Yes, You Can Create and Lead a Tribe
Human beings have gathered in tribes for millions of years, but the dawn of the Internet era allows tribes to form and coordinate more easily than ever. Do you band with others based on your hobbies, professional interests, political persuasion, community projects or technical vision? If so, you have joined various tribes. Tribes can be large or small, but each one must focus on a purpose. Successful tribes have passionate, committed leaders who serve the tribe before they think of themselves. Each member provides an aspect of tribal leadership, which centers far more on vision than on mere business management. By definition, “a tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea.” To become a tribe, people need only “a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
“Every tribe is different. Every leader is different. The very nature of leadership is that you’re not doing what’s been done before. If you were, you’d be following, not leading.”
Use your passion to make a contribution. Become a leader who improves the world by heading a tribe that can implement and spread your vision. This far-from-perfect world needs your help and so does your tribe. Step forward.
Creating Your Movement
Membership in the tribe you lead is voluntary. If you rule like a monarch, you may find yourself sitting on the throne of an empty kingdom. Too many tribal leaders think they should create stable organizations, but a tribe’s very existence is an argument against the status quo. Tribal membership should be dynamic, partisan and noisy. Use all the levels of communication available in your tribe. Listen to your members and show them that you respect them. To improve and expand your tribe, communicate in four directions: “leader to tribe, tribe to leader, tribe member to tribe member” and “tribe member to outsider.” If your tribe pursues a goal, your attitude as a leader matters a lot more than another person’s sense of authority or greater number of followers. Just look at Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, who built up a small tribe and used it to challenge the large telecoms. Because a tribe without a leader is just a crowd, be willing to lead and turn the members of the crowd around you into your tribe. Then you can transform the tribe into a movement using former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley’s three-element program:
- Share a story that embodies the vision of what your tribe is going to create.
- Create a strong connection between the tribe’s leadership and its members.
- Define a goal, preferably one without limits.
“The people around you...are ready to follow if you’re ready to lead.”
Create a tribe of true fans, advocates who are passionate about what you want to accomplish and eager for you to be remarkable. Just as you’d use a crowbar for leverage, lean on your growing fan base for support. The social media, such as Facebook, can provide a powerful force for increasing your tribe. For example, annoyed by standing in line to gain entry to a party, blogger Scott Beale launched his tribe by finding an empty bar and using Twitter to promote an ad hoc counterparty there. Within minutes of his tweet, people were lining up at the door of the bar.
Why Being a Large-Scale Business Can Be a Disadvantage
People can adopt an improvement and make it a new standard with alarming speed. Yet, just as quickly, an improvement that once was a step forward can become average practice. Managers are often content with ordinary practices; they may try to keep everything stable because that’s how they are winning the current business battle. Competitively, you can use your tribe to destabilize the situation and make the regular standard seem mediocre.
“Everyone is now...a leader. The explosion in tribes, groups, covens and circles of interest means that anyone who wants to make a difference can.”
Common wisdom once said that manufacturers needed big factories to work on a large scale, lower their costs and produce large volumes of high-demand products. Now, niche products make an old-style factory seem like an anchor around a company’s neck, and manufacturers are jettisoning workers by the tens of thousands. Tribes give you a platform to use flexible “free agents” – clever people who leave large organizations to venture out on their own, avoid most fixed costs, and create and sell innovative goods.
Have No Fear
Many people have inspiring ideas but never act on them because fear of failure, ridicule and mistakes paralyzes their will. It is as if they are waiting for approval from some nonexistent central authority. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Create a plan of action and follow it, energized by the belief that the world not only wants your ideas, but longs for the change they will bring. Work with your tribe to combine vision and action.
“New tools and technologies...are transforming what it means to think of tribal communication. Smart leaders are grabbing those tools and putting them to work.”
Dr. Laurence Peter’s book, The Peter Principle, explained that bureaucracies promote people until they climb to their “level of incompetence.” However, people actually stop excelling when they reach a level where “fear immobilizes them.” Know your fear and manage it rather than denying it. Failing isn’t a mortal danger. Pursue the idea you and your tribe love. You’ll make a difference. Delight in your fans. Don’t heed your critics. If they call you a heretic, take it as a compliment.
Build Your Tribe Tighter, Not Bigger
Steve Jobs has always wanted his Apple products to have passionate fans. He has not targeted a mass market that would buy his stuff like sausages. He wants tribe members to tune in, wait in line to be the first to purchase his gear and engage their friends in conversations about it. Jobs strives to build a “tight” tribe – one that listens to its leader and coordinates well – rather than a large tribe. Tighten your tribe by spreading the word on social media Internet sites and setting up a tribal Web site and blog. You will soon attract disciples. The Web gives everyone expansive marketing and communication tools. Don’t feel uncomfortable about using those tools to lead. Keep your tribe organized and focused on its vision. Allow others to lead in various areas. Watch for the danger of people becoming satisfied with the status quo. Never mistake showing up and sitting in the big chair for leadership.
