Highlights from TRIBES

Posted by TIm on August 8, 2009
Stored in Blog

I have really enjoined Tribes by Seth Godin

There are a lot of insights I have gleaned and am trying to absorb…and hopefully apply…that I think will be useful for me, our team and our clients….maybe you as well.

Here are some of the most interesting things to me….these are all quotes form the book

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.

Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.

Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.

Managers manage a process they’ve seen before, and they react to the outside world, striving to make that process fast and as cheap as possible. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.
Leaders make change.

New Rule: If you want to grow, you need to find customers who are willing to join you or believe in you or donate to you or support you. And guess what? The only customers willing to do that are looking for something new. The growth comes from change and light and noise.

Most Organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.

Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans.

…true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.

In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less.

I’d like to paraphrase the Peter Principle. I think what actually happens is that “in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear.”

It’s nice to get paid. It’s essential to believe.

She [Meghan McDonald] doesn’t lead the way other people lead. And that’s fine, because there isn’t a right technique. A proven tactic, a right way and a wrong way. Deciding to lead, not manage, is the critical choice.

Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice to not do nothing. Lean in, back off, but don’t do nothing.

Ultimately, people are most easily led where they wanted to go all along.
Most people are really good at ignoring new trends or great employees or big ideas. You can worry about most people all day, but I promise you that they’re not worried about you.

Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get.
Faith is the unstated component in the work of a leader and I think faith is underrated.

When you fall in love with the system, you lose the ability to grow.

If you’re not over the top, you’re not going to have any chance at all of making things happen.

Over and over, everyone is wrong – unless you believe that innovation can change things, that heretics can break the rules, and that remarkable products and services spread. If you believe that, then you’re not everyone. Then you’re right.

Instead of wondering when you next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

The thermostat, on the other hand, manages to change the environment in sync with the outside world. Every organization needs at least one thermostat. These are leaders who can create change in response to the outside world, and do it consistently over time.

Don’t mortgage today just because you’re in a hurry.

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there, People will follow.

Growth doesn’t come from persuading the most loyal members of other tribes to join you. They will be the last to come around. Instead, you’ll find more fertile ground among seekers, among people who desire they get when they’re part of a vibrant, growing tribe, but who are still looking for that feeling.

The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no.” It’s a “not yet.” “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change.

There’s a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late.

The tactics of leadership are easy. The art is the difficult part.

You don’t have to be in charge or powerful or pretty or connected to be a leader. You do have to be committed.

If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either.
…find leaders (the heretics who are doing things differently and making change), and then amplify their work, give them a platform, and help them find followers – and things get better. They always get better.

You can’t manage without knowledge. You can’t lead without imagination.

What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.

I can tell you this: leaders have nothing in common. They don’t share gender or income level or geography. There’s no gene. No schooling, no parentage, no profession. In other words, leaders aren’t born. I’m sure of it. Actually, they do have one thing in common. Every tribe leader I’ve ever met shares on thing: the decision to lead.