Meet a Bright Mind: Matthias Engler

Matthias Engler, Manager Online Communication at CWS‑boco International GmbH

Member of ConnectMinds Content & Channels Management Köln/Bonn

Matthias shares some insights from a recent meeting in the group

It’s a quarter to four on Wednesday afternoon: I leave the campus of the large company hosting today’s ConnectMinds meeting. It has been a long day. As I head to the car park, I think through all of today’s input and exchanges in the ConnectMinds community. The group meeting ended at 15.00, but I'm still there almost an hour later. I keep thinking about the presentation of a new, internal video platform of the host. The host organisation  proudly presented the successful launch of it and I was inspired by how the result and how their top management is now using it to display “digital leadership” when communicating with the rest of the organisation.

 

Digital Leadership and Fried Potatoes 

At today’s host organisation, digital leadership is lived; not just talked about: C-level leaders use digital channels to talk about / explore company values. For example through self-made video clips. One recent example: The clip wasn’t produced  in "Gutsherrenmarnier" as we say in German, meaning an imperious and condescending behaviour of someone's supervisor, but quite differently, namely at the stove at home over the weekend, preparing fried potatoes; because the topics were so important and just then came the intuition of how to communicate them in the best way. This is  about authenticity. And about “down-to-earthness”. We talk about people and their messages to other people. Not in a glossy format, but sometimes slightly blurred, because no stabiliser has been used. The content produced in this way reaches people - because it comes across as honest and authentic. Communication at eye level. And not by "look at my fancy equipment - which you don't have!".

For me, leadership is about modern leadership and following (not just on social media channels) other leaders and lateral thinkers, persons who temporarily have the thought lead, brave creators and new ways to go. They should inspire and motivate at the same time and summa summarum are successful together with their team. To me, Digital Leadership is an extension of leadership supported by and channelled through the established digital communication channels and tools - such as the video platform.

 

Because cascading is important

The above example didn’t stand alone. Managers asked colleagues to nominate other colleagues to produce their own company value videos. That's cascading live. And it works.

That's what I want. Not the video message, where it is unclear whether the tripod is holding up / supporting the camera or the person in front of it. It is not about the post with a photograph of a c-level manager meeting the board of another major corporation showing up on a trendy scooter. It's about exactly how he chooses to communicate. -Especially how he chooses to communicate with his target group; his employees; his team. And I would expect him to use contemporary popular mainstream channels using popular formats such as video to deliver the content - because that is where his team, his audience is.

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