Tribes is a great book (as if Seth Godin ever wrote a bad book). I re-read it the other in preparation for a talk next week. Thought it might be helpful to give you some of the best stuff from the book in case you haven’t read it, which you should.
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.
You can’t have a tribe without a leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. Leadership is about creating change that you believe in.
THE OPPORTUNITY
There are tribes everywhere now, inside and outside of organizations, in public and in private, in nonprofits, in classrooms, across the planet.
Every one of these tribes is yearning for leadership and connection. This is an opportunity for you—an opportunity to find or assemble a tribe and lead it.
The question isn’t, Is it possible for me to do that? Now the question is, Will I choose to do it?
SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN
Tribes are about faith—about belief in an idea and in a community
They are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the other members as well.
Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.
HERETICS
Heretics are the new leaders
EXAMPLE: Council of Trent (1515) – Excommunication for possessing books written by heretics
THE F WORD
If tribes reward innovation…and if initiators are happier…then why doesn’t everyone do it? Because of FEAR.
There is no shortage of ideas
There is no Bureau of Idea Approval
The idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it
LEADING FROM THE BOTTOM
The skeptical among us look at the idea of leadership and we hesitate. We hesitate because it feels like something we need to be ordained to do.
EXAMPLE: Thomas Barnett changed the Pentagon from the bottom. He was a researcher with a big idea about how the military should be structured in the post-9/11 world.
ANATOMY OF A MOVEMENT
1. A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we’re trying to build (Motivate)
2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe (Connect)
3. Something to do—the few limits, the better (Build)
TRIBES USED TO BE LOCAL
Geography used to be important.
Now, the Internet eliminates geography. This means that existing tribes are bigger, but more important, it means that there are now more tribes, smaller tribes, influential tribes, horizontal and vertical tribes, and tribes that could never have existed before.
The Internet is just a tool, an easy way to enable some tactics. The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people.
Every day it gets easier to tighten the relationship you have with the people who choose to follow you.
LEADERSHIP IS NOT MANAGEMENT
Management is about manipulating resources to get a known job done.
Leadership is about creating change that you believe in.
Leadership almost always involves thinking and acting like the underdog. LEADERS WORK TO CHANGE THINGS, THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WINNING RARELY DO.
TAKE THE FOLLOW
When you don’t know where to go, when you don’t have the commitment or the passion, or worst of all, when you can’t overcome your fear—that sort of leading is worse than none at all.
THE TIMING OF LEADERSHIP
It’s rare that it’s obvious when to lead.
More often than not, great leadership happens when the tribe least expects it
UNDERSTANDING CHARISMA
Being charismatic doesn’t make you a leader. Being a leader makes you charismatic.
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