For years, Seth Godin has urged us to make something happen at work. This urging has usually been centered around launching Purple Cow products and services and telling authentic stories to make our products/services better.
With TRIBES, Seth has evolved his urgent advice from making something happen to making leadership happen. He writes, “Leadership doesn’t always start at the top, but it always manages to affect the folks at the top. In fact, most organizations are waiting for someone like you to lead them.”
Seth scatters a barrage of worthy riffs into this small book. One such worthy riff is how fear and discomfort paralyze people into not becoming leaders. The fear of setting ourselves for criticism and the discomfort that follows is enough to deter many of us from ever becoming a leader.
However, according to Seth, because of this fear and discomfort, it makes leadership worth pursuing. Seth explains…
“In other words, if everyone could do it [be a leader], they would, and it wouldn’t be worth much.It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.
It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.
It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.
Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice to not do nothing."
TRIBES is smart stuff worth being influenced by. Get it. Read it. Share it. And be influenced by it.
Thanks, John. I appreciate the shout out!
Posted by: Seth Godin | October 18, 2008 at 02:09 PM
I agree with Seth except on one point: He writes "most organizations are waiting for someone like you to lead them." I wish it were so, but that's simply not true. (Our practices would be a whole lot more lucrative if it were.) ;D
"Some" companies, sure. "Many" companies, maybe. But not "most."
"Most" companies are led by folks who don't really care what an underling or an outsider/consultant's opinions and ideas are. They may complain about how slow business is these days, that price pressures are killing their business, and that they have a tough time recruiting talent, but they won't actually put ego or bad habits aside to make a change. They will happily, however, spend money on expensive consultants, market studies and noisy marketing campaigns a) to show their peers that they are doing something to fix the problem, but also b) to push the blame off to the marketing firm or other outside partner when things don't work.
Truth: These guys rarely (if ever) change the way they think about their business or revisit their strategies. They will however, hire "experts" to talk and make noise - but most of the time, nothing actually changes.
It's how the game is played.
You and I both know that there is a huge divide between businesses that "talk" about change and progress, and businesses that are actually willing to "walk" that path.
More often than not, the only obstacle between a company trudging along at 3-6% growth (if they're lucky) and a company with double-digit growth, fantastic customer reviews and a rabid fan base is the person at the very top, not the clusters of insightful innovators in the middle begging to be heard.
I can't tell you how many times I have worked with or for companies whose enormous potential and passion (middle managers and their teams) was either wasted or sucked dry by painfully out of touch senior managers.
Sadly, Seth is all too correct in stating the obvious: "Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice to not do nothing." More often than not, it is.
"Know your place" is still, in many parts of the country and in many corporate cultures, the unspoken yet understood order of the day. Most "bosses" don't like it when their subordinates come up with better ideas or solutions. It's very scary to them to see their own relevance fade. As one of their employee's stock goes up, perhaps theirs goes down. Whether or not the fear is justified, the threat that great ideas from lower ranks might put their job in jeopardy is painfully real.
The old lion will protect his territory by keeping the younger lions underfoot as long as possible.
John, in my experience, rare is the manager who can actually put aside that instinct of self preservation to embrace this sort of employee engagement. These guys exist - I run into them all the time, and typically, their divisions, groups or companies outperform their competitors - but they are the minority, not the majority.
What I am still trying to wrap my mind around is this: Where should we really put our experience, insight, knowledge and leadership to good use?
a) Finding those smart, fearless managers and partnering with them to help them reach their fullest potential?
or
b) Trying to educate, inspire and maybe infect fearful somewhat out of touch leaders with courage, insight, and the spirit that can turn average businesses into extraordinary ones?
In your opinion, where is the balance best struck?
Posted by: olivier Blanchard | October 18, 2008 at 04:36 PM
I just finished reading Tribes yesterday. It's a good read and I thought the most important part of the book was the section about fear.
Everything in life is about taking that first step and the people that do usually reap the benefits.
I would recommend the book to anyone.
Posted by: Jared O'Toole | October 19, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Great comments Olivier. It's certainly a problem...people do fear those that have better ideas or take leadership roles...
Posted by: BIG Kahuna | October 19, 2008 at 06:30 PM
Olivier, thanks for the rant. I completely agree, and I guess it centers on the word "waiting."
I don't think organizations WANT you to lead them or ENCOURAGE you to lead them. But there's no doubt that deep down, people like to be on the moving bus, the one going in the right direction. Organizations, even the Social Security Administration have as their default mode: slow/stop. They are scared, worried about blowing it or going in the wrong direction.
But as we saw with someone like Ronald Reagan, when someone shows up who IS leading, that many people CHOOSE to follow, joy and excitement ensues, at least for many in the organization.
My point was to remove an objection from the potentially fearful. The objection is, "I better just sit here and watch the organization slowly die, because if I overcome my fear and begin to lead, my co-workers will hate me."
Posted by: Seth Godin | October 20, 2008 at 07:59 AM
I agree, it need great courage to present a new Ideal-‘the first step’ and later prove it with notion that sells. This book is not available in India; otherwise I love to read it.
Anyway I am a regular reader of this blog, hopefully well updated too
-Manish Rajvaidya, Band Manager, Syntel Ltd
Posted by: Manish Rajvaidya | October 22, 2008 at 06:51 AM
Seth wrote: My point was to remove an objection from the potentially fearful. The objection is, "I better just sit here and watch the organization slowly die, because if I overcome my fear and begin to lead, my co-workers will hate me."
I couldn't agree more.
Manager and business leaders can't punish or discourage that kind of behavior though. I still see a lot of very bad, authoritative drivers aimlessly driving bus-loads of disenfranchised employees around until the bus finally run out of gas.
My hope is that over the next 5 years, we will see a shift in management cultures that will make this type of employee engagement the rule rather than the exception.
:)
Posted by: olivier Blanchard | October 22, 2008 at 08:59 PM
Usually I'm on board with SG. However in this case I think in a lot of places "overcoming my fear and beginning to lead" can be met with indifference, which to me is much worse and symptomatic of a larger toxicity.
Sometimes I'd almost welcome a fight as opposed to "hey thats pretty cool...anyway, as we were saying..."
Posted by: Jeremy Meyers | October 23, 2008 at 03:07 PM