Seth Godin’s latest book Tribes follows his successful formula of being short and like many good books, based around a set of stories.

The key points of the book, as indicated by the title, are tribes and leadership.  But, leadership delivered very differently from say Stephen Covey in The 8th Habit.  Seth’s perspective of leadership is the leader as a heretic – which fits with his Big Moo (be/represent something remarkable) approach.

A heretic here is someone with unconventional beliefs, someone who has an opinion that doesn’t confirm to the status quo.  If you add to that passion for their heretical view, you have the core makings of a leader.

The reason that passionate heretics should lead is that they are a force for change and their very heresy is a reason they will be listened to – or at least listened to by a key set of people who like their particular flavour of heresy.  And if the passionate heretic leads those people who want to listen, they become a tribe… and even a small tribe of say a thousand people can create change; and change is what makes the world go around.

In fact, Seth’s view is that stability is an illusion and that the ‘fad focused early adaptors’ are the people that buy and the people that talk.  The fad focused early adaptors inspired by the heretic become partisans – passionate tribe members supporting the shared purpose of the tribe.

So the two key elements of a tribe are a shared purpose and a way to communicate.

It’s important that the communication happens not only from the centre or leader to the tribe, but from tribe members to tribe members.  It’s this element that really differentiates this new style of marketing.  Even in the current digital marketing world with permission email marketing and pay-per-click, the centre is the source of the communication.  Whereas a tribe of partisans communicating with each other will create a much stronger bond and so momentum for the cause.

The ‘cause’? – what happened to ‘product’?  I think the point here is that if the passion comes first, passion for a new way, a new style of product, a new ‘thing’, the product sales will follow.  And one way to describe that, is as a cause or a movement.

This passion/cause/movement first approach is also what defines a great leader - along with authenticity, able to create a culture, inclusive, curious, committed, able to communicate their vision and connect their followers to each other.  Oh, and that inclusiveness is at the expense of those that are excluded.  Excluded because they don’t get it, or don’t revolve in the right circles or… whatever.  Include passionate partisans and exclude everyone else.

Seth clearly points out that being a leader isn’t the same as being a manager; far from it.  A good leader can come from anywhere in an organisation – in The 8th Habit Stephen Covey uses the term ‘trim-tabbing’ to describe leaders in a company who lead from outside the management chain (the trim-tab is a small ‘rudder’ on the end of the big rudder that turns an entire ship – also check out the Buckminster Fuller description on Trim-Tab).

A leader could be an individual with no connection to an existing organisation at all. Gandhi is commonly sited as a model for leadership.  He had no given authority, no business or firm to back him up.  Yet, his leadership lead to India’s independence.

There’s much more to Tribes.  I really enjoyed it and as usual with a Godin, it’s the snap that brings into focus a concept or in this case a trend that is happening right in front of you, but just outside of conscious awareness.

It’s also a call, as is apparent by the title, to would-be leaders, to start leading.

Format: Book 147 pages, Audio 3hrs 42 mins
Author: Seth Godin

Enjoy!
-Mark

Seth has a following.  At Amazon.com he is worthy of his own store... and I suspect this will be one of very many blog posts about Seth's visit to the UK and his London Session.

But that's OK.  Seth's following is proof of the concepts he writes about.  I guess you might guess that I'm somewhat of a Seth fan - after all, I paid money to go and spend three hours with him (and a few hundred other people) and I've read (listened to actually) six of his books (my view of the core topic in parenthesis):

• Tribes (leadership)
• Meatball Sundae (new marketing doesn’t mix well with old)
• The Dip (it’s there to make success worthwhile)
• The Big Moo (Seth + 33 others on remarkable ideas, beyond the purple cow to the big moo)
• Unleashing the Idea Virus (get a free electronic copy) (it’s implementations of remarkable ideas that get attention)
• All Marketers are Liars (the point of this one is precisely the opposite of the title, tell interesting authentic stories)

So what are his concepts?  As far as I can tell he invented the term 'permission marketing' as distinct from 'interruption marketing' - he wrote the book (Permission Marketing).  TV advertising is a simple example of interruption marketing - you're watching your favourite show and just at a critical point, it's interrupted with an advert break.  You didn't want the break, your show was interrupted.  Whereas with permission marketing you provide permission to receive communication from whoever asked - when you buy something from Amazon you expect to get email from Amazon promoting stuff similar to whatever your bought.

