New Ross School of Business dean Scott DeRue isn’t wasting any time, or mincing any words.
“It’s Time to Stop Demonizing Business” is the title of his first LinkedIn blog post. He offers a strong challenge to political and public maligning of the corporate community, and he does so on a social media platform perfectly attuned to his message.
“Business is the most powerful force in society for creating economic value and enabling social mobility and change,” he asserts. “We cannot demonize business but glorify job creators in the same breath.”
Today’s digital environment offers a wide array of platforms for carving out leadership in one’s own voice. Our firm’s daily news and trend scan routinely highlights leadership opinion in The Atlantic, Vox, Huffington Post, LinkedIn and others, in addition to the more “traditional” op-ed pages. Here are four guideposts to doing it well:
- Pair the right message with the right channel. Dean DeRue gets it exactly right with his combination of content and platform.
- Carve out a sharp, distinctive point of view – wishy-washy won’t work here.
- Offer new ideas and suggestions for change –contribute to the public dialogue, spark debate, get in the mix.
- Share it widely in social media and digital channels. Recently I heard someone say that “if it isn’t shared, it isn’t seen.”