The algorithm pressure: How is it changing modern leadership?
Under pressure....
Dear reader, it used to be that to succeed in business, all we really needed to do was be good at our job.
Sounds obvious.
You may have read that sentence and been like, “Beth, is this really meant to be an insightful blog on modern leadership? Seriousllyyyy?”.
Yes, it is and bear with me on this one, but there’s been something I’ve been noticing a lot more over the past few weeks that all started with me posting my happy clappy dance video on Instagram that I wrote about a few weeks ago.
As I mentioned, this has been my best performing post (I still don’t really know why but there you go).
Since then, every other video I get on my Instagram feed is a sponsored reel where someone is trying to sell me a software or course to “help my reels go viral”. It’s endless.
In my usual and favourite Carrie Bradshaw way, I couldn’t help but wonder:
How is the algorithm changing modern leadership in organisations?
It brought to mind a conversation I had a few weeks ago with one of my leaders. This conversation was nothing new and one that I’ve been having more and more of in the past few years:
How can I increase my brand online to further my career?
In a lot of organisations these days, there’s an expectation to be posting on LinkedIn frequently (all within brand guidelines of course). To build out your personal “thought leader” brand so that you, and by association the company you work for, can be seen as an innovator and leader in the market.
We’re pushed more and more to chase external validation, posturing and perfectionism all in the hopes of jumping to that next level.
We need to be great at our day to day role, hit out KPIs, expertly manage up and down, influence key stakeholders, post interesting content regularly, all whilst we “hit the ground running”.
Is it time to slow down and really assess how we judge other’s, and indeed, our own success?
What does success really mean for us?
I have no qualms with posting on social media, indeed I do on instagram and LinkedIn regularly, but I do wonder if as soon as the algorithm believes our only wish is to suddenly “go viral” that it starts to push this message and try and make us buy into the fact that that’s the main metric that matters these days.
So yes, post away, like away, follow away, but remember you’re also doing more than enough already. Don’t let yourself be sucked into the validation viral spiral that’s trying to drag us away from what truly matters: ourselves.
Beth Hope is an executive coach working with senior leaders, founders, and high-performing teams. Want to recalibrate your mind and elevate your career?