So permission is Seth's base concept for modern day marketing.  Building on that marketing that is 'anticipated, personal and relevant' is likely much more effective than anything that interrupts.  The ultimate test for your marketing in this mould is 'if a recipient didn't receive your communication would they complain?'  if they would, you've cracked it.

Hang on - is getting a blog post via an rss feed, or an email that you are looking forward to or some form of communication that passes this test marketing?  Sure it is, it's the very best kind of marketing.

And the test for the end product of the marketing - if your marketing causes the recipient to do something that they are pleased they did, then you're in a good place.  so, ethical marketing that people want to receive, that sells a product that people want to buy.  Actually when put in such a pithy sentence, it sounds obvious; it's a shame reality isn't always so simple - and that I guess is a key reason Seth still sells lots of books.

Finally, Seth talks about 'new marketing.'  Starting with Permission Marketing his approach has always been against the status quo of traditional marketing (actually, going against the status quo is a key topic of Tribes, I'll write about that shortly).  "In the middle of a revolution it's weird.  The rules are changing but most people don't realise."  In America there were 1000's of car companies building cars by hand at the time Henry Ford was changing the world through mass production - in that revolution there were two sets of rules - build one at a time or build using mass production.

Today, we are still in the transition between interruption marketing and new marketing - and Meatball Sundae tackles that topic head on.

Having read most of his books, I can't say I learned a great deal of new information - but it was a great way to spend three hours - one hour of Seth presenting and two hours of Q&A.  The audience weren't all marketeers either.  The lady I sat next was a dance teacher, she was a 'fan' too.  If you get the chance I'd recommend Seth Godin live.

Late addition: with thanks to John Welsh there’s blow-by-blow account of the session at These Digital Times.

-Mark

When terms coined by a writer or a company enter our every day language, you know they’ve had an impact.  The cover of my copy of The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People say’s that it’s sold over 10 million copies (and it’s still ranked 99 on Amazon’s best sellers list, despite being first published in 1989) so you might not be surprised that phrases like ‘sharpen the saw,’ and ‘think win / win’ were made popular from this Dr Stephen R. Covey’s classic.

So, what’s so important about the The 8th Habit that it has a book all to itself (and an extra 10 pages ignoring the appendices, and 38 pages more with)?  Dr Covey’s concise description is that The 7 Habits lead to great effectiveness; and in today’s world that’s not enough so the 8th Habit builds on the previous seven and leads to greatness.  Which is even move concise in the books title!

One unique element is that it’s accompanied by 15 videos.  You can watch these online or order a DVD and pay the postage (which is $35 for the UK and $7.95 for the USA at the time of writing).  Although the book still works without them, I thought the videos made an interesting compliment.

There are two parts to the book – Find Your Voice and Help Others to Find Thiers.  Which might be broadly summarised as learn to lead yourself - more focused on you as an individual (like the ‘private victory’ of The 7 Habits), and then lead others - more focused on business (the like ‘public victory’ of The 7 Habits).

Then there are four core themes that pervade both parts and I’ve tried to condense Dr. Covey description to give you the essence of if for self leadership:

• Mind
  • Assume that the half life of your profession is two years – now prepare accordingly.  What is your vision of the future? 
• Spirit
  • Assume you had a direct relationship with your maker – now live accordingly.  Use your conscience.
• Body
  • Assume that you had had a heart attack, now treat your body accordingly.  Have discipline.
• Heart
  • Assume that everything you say about another can be overheard – now speak accordingly.  Live with passion.

This really does only give you a flavour.  Like many good books it’s full of stories and fitting with Dr Covey’s data orientation there’s plenty of charts, tables and research.

There are parts of the book that I found a little difficult to keep my concentration, but overall it’s worth it.  If the super summary "Live, Love, Learn & Leave a Legacy" sounds good and you want to be a leader, this is one of the books you really should read.

Format: Book 382 pages, Audio 14hrs 24 mins, Short video 48mins and Workbook
Author: Dr. Stephen R. Covey

-Mark

"Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are"
Jim Rohn

I've often felt somewhat disadvantaged. You see, I had a good upbringing in a loving family, with hard working parents. And, following in the footsteps of my older brother decided to go to University where I gained a great degree in computer science.

If you listen to enough talks and read enough books on success a theme quickly emerges – people that have great success did it in reaction to misfortune.  Terrible poverty, dysfunctional parents, illness, bankruptcy and so on feature in the stories of many.  And, let’s face it those rags to riches stories often make good listening.

Not having had any of those or any other major challenges I began to feel that I shouldn’t be succeeding and clearly could only go ‘so’ far encumbered by my privilege.

