Being a leader is, in many ways, more about who you are than about what you do. Leadership is not really learned. It is most often discovered in relationship with other people; mentors, examples, fellow learners, people who recognize and follow our leadership. It is more beneficial to draw from the lessons you have learned, and allow them to shape you, than to master a specific subject area.
Twitter, with its sometimes mystical messages of 140 or fewer characters, is an excellent way for us to remind each other of those deep, meaningful lessons. Some tweets are poetic. There is the challenge of saying something meaningful in fewer than 140 characters; you cannot tell the whole story. There is the need for nuance, for active listening and story telling.
A new book, Tweedership, is an excellent way to appreciate the potential of bringing together these powerful truths.
Working with student leaders at the same university, Tim Milburn and Kenton Lee, wrote and sent over 400 tweets that focused on leadership themes and ideas during the 201-2011 academic year. Based in their own personal experiences and insights, their tweets were shaped by real-life situations they and the practical lessons they learned. At the end of the year, they went back through their twitter streams and compiled these tweets into Tweedership.
While they work primarily with student leaders, their books is not just for or about students. The insights, ideas, suggestions, and wisdom in Tweedership have reminded me of lessons I have learned, and introduced me to new insights. Each tweet indicates the way, and the course and flavor of the whole year becomes clear throughout the book.
You will benefit from this book, and gain even more by following them on twitter. Tim and Kenton have arranged to make Tweedership available through lulu.com, and to give away PDF versions of the book until the end of August. All you need to do to download a PDF of the entire text of Tweedership is to go to lulu.com before the end of August.
You can download Tweedership for free, and write your own next chapter. I look forward to tweeting with you.
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