Summary Of Godin's Tribes

What is a tribe? On the very first page of Seth Godin’s book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, the author writes that “A tribe is group of people, connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group only needs two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” A follower is different than a fan, and just because someone may have lots of friends on social media, it doesn't mean that person is a leader or that those followers make up a tribe. To be part of a tribe, these followers must actively follow a leader and work towards that shared interest to accomplish the organization’s goal. Godin goes on to talk about that
But to effectively lead a tribe, a leader must give initiative and actively seek solutions. He says that, “Organizations that destroy the status quo win. Individuals who push their organizations, who inspire other individuals to change the rules, thrive. Again, we’re back to leadership, which can come from anyone, anywhere in the organization.” This is what actively separates leaders from followers, and although Godin believes that management and leadership used to be synonymous, he believes that today the two are separate terms with distinct meanings. He gives the analogy that, “Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.” To add on to that, he says that “Management is about manipulating resources to get a known job done. Managers manage a process they’ve seen before, and they react to the outside world, striving to make that process as fast and cheap as possible. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe
One aspect about the book that I thought was interesting that I liked was that it is written in first person, rather than third person. Although this style of writing wouldn’t necessarily work well for an essay, with a leadership book, it seemed to work quite well. Since Seth Godin writes the book in first person, it feels very conversational, almost as if he is talking to you. He writes stuff like “What are you waiting for?” that make me feel as if the words are directed towards me. It almost makes it seem like he is your own personal leadership trainer, in a way. Another thing I thought was unique that I enjoyed was its use of current events and real world examples. The book constantly reinforces the content and lessons with examples from current business, sports, political and social leaders who made a difference in some way, shape or form. These include big-name and well-known leaders like Steve Jobs, Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and John Mayer, but also lesser-known leaders, such as animal rights activist Nathan Winograd, writer Micah Sifry, violinist Tasmin Little, Catalyst vice president Brad Lomenick, American Express CEO and philanthropist Mark Rovner, who did equally amazing things, such as saving the lives of animals from slaughterhouses, provoking political activists, introducing classical music to children worldwide,