Tribes We Need You To Lead Us By Seth Godin

[Jason]

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I remember when it felt like an exclusive member of a very small club. Those of us who knew about and frequented these new "blogs" on the intrawebs. As a young man, I was inspired by his insights and loved the stark yellow of his site, with his shiny bald head and eyes looking upward. He seemed to be playfully inviting me to follow his wisdom. These were the golden days for me on the net. Back when Dooce was cool, and you could get responses quickly from these emerging community leaders almost immediately. I remember the exact moment when I got a direct response from Seth and suddenly felt like maybe I mattered too if he could take time for little ole me. It was that moment in time before things online became too polished, too programmed, too controlled, too "smart", and frankly "too much".

So for me, reading Seth's book is a call back to those exciting times- every time. He has such a specific cadence and voice in his works. He is a pleasure to read. His words flow almost like a live presentation, and you find yourself gliding from concept to concept. Mind you, I don't love all his works. As I have developed my own mind and approach I have found some of his beliefs and theories in DIRECT conflict with truths I know to be true. Which, if logically applied, means that Seth has been wrong from time to time. So what, no one is infallible. In fact, the need to fail in life and its essential role in growth and development is a valuable part of this book. My views on Marketing are in direct conflict with his, and I find and believe that all Marketers are, in fact, liars. I believe that the social impact of the web has freed us from traditional marketing, and totally reset the game back to the pre-technology days of open-air markets, word of mouth, tribalism, and trusting perfect strangers over the pitchman and his wares. It ushered in a new type of marketing and broke the old models. It launched a new tribe.

This is perhaps why "Tribes" is one of my favorites from Seth. He gets it here. Now, I don't agree with every single thing he writes in the book, and I feel that in a few blatant cases he finds himself pandering to base emotional vulnerabilities in everyone's desire to be "important", "special", a so-called "leader". Nevertheless, the ideas around tribes, the need for heretics, and innovation are straight out of Clayton Christensen's theory on innovation and disruption, resonating in truth. Theories that are well-proven, revolutionary, and required reading for anyone serious about leading.

The best part of this book is that it is chock-full of thought gems, magic little sparks of motivation and inspiration. So, if you're looking for some motivation to get you going, start reading now. It's a light read, but worth your while. Who knows, maybe you'll catch the vision, see tribes in a new light, and maybe even begin to lead your own. At the very least, you should be more aware of your own tribes, your role in your communities, your personal preferences, and can, therefore, be more attuned to what impact they have on your life, and the role you play in them.

The books on our 2008 shortlist for the Leadership Category are: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin (Portfolio, October 2008) This may be Seth Godin's most important book yet. It's human nature to want to be part of a group that shares a connection, passion and a common leader: a tribe. Technologies today have changed the make-up and creation of tribes, enabling them to communicate and grow in ways not possible in the past. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Michael Hyatt, President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has updated his ten favorite business books. They are: Focus: The Future Of Your Company Depends On It by Al Ries, HarperBusiness Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, Penguin Books Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

What many (including Todd) are calling Seth's best book since Purple Cow, and some are even calling his best book ever, goes on sale today. Entitled Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, it describes the new paradigm of marketing as (and) leadership. Seth wrote of the book on his blog today: . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

That's right folks, Issue number 50. For this landmark issue, we brought ChangeThis founder Seth Godin back to discuss Tribes, the opportunities now available to lead a tribe of one's own, and what the Grateful Dead has to do with any of it. Next up, we have John Kotter, providing us with A Sense of Urgency while writing about its fundamental importance to organizational change programs. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Each year, we host the 800ceoread Business Book Awards, where U. S. publishers and authors nominate their books for a variety of categories of business, from leadership and management, to sales, marketing, and biographies. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Portfolio publisher Adrian Zackheim posted a year in review from that house's perspective on Monday that stands out as a beacon of hope amidst all the publishing gloom of late. (As you all probably know, Portfolio is the publisher of The 100 Best. ) Adrian sums up 2008 as follows: Despite reduced store traffic through the year, Portfolio reported topline sales growth of 22% and gross margin growth of more than 50%. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

The Jenkins Group announced their 2009 Axiom Business Book Award winners. Seventy seven books in all were recognized this year. Books like Tribes, The Knack, The Go-Giver, The Back of The Napkin and Predictably Irrational were selected in various categories. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Seth Godin has been announced as a speaker at The 99% Conference being put on by Behance and COOL HUNTING in New York City. The conference is April 16 & 17, but you can save $100. 00 if you get early bird tickets before February 16th. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Books can do a lot for us: inspire, teach, jolt, enlighten. They can be a call to action, but they can't actually make us act. You have to find the gumption to do that on your own. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller that redefined what it means to be a leader. Since it was first published almost a decade ago, Seth Godin's visionary book has helped tens of thousands of leaders turn a scattering of followers into a loyal tribe. If you need to rally fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers around an idea, this book will demystify the process. It's human nature to seek out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. Social media gives anyone who wants to make a difference the tools to do so. With his signature wit and storytelling flair, Godin presents the three steps to building a tribe: the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead. If you think leadership is for other people, think again--leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma led a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, ran her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. Tribes will make you think--really think--about the opportunities to mobilize an audience that are already at your fingertips. It's not easy, but it's easier than you think.

Seth Godin is the author of more than a dozen bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, leadership, and change, including Permission Marketing , Purple Cow , All Marketers Are Liars , Small is the New Big , The Dip , Tribes , Linchpin , and Poke the Box.

This is an interview I did with Seth Godin when the Tribes book came out way back in 2008. Until now it resided on our Estonian web site as we didn't have the English site. I decided to copy it here so that all our English content could be found on the same site. If you haven't seen it before, enjoy.

Seth Godin is the marketing guru who talks about how marketeers shouldn't spam people and how we should gain permission to communicate by being remarkable. He predicts that average products for average people will become invisible as mass media advertising loses effectiveness. He has written a lot of insightful books on the subject.

On 22 October 2008 Seth introduced his new book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. The presentation was excellent in helping to better understand the the idea behind the book. It is not just a marketing book. It's about leadership. How leading a tribe is a much more rewarding activity than just trying to yell at them. You can find the audio of the presentation here and the slides here (slides are with notes):

Your last book about tribes is leadership-marketing-motivational. Are product/marketing related tribes created or they just happen? If marketer tries to create a tribe, isn't that just another trick to push his product?

Seth Godin: No one accidentally joins a tribe, and if we're tricked into it, we won't stay for long. But yes, it's clear that some politicians and marketers are able to intentionally create tribes.

Marketers are afraid that if they let people to talk freely then a lot of negative will be said, that will erode the brand and all kinds of bad thins will happen. How would you respond to that?

SG: They're right. Things will be said. If you create a movement that's honest and a product that matters, those things will be largely positive. The only other choice is to be ignored, and we know that this doesn't work very well.

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