In Outliers – The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell tells it differently.  Firstly an outlier in science is something that doesn’t fit the typical bell-curve.  In the context of successful people it’s those who achieve extreme success – create the most successful companies, make the most remarkable breakthrough, are awarded Nobel prizes, become the best sports stars and so on.  Outliers argues that these people all had advantages.

It’s true that some of the advantages may be seen as negative ones.  But, just as often they are advantages of timing, events, place, birth date, culture, socio/economic class coupled with the wherewithal and hard-work ethic to use the advantage.

If this doesn’t sound terribly profound, consider that being born in December would scupper your chances to become a world-class hockey player and being born in August could make it much harder to become a British football star – irrespective of your talent.

A couple of months ago I watched a TV documentary on the BBC called “The Making of Me” about Vanessa Mae the child prodigy violinist who entered the music scene with a bang at the age of 10.  It asked the question of her incredible talent was it ‘nature or nurture’.  One of the researchers had studied many musical superstars and found that each of them had 10,000 hours of practice before ‘making it’.

Gladwell sites 10,000 as the magic number of hours to create an expert.  Bill Gates and Bill Joy managed to get 10,000 hours of computer programming in before most people even knew what a computer was – fundamentally down to when and where they were born.

Both of Gladwell’s previous books Blink and Tipping Point are brilliant – combining research, great stories and something different from the common knowledge.  Outliers is even better.  It doesn’t provide a list of actions but it is brilliantly written, brings a new perspective and helps you see things just a little differently.

Format: Audio book, 7 hrs 17 minsand Book, 300 pages
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

“The only way to coast is down hill”
Zig Ziglar

-Mark

There is no doubt that Zig Ziglar is a master motivator.  Proven to me yet again by listening to How to Stay Motivated – Developing the Qualities of Success. 

Recorded over six live sessions and packaged as a program this is part of a three volume ‘How to Stay Motivated’ set; the other two are ‘- Changing the Picture’ and ‘- The Goals Progam’.

The six sessions in this package are:

1. Planning, preparing and expecting to win
2. Taking the first step to a brighter future
3. Motivation, the Key to Accomplishment
4. Identifying the qualities of success
5. Developing the qualities of success
6. Maintaining a winning attitude

I’ve heard most of the concepts before from other programs and books, include two of Zig’s titles and I’m still pleased that I bought this one.  Zig is a master of communication, an entertainer with a message.

Format: Audio program, recorded with a live audience, 7 hours 48 minutes
Author: Zig Ziglar

-Mark

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary”
Vidal Sassoon

I’ve heard many motivational speakers and business people describe success as ‘easy’… and by easy I’m pretty sure they don’t mean ‘sitting about doing very little’ easy – I think they mean that once you find something you are passionate to the point of being fanatical then doing the work becomes easy because you’re highly motivated.  Anyone falling for the easy sell will soon realise that Vidal was spot on.

-Mark

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”
Zig Ziglar

Zig is certainly a great motivator and success coach.  I’m not sure when he first came up with this quote, but I’ve heard him use it in all the speeches I’ve heard… and its a corker.

-Mark

I’d estimate that I first benefited from Nicholas Bate’s teaching in around 1995 when I attended one of his training courses.  I was struck by how different the course was from typical corporate training.  For example, Nicholas was the first trainer I’d met that focused on improving you as an individual in order that your work may benefit – rather than on specific work related skills that are still the more typical focus.  Both are of course required but the former will also help you find the right work as well as do your work right.

I discovered only recently that Nicholas was an author – quite prolific as it turns out with 18 or more titles!  ‘Being the Best’ was my first, the first of many I’m sure.  This one fits in to a category that I call ‘10 minutes a day’ books.

It’s quite literally an A-Z, each letter of the alphabet associated with a word and a few pages of description – A is Attention, B is Belief, C is Compass, … N is Niche… V is Vision etc.  Where each section is easy to read and full of the most profoundly sensible suggestions and advice.

You shouldn’t underestimate the the highly accessible format.  On that training course back in 1995 the attendees walked away with a compass – a reminder of what I think is the most important lesson in the book.  I’m not sure I realised quite how fundamentally important, thank goodness for ‘Being the Best – The A-Z of Personal Success’ for reminding me!

Format: Book, 200 pages
Author: Nicholas Bate

Incidentally, Nicholas has a great blog you should check out on the Business of Life + Life of Business

-Mark