Lead Your Tribe. Key Points from the book, Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin

I just finished reading the book Tribes, by Seth Godin. I found this book fascinating. It's about how groups form into tribes and how tribes are leading the changes that are happening in our world. It's also about the need for leaders to help tribes strengthen. (I purposely did not use the word grow, because size doesn't necessarily mean better or stronger).

A tribe is a group of people who stand together on a common issue or belief.  The difference between a tribe and a crowd is that a tribe has leadership and a means for communicating.

Seth spends quite a bit of time talking about tribe leadership. The beauty of tribe leadership is that it can be shared. Sometimes one person has the lead, the next time someone else has leadership. It's kind of like people within an organization who are not the officially designated leaders, but are because they have the respect and dedication of their colleagues.

The concept of tribes applies to the team you build as prospects join your business. You are their leader. Something about you attracted them to you. As their leader, your role is to guide them, direct them, and encourage them to become leaders in their own right. After all, they're creating their own tribe as people join under them.

When you first have a few people in tribe, it's easy to keep in contact with them. But once your team gets bigger, you need to find other way of communicating. Options include emails, teleconferences, or webinars. You can use these to inform, train, exchange ideas, and discuss issues and problems.

Here are some points about tribes that are important to consider as you're building your team--your tribe:

- Tribes challenge the status quo. Building a business is going against the status quo of getting a good education, getting a good job, and living happily ever after. The status quo will resist and oppose you and your team. The tribe is your support.

- Tribes are global. An online business is global. The Internet made the world local. You can reach people from all over the world.

- Tribes have belief and faith. Building an online business takes belief and faith. You have to believe in the business, believe that you can build it, believe that others can build it, and have the faith to take action on those beliefs.

- Tribes are a niche; they have a common belief, interest, or cause. Your target market is your niche. Understand their interests and needs. Show how your business can support their interests and meet their needs. Tailor your internet marketing to your niche.

- Tribes are about connection. People joined you in business because you attracted them (connected with them at some level).

I highly recommend you read this book. It will help you see your team with a different set of eyes. You'll better understand how to cultivate and strengthen your tribe and will reap the reward by seeing your business grow.

Happy Business Building,

Yoli