800,00 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional.”
In Pittman’s case, people once again amassed on social media to express their disgust, with many calling for him to step down, including many politicians. Let’s face it, calling a fight for freedom and equality “Unnecessary” just goes to prove what type of person this guy truly is.
As the old saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” Pittman’s recent slip-up wasn’t the first in a long career of unethical and intolerant behavior from this politician either. It was merely the first time he’s ever been held to account for his actions. Just as with many other political leaders, Pittman has a penchant for attempting to adopt laws that reflect his personal and religious beliefs, without taking into consideration the fairness behind his reasoning, or how those laws will affect others.
Pittman is also one of those fighting to restore North Carolina’s ban on the issue of same sex marriage, defying a U.S Supreme Court order in the process. While there’s a million arguments out there for and against issues like this, and of course Pittman is entitled to his own opinion on the matter, its also never a politicians place to be concerned with what people do in their private lives, and that obviously doesn’t negatively affect himself or others.
Its the same reason we have separation of church and state, its because personal convictions have no place in politics. When we elect leaders, we expect them to be impartial and act on everyone’s behalf, not pick and choose winners and losers.
The point here, a leaders personal and or religious beliefs should never interfere with their responsibility to do what’s right for those they’re intended to serve. If a leaders personal beliefs are going to discriminate against a given portion of the people they’re tasked with serving, they probably have no place in a position of leadership to begin with.
intolerance is also not a virtue, and leaders like that of United’s CEO, and Pittman as well, have learned the hard way that acting on decisions without thinking things through can have seriously drastic consequences on ones career and public image.
It’s also amazing how humans are often so unaware that their behavior online greatly reflects their true personalities in many ways. Likewise, the epic-fails we see taking place in the hands of leaders today also shows how humans will react when they realize they’re being held to account. A good example would be with United’s Munoz, who initially blasted the victim of a heinous attack with crude remarks, only to back track later when the world made him wake up and realize he was wrong.
Over the course of the last 5 years, I’ve had the chance to observe the behavior of millions of social users online, as well being the one to write and enforce the guidelines for millions in that time span. What I discovered from that experience was that when users know they will be held to account for their actions, 99% of the time they will comply with the guidelines that are in place. Likewise, when social users know they won’t be held to account, they will often act in a demeaning and cruel manner (Youtube is a good example of this very phenomenon).
It’s honestly a very sad and sorry state once we realize that humans generally can’t be trusted to do the right thing on their own, unless they’re told they will be held to account.
During that 5 year time span I mentioned, most of my observations were made within Google’s social platform Google+. Not only was I able to compare the actions of users who were held to account (Google+), and those actions of users who often weren’t (Youtube), I also had the chance to analyze the behavior of Google and its leaders, and I quickly realized how very little this organization valued those they intended to serve.
In Google’s case, its organizational leadership appeared to operate with impunity, with what amounted to virtually zero accountability for their actions. Google then became the organization that simply ignored obvious problems with its products and services, disregarded complaints about its mistreatment of users including rampant harassment of users on its social platforms, made changes that never reflected the wants or needs of the people they served, and refused to acknowledge even the slightest of opposition to their purely self-serving policies.
For Google, social accountability is going to be a really hard lesson learned. But, there’s a positive twist to Google’s situation that pans out in their favor, thanks to two individuals within their organization (Which I’ll explain shortly).
The result? A failed social network (Google+), broke and angry content creators on Youtube, and advertisers pulling down their ads from all of Google’s products and services; as well as lawsuits from the EU and others over anti-competitive business practices, and governments like the UK stating how disgusting Google was for profiting off of extremist content.
But, once again, social accountability finds a way. While Google executives played the same failed cards as Oscar Munoz, “it’s the victims fault”, “We did nothing wrong”, or “We’ll just ignore the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist”, the world of advertisers, media, and even their own content creators didn’t seem to agree.
But Google’s situation is unique in that, despite all that’s gone wrong, their top executives still refuse to accept any real accountability for their actions. Even now, Google has completely failed to comprehend what they did wrong.
Twice they implemented 2 failed redesigns of the Google+ social platform, completely ignoring the wants and needs of users in the process. The problem was, they never designed it for those who made use of it, but rather designed it to fit their personal wants and needs.
A recent article from Uproxx couldn’t have said it better, “ It’s a concept [Google+] driven by a corporate board, not one that grows organically out of how people communicate.”
When Gideon Rosenblatt unleashed his G+ post titled, “Losing My Patience With Google+”, many of us came out in force and expressed our anger towards Google, its executives, the platform’s shortfalls, and how we felt the wants and needs of the platform’s users had long been ignored.
Rather than playing the same failed approach of “It’s not our fault”, “We did nothing wrong”, or simply ignoring the concerns of others, two top developers for the Google+ platform responded to our angry rants (and trust me, we were really pissed off) with nothing but empathy and compassion.
After hours of blasting Google in Gideon’s post, their developer Carter Gibson chimed in to let us know he was watching and listening the entire time, he was sorry we were so upset, and wanted to let us know he cared, and promised things would change.
Another Google+ developer Leo Deegan also jumped in and stated they were willing to make changes based on our concerns.
These developers are the true heroes of leadership the world needs! While the many complaints we blasted at Google were hardly their own faults, they were willing to acknowledge many of us were really upset.
I think Google’s top leadership could really learn something from these two individuals who instantly inspired millions of us in a second flat with a few simple words, their ability to listen, and their ability to say “We care!”
While I still have some animosity towards Google’s executives that’s personally hard to let go, Both Leo and Carter have, for many of us, renewed our faith in Google, their social platform, and reinstated a sense of trust we had previously lost.
Conclusion:
While social accountability is something world leaders are forced to face, it doesn’t necessarily change who those leaders are, or the personal values they hold. On the other hand, it does offer those in a position of leadership the ability to better take sight of their own faults, build self-awareness, and learn from their mistakes.
This modern digital era of communication we live in, where the world’s voice is now a collective one thanks to the explosive growth of social media, we all must understand its easy to judge the shortfalls of others, while also ignoring our own.
The fact is, none of us are perfect, and I’m a true believer that we can all learn from our mistakes, including those leaders the world blasts for their often immoral and unethical behavior. While Munoz, Kalanick, and others definitely made some awful mistakes, its possible they can really learn from them, and ultimately become better people in due time.
With the case of Google, we also saw first-hand how others in an organization are often able to rectify a terrible situation with their willingness to step up to the plate and take responsibility, even when the circumstances aren’t the cause of their own doing.
Both Leo Deegan and Carter Gibson took responsibility for the shortfalls of others within their organization, and they won the world’s support in return.
Written and published by Daniel Imbellino — Co-Founder of Strategic Social Networking and pctechauthority.com. Many thanks for reading. Be sure to check out Strategic Social Networking Community on Google+ to connect with tens of thousands of IT professionals and learn effective strategies to grow your social presence online. You’re also welcome to follow Strategic’s brand page on G+ for the latest social media and IT industry news.
