Tribe Quotes

I finished another book this weekend on my way to reading 9 books this year. The book I finished is "Tribes" by Seth Godin. This is an absolutely fabulous book for anyone trying to make their next move. It does a particularly good job dispelling the common belief that leaders are born.

A technique I have adopted from a book I read last year ("Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders), is cliffing which I use to share with you some of Seth's gems. I am very interested in your comments about these gems. In Tribes, Seth says;

• "Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change."
• "A crowd is a Tribe without a leader. A crowd is a Tribe without communication. Smart organizations assemble a tribe."
• "... by constantly touching a tribe of people with generosity and insight, she's earned the right to lead."
• "... in hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. - Dr. Lauence Peter (The Peter Principle)" "... in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear. - Seth Godin"
• "If you work for someone...the actual cost of failure is absorbed by the organization, not by you." "What people are afraid of isn't failure, it's blame."
• "Leadership is a choice. It's a choice to not do nothing."
• "The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. The hardest think is to initiate."
• "Flynn Berry wrote that you should never use the word 'opportunity'. It is not an opportunity, it is an obligation."
• "The very nature of leadership is that you are not doing what's been done before. If you were, you'd be following, not leading."
• "Once you choose to lead, you'll be under huge pressure to reconsider your choice, to compromise, to dumb it down, or to give up... That's the world's job: to get you to be quiet and follow."

Your Saw Will Dull

In Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the seventh habit is Sharpen the Saw. This may be one of the most important of all the 7 habits but may be one of the most overlooked. Sure it is the last habit and you just wanted to finish the book. The other habits are so rich and grouped by Private Victories and Public Victories. The seventh habit seems to sit there by itself. Mr. Covey could have left it out but he didn’t because it is so important that it had to be included.

It is easy to go with the flow. Allow yourself to go through your day much like you did yesterday. Mr. Covey's advice is important because if you aren't learning, you aren't growing. It's easy to read a book, or listen to a podcast, or read a magazine, or attend a seminar and believe that applying what you just learned is all you have to do. The reality is if you don't keep reading books, listening to podcasts, etc. you slowly drift away from what you learned. You become less likely to apply what you learned. Your mind gets focused on something else. In order to keep growing you must keep feeding your mind. Whatever you do today, make a point to learn something new and sharpen your saw. If you don't your saw will dull.