I went out to breakfast last week with some middle-aged man-friends from my church, and the conversation turned to the subject of blogging. One of these friends, a business owner, had a recent experience with a flurry of online chatter, mostly positive, regarding his company. He pulled out several sheets of the posts and comments he had printed out, and marveled at the firestorm of activity that was swirling in the mysterious subterranean depths of the internet, outside of any control or efforts on his part.
“Did you write back to any of them?” We asked, all giddy with his temporary online fame.
“Well, no.” he replied, shuffling his papers back into a manila folder. “I don’t have time to be all up on this blogging thing. I’ve got a business to run.”
And then, he added, with the slightest whiff of disgust, “Who are these people, anyway? Don’t they have anything better to do with their time?”
Everyone laughed and scoffed accordingly.
I was sort of waiting for someone to say, “Hey, wait a minute! Bradley, you have a blog, right? We love your blog! And you are also an excellent and effective leader. Why, you could be our role model! So, tell us, good teacher, how does one become both a great executive leader and blogger?”
But no one said anything, because they have forgotten all about my blog. Yes, I had mentioned it once or twice, encouraging them to read and comment, but that was a long time ago.
The truth is, very few executives have the time or the inclination to blog, or to even read blogs for that matter. I call it “Social Notworking.” They are too busy, or else they find it boring and irrelevant. A waste of time.
Which makes me a fluke, I guess, or an anomaly. A freak, if you will.
So I was not at all surprised to find a recent article in Computer Weekly which reviewed research conducted by a Brazilian marketing executive, Mauro Segura, on the top ten reasons why senior executives are reluctant to blog. Number one, of course, is lack of time. And number three is lack of relevance. Sound familiar? But for me, the most interesting reason for not blogging was number nine, “Perception by Others:”
“Segura admitted of his surprise with this piece of feedback: Executives usually see colleagues who are active bloggers as folk with time to spare. The author added that senior managers are keen to portray themselves as extremely busy, anxious and rushing all the time.”
The thing is, I understand exactly what they mean. I am also very busy, or at least trying to make it look like I am very busy, with a crapload of responsibility. And it’s not like any of us have a book we are trying sell, or services to render, or something else that requires us to get famous. Our accountabilities lie elsewhere, with real, tangible performance. So what would be the point of all that online yammering?
But for some odd reason, I keep blogging anyway. It’s not always easy, but I have been intentional about finding time for it. To be honest, sometimes I feel like it’s too much, and I should quit. But I keep coming back to it. My friend and fellow blogger, Mike St. Pierre (another full-time leader like me, with apparently too much time on his hands), nailed what that reason is in his blog post, The Heart of a Really Decent Blog. He puts it simply like this: We blog because it brings us joy.
Now, tell me what kind of executive doesn’t have time for joy?
I suppose they wouldn’t have time for golf either.
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