Q. What is your definition of leadership?
A. Leadership is the act of selling people on a vision and then helping them get there. It is easily differentiated from management, which involves telling people what to do, and striving to accomplish already known outcomes.
Q. Who are your personal leadership heroes, and why?
A. Every time I see someone come out of the blue and do something important, something that matters to them, I add them to my list. Not people who have the JOB to lead, but people who CHOOSE to lead. The thing is, it is now available to anyone. Anyone who cares, who connects, who has a vision--these people can make change happen.
Q. “Change agent” comes to my mind in describing you; how do you describe yourself and your work?
A. Sometimes I am an agent of change, more often I give people stories and words and inspiration to make the change. I notice things, I share ideas and I provoke.
Q. Your most recent book, Linchpin, has on the front cover a graphic of a hand grasping a lightning rod, and some of the ideas you present in the book are akin to that very image. You take on “baked in” ideas, such as “The Fortune 500 took care of us,” then proceed to explain entirely new paradigms that are here…and what we must do to thrive. Before I ask other questions, would you please summarize the overall message of Linchpin for our readers?
A. The industrial age is over. It lasted a long, long time. It was about making average stuff for average people, fast and in quantity and cheaply, too. This represents a race to the bottom. Well, we hit bottom. Now it is almost impossible to do it faster and cheaper.
The new age, the one that is just beginning, represents a race to the top - a different economy, one where humanity and leverage will trump factories and distribution.
Q. What is a good definition of a “linchpin”?
A. In this new economy, we reward people who make a difference, workers we can not live without, products that are worth talking about. A linchpin is one of those people. A linchpin is someone who chooses to do work that matters, to stand out, and to refuse to fit in and follow the manual. Do that and you are easily replaced.
Q. More paradigm-shifting: leaders of tribes vs. leaders of traditional organizations. Explain the difference.
A. A tribe is a group of people connected by culture and a similar goal. Human beings are wired to be in tribes. It is something we want to do, and yet there are not enough people stepping up to lead us. So, that is the opportunity: to use your current organization or start one and organize it around the tribe.
In most companies, we want managers, people who do what they are told and tell other people what to do. The future belongs to tribes of all kinds, and to the people who lead them .
Q. Why do you say “heretics are the new leaders”?
A. Why would anyone follow a boring person? Why join a tribe that does not want to change things?
Q. You say “for the first time ever, everyone in the organization–not just the boss – is expected to lead. “ Why?
A. Marketing is now leadership, right? The only way to spread your idea or increase market share or build a following is to lead. And who is going to do that? Not the CEO. And then, within the organization, where does change come from? Who creates the new... I do not think it comes from the top, it comes from people who care enough to lead.
Q. In all your writing, you turn “truisms” on their heads. For example: “stability is an illusion” and “do not internalize the industrial model.” What are the top “paradigm shifts” you would want ethical leaders to internalize in a change-is-the-only-constant-world?
A. Safe is risky, and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe. Being a cog in the industrial system is part of the race to the bottom, and even though that is what they taught you in school, it is wrong.
Q. You give reasons why organizations are suffering. Please share your take on why the “recession” is so deep and long-lasting, and what leaders and tribes need to do with the “new normal.”
A. This is not a recession like past recessions. It is not a temporary blip in the industrial age. It is the END of the industrial age. The race to the bottom, to be fast and cheap, is ending, because there is not a lot more we can do (how much faster can email get? how much cheaper can muffins or pickles be?). The idea that efficient factories (that make products or services) can somehow save the middle class is clearly nuts.
No, all that is left is to be remarkable, to be human, to do work that matters.
Q. You discuss the discomfort of leadership, and why being uncomfortable means you are a true leader. Please elaborate.
A. Management is about achieving goals that others have previously achieved, because you are just rehashing yesterday. Leadership is about going someplace new and untested. That sounds uncomfortable. It is risky.
Add to that the fact that leadership is about the un-measurable magic of human connection. You have no idea where that will lead, and in fact, the more you push it into an untested zone, the more likely you are to achieve great results.
Q. Sometimes, you say, people need to know when “to take the follow.” What do you mean?
A. We say “take the lead,” as if this is normal and expected. Sometimes, though, leading is not what you should do. Sometimes you should follow others, others more passionate or connected than you are right now.
Q. How important is communication in ethical, effective leadership today? What do you consider the most important ways to convey what you call the “choices” of communication?
A. All we have is communication, right? We do not have Pinkerton goons or orders or demands or even ads. All we have is the privilege of talking to people who want to be talked to, connecting people who want to be connected.
It is not a right, it is not an opportunity. What are you going to do with it?
For more information on Godin\\\'s bestselling books and more paradigm-shifting ideas, visit his website at www.sethgodin.com
