By: Seth Godin

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We all like to belong, don't we?

It's actually one of the most powerful survival mechanisms we've inherited from our caveman predecessors. In those days, if you didn't have a tribe, you were dead.

As Seth Godin tells us, a tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. In the caveman days, that idea was to stay alive.

And while it's not quite a life and death issue these days, we all have a burning desire somewhere inside to belong to, or lead, a tribe.

Tribes are everywhere we look. Inside and outside organizations, in public and private, in nonprofits, in classrooms, all around the world. Every one of these tribes is yearning for leadership and connection.

This book is your playbook for making it happen.

Why Tribes are more important than ever

As Godin points out, three things have happened recently because of the explosion of the Internet that all point to the same outcome:

1. Many people are starting to realize that they spend a lot of time at work, and that working on stuff they believe in is much more satisfying than just getting a pay check and waiting to die;

2. Many organizations have discovered that the factory-centric model of producing goods and services is not nearly as profitable as it used to be;

3. Many consumers have decided to spend their money buying things that aren't factory produced commodities, instead spending their time and money on things that they believe in.

In short, we have arrived at what author Tom Rose would call "the end of average."

The Opportunity

Godin believes that because tribes are flourishing everywhere, we have a vast shortage of leaders.

Here are five things that Godin weaves together as his overarching thesis:

First, for the very first time, everybody in your company or organization is expected to lead - not just the "leaders."

Second, the very structure of today's workplace means it's easier than ever to change things and that individuals have more leverage than ever.

Third, the marketplace is rewarding organizations and individuals who change things and create remarkable products and services.

Fourth, it's engaging, thrilling, profitable and fun.

Finally, and most importantly, there is a tribe of fellow employees or customers or readers just waiting for you to connect them to one another and lead them where they want to go.

So, how do we do it?

Leadership vs Management

You've probably heard this one before - there's a difference between managing and leading.

In the old days, when average was the acceptable norm, you could just tell people what to do and they would do it - that was management.

Today, the best way to get your people to take action is to incite a movement. This is modern leadership. The great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate with one another. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.

In fact, it only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe: a shared interest, and a way to communicate.

That communication can happen in one of four ways: leader to tribe, tribe to leader, tribe member to tribe member, tribe member to outsider.

While most people focus on the size of the tribe, Godin gives us a great example to show us that this mindset is off the mark. He suggests that although the American Automobile Association has millions of members, it arguably has far less impact on the world than the two thousand people who go to the TED conference each year.

What does a tribe look like?

Wikipedia is the classic example of a tribe. Jimmy Wales - the cofounder - attracted a small group of people (5,000 people do the vast majority of articles on the site) and engaged them in a vision.

He didn't tell them what to do. He didn't manage their work - he led it.

He led it by connecting the tribe through technology that made it easy for them to communicate with one another, and with the outside world.

Another great example is CrossFit. When this book was published, Crossfit.com was a small community of people doing crazy fitness routines posted to the site by Greg Glassman. Today, CrossFit is a world-wide phenomenon, mostly because Glassman understood how to build a tribe. He was able to create an environment where the tribe not only wants to create an connection with one another, but is able to.

But will you do it?

What's required of us now is to make a choice. Will we be remarkable or not?

It's easy to understand why we might choose not to. Being remarkable invites criticism, and deep down we are afraid that someone will hate what we do. After all, before people like Elon Musk were successful, they were criticized for being idealistic dreamers with no chance of success.

Doing something remarkable is uncomfortable at best, and down right frightening at worst.

But therein lies the opportunity - only a relatively few people are willing to put themselves through the discomfort to lead. When you've identified the discomfort, you've found the place where a leader is needed. Where YOU are needed.

Built into this idea is that your tribe will not be for everybody. Some people will scoff at your tribe and move on. But others will lean in, becoming a passionate part of your tribe, helping you to find all the other people on the planet who belong there.

