How Leaders Can Lessen Social Media's Monumental Ill Effects

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The fact is, we always navigate the world by comparing ourselves to others. Done in-person, as it had been for all of human history until about a decade ago, it was fine. However, thanks to social media, we have unlimited exposure to a vastly greater universe of people.

This, of course, makes it entirely possible, and even likely, that people are presenting an unbalanced glimpse of themselves—not just extensively air-brushed but exceedingly positive and unbelievably flattering.

Even though we know that these exaggerations are untrue, our brains respond as if all of them were true—and true all the time. As a consequence, we flip through our feeds, wanting more for ourselves.

What Does This Have to Do With Leadership?

This is a new problem in human culture that everyone is privately grappling with to some degree, especially adolescents. But it's worth noting that this new reality has an equally unprecedented effect on our workplaces.

Indeed, there are several ways that social media contributes to unhappiness at work. Here are three worth recognizing:

1. We are driven by likes: Why do so many of us feel compelled to share pictures of the hamburger we're about to eat at the local pub? It is because we crave those "likes." They validate us and make us feel seen—feelings we don't always get at work. As a result, many of us shift focus away from our job towards the social media channels that can give us our attention "fix."
2. Social media use has diminished our attention spans: Like a pack of Pavlov's dogs, we find it increasingly difficult not to respond to every vibration, chime, or ping that comes from our mobile phones. As a consequence, some of us are losing our ability to concentrate for more than a few minutes before we have to check our channels—it diminishes personal productivity and business performance.
3. Social media can spread misleading information: Social media can help develop a community of like-minded people. Special interest groups, like those found on LinkedIn, are a case in point. But it can also be used to spread peculiar ideas about how we should behave and work. A TikTok video, for example, goes viral and suddenly every working professional begins to think they should "quiet quit" because their job requirements are too excessive, too (as depicted in the video that introduced the world to quiet quitting).

Clearly, that creates an opportunity—and perhaps even a responsibility—for business leaders to take corrective action to remedy the situation. The question is, "Where do we begin?" Every cultural institution shares in the responsibility to address the massive, uninvited effects of digital distraction. It's time for business leaders to step up.

Large-Scale Organizational Change Begins With the Culture

The pull of social media makes a case for overriding it—or, at the very least, countering it—with outstanding, compelling company culture.

It is no secret that people want to feel valued at work. If the work setting fails to provide people with feelings of validation, then they are at risk of turning to social media to get it. The challenge is to fix this situation by placing emphasis and effort on shape-shifting your company culture to one that is positive, where people feel heard and appreciated.

A simple step to get started is to sanction a team to assess and baseline your current company culture. Have the team look at how people behave and interact with each other. Pay close attention to how leaders lead others and the kinds of feedback that they provide to the people that are assigned to them.

From there, you can use the assessment results to determine and inform the corrective actions required to improve your workplace culture—making it one where people won't be craving social media to feel appreciated.

Some modest suggestions to get started, include:

1. Craft a vision story about the desired culture. Done right, your cultural vision should highlight your people as the stars of the show. Make sure the vision story is vivid, compelling, and engaging. Ensure that your people can see themselves being successful within the new cultural paradigm that you want to establish. You do this by providing details and anecdotes about what it will be like to work in a place like your organization.
2. Redefine what "good" leadership looks like. Demonstrate through your own conduct that the best leaders choose to lead every day. Adopt a "No Spin" principle that demands truth-telling and shows that you expect and appreciate it when someone on the team expresses an opposing point of view—this behavior, on your part, will engage people and enhance their feeling of contributing to the greater good of the enterprise.
3. Shift focus. Establishing a strong sense of "being in it together" within the organization is essential. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. It's on us to shift the culture in ways that staffers get that sense of belonging from their work and not look for it in their social-media feed.
4. Make change exciting. Provide the "why." Take the time needed to help your people understand what's in it for them. This removes all wonder and doubt about the reasons that change is necessary. And by making it about them, you can inspire their attention and involvement in the culture transformation desired.

Of course, this is just the beginning of what leaders can do to counter the negative impact that social media can have on the workplace. The fact is, even as the workplace culture is being renovated, staffers will be looking to their leaders to set an example for them to follow.

How Leaders Can Set an Example

Leaders can quickly and easily begin to lessen social media's monumental effects on the workplace by doing the following:

• Put the phone down. If I had a nickel for every time an executive that I was working with took a time-out to answer a beep they received on their phone, I could retire on the spot. If we want to lessen social media's impact at work, we can be living role models that demonstrate what good looks like to our people. Shut your phone off when you are attending a meeting. Ask others to do the same. Help your team recognize that life does not come to an end just because their phones are switched off. With access switched off, the temptation to check for "likes" diminishes.
• Improve the messaging. A breakdown in communication within an organization can make people look to social media—an undesirable outcome, not least because social media can be a source of inaccurate or misleading information. Instead, communicate often and through many means, including in-person, web, email, text, and intranet. Further, ensure that your messaging is transparent and truthful. Any whiff that you are spinning the facts will turn your people off and push them towards increased social media use. You will know that you're making headway when productivity and customer satisfaction measurements improve. These indicate that people are working together and are in harmony with company objectives.
• Try a little tenderness. Empathetic leadership is transformational. By demonstrating an ability to see the world through others' eyes, you improve your opportunities to establish the connection that people desire. If you help to satisfy that need, your team will be less apt to seek it through other outlets.

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Some of the ways you can exhibit empathy at work include:

1. Listen for understanding. Discover the intent behind the words being conveyed to you. Don't seek to litigate or find faults in the arguments being made. Instead, hear the message.
2. Accept responsibility for your actions. No excuses. No justifications.
3. Keep your promises. If you say something, do it. It builds trust.