Larry D. Lauer

The Communication and Social Media Dimensions of Leadership…

1. Leadership tone and language have the power to either bring people together under uplifting values, or to divide them against each other with fear-mongering and lies.
2. History teaches that leaders always have been able to shape the cultural values of institutions and nations, for both good and ill. And today, the power to do this has been significantly enhanced by social media.
3. Leaders can also knowingly or unknowingly trigger violence by their choice of words. Words such as racist, rapist, shit-hole countries, Spanish invasion, white supremacist, and Muslim extremist, can encourage violent acts by those already harboring hate.
4. People who attempt to rationalize away a leader’s role in creating crises end up only turning their own words into confusing clutter.
5. Following a crisis, divisive leaders who make out-of-character consoling statements end up only confusing their own supporters.
6. This is because social media enables like-minded people to find each other on the Web. And once formed, Internet bonds are very difficult to change.