Title Tribal Leadership
Author Dave Logan, John King, & Halee Fischer-Wright
Year Published 2008
Kind of Book Business/Leadership
How strongly I recommend it 5/10
My Impressions I really liked how the authors distinguished 5 levels that everyone in a company operates at. It is a useful heuristic for seeing where a person is at and how they're thinking about the world. With that being said, the rest of the book was repetitive and mostly filler material.
Date Read April 2020
Practical Takeaways
[for writers] ask yourself "Who's the audience for the book I have in mind?"-Warren Bennis
Listen to people's language to determine what tribal leadership stage they're operating at
(For dealing with stage one people) emphasize that they have a choice
(For dealing with stage one people) encourage them to cut ties with other people who use "life sucks" language
Show people at stage one that what they're doing does make a difference
Tell people you value them
Tell your employee "I value you. What can I encourage you to do to stay?"
Select people with many different personality types for your company/business
Take blame for things that go wrong with your tribe
Pass the praise to other team members in your tribe
Put your product out onto the market sooner than you think you are ready to A: if you are not embarrassed by your first product release, then you have launched too late- Sandy Rueve
(to learn what someone's values are) Ask people "What ticks you off?"
(to learn what someone's values are) Ask people "What are you proud of?"
Hire for people's values not their skills
To asses anything, ask: (relationships, skills, writing, comedy etc.)
What's working well?
What's not working?
What can we do to make the things that aren't working, work?
Is there anything else?
Schedule an "oil change" once a quarter to review how things are going with the business
Introduce people in your network to one another (once you leave they will say good things about you)
When introducing people, say what is great about each person
Ask permission from both people before you connect them
Next time you go to Starbucks take 2 friends, not one
Remember people's birthdays
Send people articles/music/clips you think they would enjoy
Ask others to tell you about your company "What do we have a knack for doing better than anyone else?"
Big Ideas
A person's Network is more important than their knowledge in terms of determining their success
A Tribe of people is more influential than any one individual
Lack of attention to small/trivila details may indicate lack of attention to big/important details
People's view of life is a direct consequence of the language they use
A small company is a tribe.
A large company is a tribe of tribes
People fall into 1 of 5 stages
Each stage has a core belief associated with it
Each stage has common language and behaviors associated with it
You can tell a lot about how someone ticks and how to lead them by identifying what stage they are in
People can only go up one level at a time (eg. We can only move from stage 1 to 2. not from stage 1 to stage 5.)
Stage 1
Core Belief: "Life sucks"
Common phrases: "It's not fair" "I can't catch a break" "You do what you have to do to survive"
Common behaviors: violent, hostile, no vision, no values, no morality
%of population: 2%
Stage 2
Core Belief: "My life sucks (though others lives might not)"
Common phrases: "I can't promise" "We can't do that" "I'll try" "my boss is an asshole"
Common behaviors: hates job (not life itself), does the minimum amount of work to get by, passively antagonistic, apathetic, no sense of urgency, doesn't hold others accountable, avoids accountability, sarcastic, cynical, victim mentality, addicted to complaining, others are to blame (boss, parents, government etc.)
%of population: 25%
Stage 3
Core Belief: "I'm great (and you're not)"
Common phrases: "knowledge is power" "What I've come to see.." any I, me, mine, statements.
Common behaviors: lone warrior, self reliant, hoard information from others, beating everyone else, every man for himself, talk mostly about themselves, focus on appearing smarter/better than others, complain others aren't as committed as they are, rarely bring people together, pride themselves on being more informed than others, feel they are putting in more than they are getting out, read books about getting ahead of others in life, need to prove themselves, need to win people over, make themselves look great by showing that others are less great, looks down on others, surround themselves with stage 2 people to feel superior, talks to others like children, treat others like a commodity, passive aggressive, cocky, addicted to achievement, addicted to information, report they don't have enough time, strive for dominance, put others down (under the veil of humor), tries to earn trust from others
%of population: 49%
Stage 4
Core Belief: "we're great (and they aren't)"
Common phrases: we, us, our statements
Common behaviors: has tribal pride, information moves freely through the group, reads books about making the team or others better, assume the trust of others
%of population: 22%
Stage 5
Core Belief: "Life is great"
Common phrases:
Common behaviors: in competition with what is possible (not another tribe), infinite potential, works for a cause
%of population: 2%
Unknown Terms
Tribe: 1) a group between 20 and 150 people 2) if you saw the person walking down the street you'd stop and say 'hello''
J Curve: 1) a trendline that shows an initial loss immediately followed by a dramatic gain. 2)the curve on a graph that shows how things get worse before they get better
Cutting Humor/Aggressive Humor: This involves put-downs or insults targeted toward individuals. This is the humor that is used by more aggressive comedians—the put-down artists, such as Don Rickles or the late Joan Rivers. When it is intended to threaten or psychologically harm others, it is the type of humor used by bullies. 2) Humor intended to cut people down.