Leaders go first

Nobody is going to hand deliver an invitation to become a leader of a tribe. You need to take the initiative all on your own.

Consider the case of Jim Delligatti, a third-tier McDonald's franchisee outside of Pittsburgh. In 1967, Jim broke the rules and invented a new sandwich that he called the Big Mac. Within one year it was on the menu in McDonald's restaurants all around the world.

Nobody asked him to create the sandwich. In fact, he knew he'd be stepping out on a limb by doing it. But he did it anyways, believing that it was the right thing to do.

People like Jim understand that there's a difference between things happening TO you, and DOING things.

There's one critical point about going first that you need to understand - that the new thing is rarely immediately better than the old thing is.

At first, Facebook wasn't as good as MySpace. But that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg from starting. At first, Amazon.com wasn't as good as buying a book at Barnes and Nobles. But that didn't stop Jeff Bezos from starting. At first, the Tesla Roadster wasn't as good as other sports cars. That didn't stop Elon Musk from starting.

The point? If you need the new thing to be better than the old thing right away, you'll never get started.

The key elements of launching a movement

Every movement starts out as a micro movement. And because of the web and social media, movements can start with a few people and then spread into a world-wide phenomenon. The key though, is to start from where you are, which is a micro-movement.

Below are the five things you need to do, and the six principles in starting a micro-movement.

Five things you need to do:

1. Publish a manifesto.

Why does your movement exist? Why should people care? Why should they join you? These are all things you can explain in a manifesto. Give it away and make it easy for it to spread far and wide. As Godin points out, it doesn't have to be printed or even written. What matters is that it's a mantra or motto for your way of looking at the world. It should unite your tribe members and give them a structure.

2. Make it easy for your followers to connect with you.

This could mean many things. It could be as simple as emailing you, or watching you on TV. Or it could be a rich multimedia experience in a members only section of your website. Whatever you do, make it easy for your followers to connect with you.

3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another.

One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader of a tribe is to let people who share the same mission to connect with one another. It's that knowing nod that Harley Davidson riders give each other when they pass each other on the road. Or the camaraderie developed among volunteers for an important event or product launch. Figure out how to engineer these interactions for maximum connection.

4. Realize that money is not the point of a movement. 

Money exists to enable the movement - it is never the point of it. As Godin says, the moment you try to cash out is the moment you stunt the growth of your movement.

5. Track your progress.

By tracking your progress publicly, you help everybody understand how healthy the movement is. And make it clear how your followers can contribute to moving the needle in the right direction.

Here are the six principles you need to follow.

1. Transparency really is your only option.

If you are not transparent, you will be found out. You might go down in flames like many a televangelist has, or maybe your movement will die a slow death because they can sense you aren't fully committed. Either way, your followers can smell when something's fishy from a mile away.

2. Your movement needs to be bigger than you.

Publishing a book around your ideas doesn't make a movement. Moving people to do things in different ways, and connecting them in the process, does.

3. Movements that grow, thrive.

If your movement continues to grow, you are on the right track. Just make sure that you don't try and move too fast, risking a flameout before you "get there."

4. Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction.

In order to keep the sight lines clear, make sure you are not pointing out how you are competing with other movements that have similar goals. Point out that how, together, you are fighting agains the status quo. 

5. Exclude outsiders.

As Godin points out, those that are not part of your movement matters almost as much as who is. The only way to do this is to be clear on who your movement is for, and who it is not for. 

6. Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.

Make sure that your ultimate goal isn't to tear down the establishment, but to carve your own and different path.

Conclusion

Leadership is simple - paint a picture of the future, and then organize a tribe to go there.

If you have the courage to become a leader, and stick with it long enough so that your critics finally realize that you'll get there one way or another, you have the ability to change the world.

There has never been a better time to be alive, and a better time to build a tribe.

The choice is yours. Will you lead or will you follow?

Vote with your actions, starting now.