Tribal Leadership

I would have never read this book had it not been for the free audio version I found through Zappos.com. I was't looking for yet another business book, much less a management book, but this one really surprised me and hit me hard. The book in a nutshell talks about 5 stages that organizations and the members of organizations go through:

1 - Life sucks.
2 - My life sucks (but maybe there's something better).
3 - I'm in it for me.
4 - We're in it as a group with a core set of values; there is a higher purpose. We're great.
5 - Our values are everything. We're not fighting competition, we're fighting for a cause.

Admittedly, this list sounds pretty straightforward, possibly even obvious, but reading the examples of what kind of thoughts people in each of the five stages think was like having my mind read. It became clear to me what stage I've been in (3) and what stage my company is in (mostly 3, possibly occasionally dipping into 4).

It's one thing to find out exactly where you are, it's another thing altogether to know exactly where you could go next and have a good idea how to get there. This book gave as clear an indication of that as I've ever seen. I feel like after having read this it will be much easier to recognize the next “stage” when I see it and to consciously move in that direction. Great read, and since the audio is free and relatively short (6 hours), there's really no reason not to give it a try.