This is perhaps an odd exhortation given that it could conjure the notion of subservience between a Gentleman’s Gentleman and his Gentleman, but that would be an illusion. For anyone not familiar with Wodehouse’s marvellous duo, it is quite clear on introduction as to who is leading whom through their delightful escapades, and possibly a rather neat literary manifestation of ‘upside-down’ leadership as described in Fiona Pathiraja’s current review. But dash it and blast it all, if there hasn’t been a spiffing response from FMLM members to get involved with the Bookclub. Cameron Stark is up to review for the month of May and we now have a line-up that will take us through to January 2013.
I feel it must be iterated that the Bookclub relies on your good will to give up time and contribute, so let that not be forgotten. There are still plenty of roles to fulfil and perhaps we can also look to set up a relay-review between a group, so that more people can get involved. I also would like to hear about the impact of books on your concepts and practice of leadership so, for both, get in touch at the usual e-mail: bookclub [at] fmlm.ac.uk (). Plus, new developments are afoot for a Bookclub website section overhaul, but I can’t let more of that cat out of the bag yet.
Virtual leadership: words, not actions?
Bringing together the Bookclub has been a thought-provoking exercise in leadership. One key focus of the Faculty has been to reach out to as much of the medical workforce across the United Kingdom as possible. Yet this can pose significant structural and communication challenges, ones that in years gone by may have resulted in an inexorable slide towards the default setting of London-centricity. Thankfully, this appears not to be happening.
In attempting to reach out to Faculty members through the ether, it seems that I may have unwittingly been playing with the concept of ‘virtual leadership’, a challenge well recognised for several years now*. This spurred me on to think about how virtual teams such as the Bookclub can manifest from no prior relationship, never having met, nor even spoken. What brings the individuals together? What are the leadership qualities required? Are they different from more conventional leadership roles?
First, the open invitation of involvement to members through the Bookclub website cast the net wide and was met with genuine expressions of interest: i.e. ‘I’m up for it’. E-mail enabled me to explain more about what we hoped to do and how to meet the targets: i.e. ‘this is the vision’ and ‘these are the practicalities’. The use of a Doodle poll to register availability allowed everyone to lay their cards on the table: i.e. ‘this is what I can and can’t do’. Then sharing a GoogleDoc with the proposed timetable and ideas of what to review set the agenda: ‘this is the plan’ and ‘let’s hear your ideas’.
One interesting notion here involves how trust is built up in virtual relationships, something we have seen is notoriously vulnerable. Starting with a pre-defined group, the Bookclub is only open to members of the Faculty, so I could assume any replies must have been from bona fide individuals. The GoogleDoc is available to edit for all the potential reviewers, so I trusted that it won’t be abused. By sharing the vision and the plan openly (group access to documents and no hidden contacts in e-mail correspondence), it was also implicit that those continuing to be involved would produce material.
So far, these intentions have all been driven by the power of the written word. I have not yet spoken or met with the reviewers to feature over the rest of the year–not that I don’t want to, of course! Indeed, some research has suggested that face-to-face meetings may not be necessary for establishing trust and intimacy, almost disparagingly casting aside the power of non-verbal communication and physical proximity. Part of the reasoning here may be due to historically unreliable teleconferencing tools that have led to more frustration than good, but this undervalues the power of words to inspire a shared vision by feeding off a shared passion. I can think of a fine example in Helene Hanff’s collected correspondence in 84, Charing Cross Road.
Perhaps we have recovered something of this nearly-lost mastery of written communication through investing more in e-mail and ‘blogging, something that the early stages of mobile phone technology threatened to usurp. The fact that e-mail has remained free must be an important factor here too. But then again, here come Skype and Twitter bringing visual and abbreviated written cues back to the fore...
In this day and age, nearly a century on from the world of Wooster, it is a marvel that these processes all still essentially rely on the same principle of blips down a wire, albeit slightly more elaborately conceived. So with this in mind, we look forward to hailing Cameron Stark all the way from the Highlands. Submission by telegram, Cameron?
What ho!
What are your own experiences of ‘virtual leadership’? How do the notions of ‘virtual leadership’ differ from more conventional leadership for you?
Tom Turmezei
Bookclub Editor
*see http://ashridge.net/Website/Content.nsf/FileLibrary/419E7CCD55F1079E802576E70033AE3A/$file/Virtual%20Leadership_Ghislaine_Caulat.pdf for an article from 2006 on ‘Virtual Leadership’.
