HBR's 10 Must Reads Ultimate Boxed Set (14 Books)

Are You a Collaborative Leader?

by Herminia Ibarra and Morten T. Hansen

WATCHING HIS EMPLOYEES use a new social technology, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, had an epiphany. His company had developed Chatter, a Facebook-inspired application for companies that allows users to keep track of their colleagues and customers and share information and ideas. The employees had been trying it out internally, not just within their own work groups but across the entire organization. As Benioff read the Chatter posts, he realized that many of the people who had critical customer knowledge and were adding the most value were not even known to the management team.

The view into top management from the rank and file was just as obscure, Benioff knew. ...