By definition, newsletters like this one should focus on what's new; a book published in 2008 is no longer news. But Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us is a timeless gem. Slim and easy to read it is filled with illustrations and practical observations that can apply to leaders, coaches, counselors, students and others. Here are highlights:
- A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who have a shared interest and a way to connect and communicate with one another. Tribes can exist within companies, neighborhoods. hobby groups, churches or professions. Blogs and social networking enable new tribes for form or existing tribes to grow significantly and quickly.
- Tribes are everywhere. The most influential tribes "are bored with yesterday and demand tomorrow.... The organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission."
- Tribes all yearn for leaders who aren't stuck in the status quo, who don't fear change, and who don't expect everyone in the tribe to act and think in the same way.
- Leaders of tribes have passion and vision. They stimulate and empower the tribe members to connect and communicate. Even so, tribe leaders have no desire to be controlling "driven superstars intent on self-glorification and aggrandizement."
- In times of change the easiest thing to do is react (but that can be dangerous). The second easiest thing is to respond. The hardest thing is to initiate. Leaders initiate. "They see something others are ignoring and they jump in."
- "You don't have to be in charge or powerful or pretty" to lead a tribe but you do need to be committed. Tribes can be led by people who have no titles or formal positions. We can even lead tribes from keyboards and (according to Godin's book) you can lead "from the bottom with a newsletter." That's an interesting idea!
Ponder this: What tribes are you in? What does this say about your leadership? What are the implications for coaching, education or ministry?
Alvin Says:
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