Blindspot!
From Issue: 508 [Read full issue]
Why Should You Lead?
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.
Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change. Human beings can't help it: we need to belong. One of the most powerful of our survival mechanisms is to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. We are drawn to leaders and their ideas, and we can't resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.
You can't have a tribe without a leader - and you can't be a leader without a tribe. Tribes make our lives better. And leading a tribe is the best life of all.
And if you don't have that desire, don't panic. Sometimes it's okay not to take the lead, sometimes it's okay to let someone else speak up and show you the way. The power of this new era is simple: if you want to (need to, must!) lead, then you can. It's easier than ever and we need you. But if this isn't the right moment, if this isn't the right cause, then hold off. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.
Every tribe is different. Every leader is different. The very nature of leadership is that you're not doing what's been done before. If you were, you'd be following, not leading.
You can choose to lead, or not. You can choose to have faith, or not. You can choose to contribute to the tribe, or not.
Are there thousands of reasons why you, of all people, aren't the right one to lead? Why you don't have the resources or the authority or the genes or the momentum to lead? Probably. So what? You still get to make the choice.
Once you choose to lead, you'll be under huge pressure to reconsider your choice, to compromise, to dumb it down, or to give up. Of course you will. That's the world's job: to get you to be quiet and follow. The status quo is the status quo for a reason.
But once you choose to lead, you'll also discover that it's not so difficult. That the options available to you seem really clear, and that yes, in fact, you can get from here to there.
Go.
Compiled From:
"Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us" - Seth Godin, pp. 1-7, 146-147