The Power of Curiosity
The msg150 blog reviews mostly Asian restaurants in a few square blocks of Seattle. Most of its reviewers love to delve into minute detail, down to the chopsticks and the tea. If this appeals to you, you might want to post reviews and join this focused tribe. For most people, msg150 means nothing. But if you are in it, you are very in, and if you are not, you don’t matter. People who are curious about the same thing generate energy. Nothing in their area escapes their notice.
“Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get.”
Ordinary thinking and the natural human tendency to do only enough to get by will not create the leadership your tribe needs. Tribal leaders care more about giving their vision away than about collecting personal rewards. They are generous, and they are eager to help the tribe achieve its goals and purposes rather than seeking acclaim for their leadership.
“The intent of the leader matters...tribes can sniff out why someone is asking for their attention.”
Take McDonald’s franchisee Jim Delligatti, who created the Big Mac in 1967. He invented the sandwich without anyone’s approval or permission, but, within a year, McDonald’s restaurants around the world were serving it.
Leadership, Religion and Faith
Beware of developing core doctrines and creating a tribal religion. Dogma can stifle needed change, but faith supplies deep energy for tribes and leaders. Feel free to lead your tribe to a new creed that does a better job of embodying its living faith, but don’t confuse rules, even if they’ve taken on the heft of religion, with faith. Embrace your heretics – those who threaten the status quo and won’t compromise their vision – more than your orthodoxies. Have faith in yourself, your vision, your tribe and your leadership.
“Every single industry changes and, eventually, fades. While you may have made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.”
When you try to maintain the status quo, a competitor who changes the rules can leave you undone. Take the initiative. Change the rules to suit what you want to do tomorrow. Do not expect new business models to be as simple, integrated or clean as the old ones. They are works in progress, with lots of people trying new ideas and many new players emerging. Beware of “sheepwalkers,” timid, obedient folks who are comfy in large, rigid environments. They can’t help you create new ideas or solve today’s problems. You need a thermostat to set your industry’s next temperature, not a thermometer that just reveals what the temperature is now.
“Fear of criticism is a powerful deterrent because the criticism doesn’t actually have to occur for the fear to set in.”
When people say your ideas are impossible or even idiotic, they are clinging to an out-of-date business model. Peter Diamandis set up the X Prize, offering a $10 million reward to the first team that built a reusable craft that could get into space. Ridiculous? The winning team spent $20 million to accomplish the goal.
“When you lead without compensation, when you sacrifice without guarantees, when you take risks because you believe, then you are demonstrating your faith in the tribe and its mission.”
For another example, look at what digital music files have done to the music industry, and how far record companies have fallen while Apple has made hundreds of millions of dollars with its iPod and iTunes technology.
Why You Rarely See Real Revolutions on TV
Make it easy for people to find and join your cause, and to communicate with each other. Measure your real-world progress in creating your vision. Don’t get “stuck on stupid” by operating in a bygone world. If you find that your tribe has grown away from what really matters to you, find or start a new tribe. Public attention tends to focus on the well-known or the cleverly promoted, but real revolutions happen instantly, out of sight, before anyone suspects that a deep, permanent change has occurred. This happens in part because revolutions are more likely to occur from the bottom up than from the top down.
“Once you choose to lead, you’ll also discover that it’s not so difficult. That the options available to you seem really clear...yes, in fact, you can get from here to there. Go.”
As your tribe grows, don’t throw away tomorrow to get something today. Be thankful for opposition because overcoming it teaches you how to build your movement. Be clear about which people and passions are part of your tribe, and which are extraneous. Distinguish between the results of real-world events and difficulties that emerge due to your own errors. Even the greats make mistakes. Jobs bombed with the Apple III and the NeXT computer, yet they became the seeds of his triumphs.
Reject Cynicism
Too many people excuse inaction by adopting a cynical attitude about making a difference. Cynicism deadens hope. It is a cheap, ineffective strategy for getting things done. Take violinist Tasmin Little, who is passionate about spreading her love of classical music. She could be forgiven for thinking that her market is a limited musical elite. Rejecting that notion, she works tirelessly and runs a Web site where she gives away her album so people can hear classical music.
“There’s no record of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.”
Charisma is not inborn. You can choose to be charismatic, but that alone will not make you a leader. Charisma is a tool. Many effective leaders have worked through their fear of public speaking. They put their goals first and found the strength to do what was needed, rather than settling for something less and indulging their fears.
The Time Is Now. The Person Is You.
While people like to believe in overnight success, even the best ideas can take time to succeed. You and your tribe must persist, holding tenaciously to your vision. Some people expect to win before they invest anything and seem surprised when they accomplish nothing. Try to remain positive in the face of overwhelming evidence that you will fail. Insist on excellence when everyone else is content to settle for mediocrity. See your vision as not just an opportunity, but also as an obligation to yourself, your tribe and your society. Share the credit for your successes. In fact, give the credit away and take satisfaction in the tribe’s success.
“One person – okay, what I really mean is you – has everything. Everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.”
Your power lies in creating stories that people adopt as their own and tell each other as if they had created them. What is the evidence that you are a leader? It is your decision to become one and your willingness to act on that decision. Don’t wait for the perfect moment; it will never come. Go lead your tribe now, because they need you. Change the world because it needs you, too.