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PREPARING FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP: DIPLOMACY AND  SOCIAL MEDIA

The following are remarks that Eunice Reddick, Diplomat in Residence at Howard University, presented at a Student Leadership Conference at Howard University’s Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center in October, 2010.  The subject of the conference was “Preparing for Global Leadership.”

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I am happy to have lived beyond the Millennium, survived Y2K, and experienced the beginning of the 21st century.  But I am truly a diplomat of the 20th century.  Although by mid-20th century sophisticated weaponry was changing the way war was conducted, we still used diplomatic tools that dated back several centuries.  Special envoys could fly to their missions more quickly, and phone service made contact between world leaders easier.  However, diplomacy was still conducted between a few elite officials.  Diplomats interviewed contacts, drafted and sent telegrams, ambassadors were sent by the governments they represented to meet with heads of state and pass messages. 

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But something changed during the last decades of the 20th century that changed diplomacy forever and increased the challenges you will face as leaders.   It was evident during “People Power” demonstrations in the Philippines, when huge masses of demonstrators moved as if by command to new locations.  They knew where police were gathering and were able to avoid them.  Larger and larger groups of people gathered without the orders of leaders.  Within days, the will of the people in the crowds forced the president of the Philippines to step down.

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What guided the people in the Philippines to express their desire for political change is a mass movement?  The cell phone.  The ability to use cell phones to send text messages organized a movement that could not be stopped once people began to follow the messages that expressed their desire for political change.

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Who would have thought that the technology that started with a cell phone would, by the 21st century, result in Twitter and Facebook, bringing information almost instantaneously to people?  

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Political leaders, for example, have only touched the surface of the power of social media to influence elections.  Access to video on the internet allows individuals and groups to send out messages to the world to achieve both good and bad results.  Who can forget the internet broadcasts from Osama bin Laden?  

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The current administration is the first to try to use the power of new social media to spread messages about America’s interests and who Americans are and what we stand for.  Secretary Clinton and President Obama clearly understand the power of appealing directly to the people to overcome seemingly frozen contacts with government officials or unmovable impressions of the United States. 

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Do you remember President Obama fielding questions from all over the African continent during his Town Hall meeting in Accra, Ghana? Similarly while in Cairo, the President answered questions from all over the Islamic world about America’s views on Islam.

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The challenge to us as diplomats and leaders in the 21st century, I contend, will be how we use leadership skills to harness the power of new technology, like social media, for positive and constructive results.  Leadership is defined as the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.  Motivating will be increasingly difficult as people are constantly bombarded with information from all sources with increasingly sophisticated technology.

What are some of the qualities listed that might make a leader better able to deal with fast moving technological changes?  Will the growing challenges for leaders mean that the qualities for a good leader will change?  Let’s take a look at some of the 

qualities for a good leader that the State Department has put together under the catchy name “13 Dimensions.”   Cultural adaptability, information integration and analysis, initiative and leadership, judgment, oral and written communication, planning and organizing, resourcefulness, working with others.

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The 13 Dimensions that the Department of State have identified as critical skills, abilities and personal qualities that are essential to succeed as a Foreign Service Officer are also essential for a successful diplomat in the Age of Social Media.  

I’ve been talking about leadership challenges in terms of diplomacy, political movements, and social media campaigns.  But leadership is required in many circumstances.  You have been leaders in many situations when you perhaps did not know it, expect it, or held a formal title as leader.  

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How many of you have held formal leadership roles in student or community organizations?  How many feel like they have played leadership roles without a formal title?  

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Colin Powell, one of my inspirational leaders, once said you can lead from any place in an organization.  What does that mean?  You don’t have to wait until you are in a formal leadership position to make a difference.  I suggest that the core leadership skills needed to lead in an international setting are the same as those needed to succeed domestically or locally, here in the U.S.  However, the leadership challenges in an international setting are often greater.  

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Cultural sensitivities may come into play when, for example, a woman leader is dealing with men from traditional societies in the Arab world, or when a younger person is negotiating a deal with an older Japanese counterpart.  Effective oral and written communication skills are essential when you are negotiating any agreement, but there are additional challenges when the native languages and legal frameworks for each delegation are different.

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As the Foreign Service is a profession where success depends on the ability to lead as individuals and as a nation in an international context, the types of skills and knowledge needed to succeed in this organization are similar to the types of skills that would make professionals in other areas more effective in an international or domestic context.  

In closing, I would like to return to the story of the massive crowd movements in the streets of Manila.  Someone was sending the text messages that moved thousands of people in unison.  He or she was not a leader of a political party and probably did not have a formal title.  But that individual was a leader that exhibited many of the qualities listed in the 13 Dimensions.  All of you may be placed in a similar decisive situation, either domestically or as diplomats.  Remember the power of a cell phone and technology, but also the need for leadership skills to make wise decisions regarding the technology that will increasingly have the power to change our lives.