What are you super passionate about?
What do you believe in?
As a business owner your passion is often intertwined with your business. Are you communicating with a group of people who share your passion? Are you leading this tribe?
Seth Godin the bestselling author of the book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us defines a tribe this way, “A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.”
In an interview with Andrew Warner when asked what the point of having a tribe is Godin said, “A tribe is nothing but a tactic, a method, an approach to getting change to occur. And that change could be growing your business, or getting elected or making the world a safer place.”
It is possible to make money from leading your tribe but it should not be the main goal. It’s more of a bi-product that can emerge.
Do you consider yourself as: brave, persistent, committed, passionate, courageous, caring, having faith in your vision, hopeful, an initiator, motivating, imaginative, generous, curious, a good listener, and action oriented? These are the characteristics of a leader that Godin points out.
Here’s what Godin says it takes to transform a group into a tribe. First, you need a common interest and second you need a way to communicate.
Godin says, “Now the internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time.” He lists some tools you can use to communicate with and lead your tribe:
- Facebook http://www.facebook.com
- Ning http://www.ning.com
- Meetup http://www.meetup.com
- Twitter http://www.twitter.com
- Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com
- Basecamp http://www.basecamphq.com
- Craigslist http://www.craigslist.org/
- Your blog
Remember, it’s about building relationships over time, not the technology. As the leader of a tribe you must create the atmosphere of excitement and trust. The technical piece just allows you to make it happen.
According to Godin the communication in a tribe can go four ways:
1. Leader to tribe
2. Tribe to leader
3. Tribe member to tribe member
4. Tribe member to outsider
The three ways Seth Godin lists that a leader can increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members are:
1. transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change;
2. providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications, and;
3. leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.
Keep in mind you want to build a tribe of quality members, not just quantity.
In a nutshell, according to Godin there are only three steps to leading a tribe: motivate, connect, and leverage.
Godin says that the most important common denominator for all leaders is that they make the decision to lead. Are you ready to make that decision?
You will figure the ‘how’ of leading your tribe once you’ve made the decision to do it. The purpose of this article is to get you to consider the choice you have. I hope you’re inspired to think about it and decide to do it.
For deeper illumination buy Seth’s book, Tribes, and read it. And being the immensely generous guy he is, he offers a free Tribes Q&A ebook packed with specific detail and juicy tidbits.
© Stephanie Ward
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