I recently headed to Phoenix and on my trip there and back I listened to Seth Godin’s newest book – Tribes. This was my 3rd time listening to Seth’s book. 
Most of Seth’s books either teach me new concepts, help me learn more about myself or understand why what I am doing is either working or not working.
In this book, Tribes, Seth talks about the importance of leadership and why people, even on the Internet, need leaders to connect them with other leaders, ideas and movements. For me, one of the key things I took away from the book was Seth’s theory on the two different ways to run or lead your “tribe”.
Management Style – Seth defines management as manipulating resources to accomplish a task. He also goes on to talk about how managers use fear to get people to do what they want them to do. I think we see this a lot in politics. For instance, right now President Obama is saying that we “have” to sign his pork latent stimulus bill into law or our country may never recover financially.
My wife is a born manager. She loves to manage people and has no problem putting the fear of God in them in order to get things done.
Leadership Style – Leaders run their tribe by coming up with great ideas and inspiring others. They lead by example. Leadership is about creating the change you believe in. I think this is a huge reason why President Obama won the 2008 Presidential race. His campaign had leadership written all over it.
I have always used this leadership style but never actually realized it until this book. My biggest failure, I’ve learned however, has been in managing people. I just always want people to do their job because they have as much passion as I do. I feel I have a great team now of people that are much better suited for a leadership role rather than a management role.
The main point Seth makes is that BOTH styles are needed in order for a successful leader to lead a successful tribe. After listening to this book, I started examining all of my friends’ businesses that are massively successful. Guess what? In every one of these businesses there is a leader and a manager.
I highly recommend Tribes.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
Shoe, do you use the Kindle for your audio books?
no… kindle is for reading =P
KILLED lol!!
Get a Sony reader and it’ll do MP3 as well as reading
Lol Kindle 2 is out.. But its.. STILL for reading!
Thanks for sharing Jeremy, will definitely be checking it out….
Wow..its been a while since I last visited Arizona. Hope you had a good time
Insightful as always J. I agree that you are a leader of both your company as well as your cult-following on the web.
First question that comes to my mind is…
Who do you think the top 3 leaders in the blogging community are?
If you could pick only 3, who would it be?
specifically blogging? Darren Rowse has the absolute best info for new bloggers.
I cant really think of many other blogging specific blogs… huge dropoff after rowse
I have to agree, I started reading JohnChow, then ShoeMoney, then Problogger, and I still read ShoeMoney and Problogger regularly.
I read all the 3, i think they are the top 3 by a long shot.
Yeah Darren’s tip are really straightforth and it was really of great help when I first started out as well..
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve always been a big fan of Seth Godin.
I’ll check this one out too… I’m sure it won’t disappoint.
So which earlier books you have hear of Seth Godin.
Tell us so that we can also give a try as well.
Jeremy, I too just finished this book and I agree it is a MUST read! I liked the fact that he encouraged the reader to ‘challenge’ the status quo because those who don’t keep innovating will get past by the competition..
Wow. That is a great book. This has been one of my biggest problems too… managing. And last year it cost me a lot of money in my real estate investing business.
So, this year it put a fire under my butt to get that part of my business fixed.
How dumb am I that I sat here for about five minutes wondering what he meant by ‘I listened to Seth Godin’s newest book…’?
I would say it was due to me having just woken up but it is 5:37pm here!
I really love the way Seth Godin teach, explain and describe to us in his books/audio books as I have one of its book.
The way he has written the book that I read is really make us to read more and more ( no wonder Shoe has listened to the audio book 3 times).
Conclusion – Seth Godin is totally superb!
Thank’s for the info. I will pick up the book to see what I can get from it.
Its nice to see that you also go for such motivated and management guru’s book.
I am also going to read this one as well.
Amazing info thanks for sharing!
I am looking forward to reading this book by Godin because I like his take on marketing. However, I wonder what he is like to work for. Moreso, I don’t agree with his politics or views on some things and this often affects how one manages other people. Regardless, his marketing books are excellent and he does that very well.
Also, I share Jeremy’s management style: Do your job well because you want to do it well and are passionate about what you do. Don’t work for me (or anywhere) because you just want a job or worse – job security.
How were you “listening” to it? Where did you find the audio version? I’d be interesting in listening to it rather than reading too.
its on itunes… just search the store
on iTunes? Sweeeet.
I love Seth Godin’s book & highly recommend it. And I totally agree that BOTH leadership and management are essential to success. But I respectfully disagree with the definition of management as “manipulating resources to accomplish a task”. Although many people do use fear and sometimes fear is very effective, the point of management is not to manipulate, but rather to direct and coordinate resources to produce results. If you are a manager and are managing people based on tasks alone instead of results you are micromanaging people. And if you really want people to challenge the status quo as a manager you may want to reconsider using fear as a tool and micromanaging as a tactic.
Sounds like a good read. And drop me a line next time you’re heading to Phoenix and we’ll have drinks.
Jeremy,
Tribes is excellent! I listened to it on my drive down to Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit 2009. Seth has a gift of clarity and focus in his conversations.
You sometimes feel like he is standing next to you when he speaks.
I respect the information you provide here, and you exhibit the qualities of a responsible ‘leader’.
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
http://www.twitter.com/nachase
Yeah these Managment Gurus have crystal clear concept about these things and that’s why they able to teach as well.
I think Seth (and yourself) are right . . . It seems to be somewhere inbetween the two. I have some staff who respond to inspirational leadership/ideas/leading by example, and some who only respond to “if you don’t do this, then. . .”. Real leadership comes from absolute conviction and knowing what makes every single member of your team tick. Or that’s what I’ve learned so far
looks like its really a nice book… hope to have the copy soon..
This explains perfectly why thinkers rarely stay in positions where someone is trying to manage them. They recognize manipulation when they see it. As I used to say I don’t take orders but I do grant requests.
yes, this is a good book. I have got the copy from my amazon’s voucher. Strongly recommended!
hi shoe, can i ask what happened to your twitter viral contest winners??its been too long. is’t it about time to choose another winner??I’ve been dying to see the winnners.any updates??
This looks like a great book and Im sure it offers great tips on leadership, thanks for sharing it
Yeah this one certainly gives you a clear concept about many things of management.
Yes, where there is no leader, there is always chaos and destruction. Sounds like an interesting book.
I love Seth’s books too, have not gotten to this one yet, but will be reading it soon!
looks like its really a great book. hope to have the copy very soon. thanks!
Sounds like a good read.
leadership is deffinitely something hard to define. what is a good manager, leader or whatever differs from what makes a good person? im not so sure.
There are too many bos but only little people with good leaderships among the bos…..
I hear about Seth Godin from many people these days. I think I have to read the book now
Thanks for the review
Leadership is doing smart work and getting the work done from someone. Leaders are born, not made, it is said. but reverse may also be true.
Good post. I agree with Seth. I have read his book. It’s excellent.
Thanks for the insight $hoe. I believe as a leader you need to earn the respect of your peers and not demand it. Most Importantly, Be a Team Player!
Although iPods are a great way to listen to an audio book, a good audio book player can provide many features that are not available on other portable media devices. Unfortunately,
I am not comfortable to listen the audio books. Requires extra concentration than reading text book. Thk you for Seth Godin’s book review.
Shoe,
I’m a huge fan of Seth’s writing. And I’m fortnate to be a member of Triiibes.com, the private social community formed around this book. I’ve learned as much from the 3000 ppl in there, as from Seth’s book.
Richard Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited” is another book that emphasizes the need for 3 (more than the 2 you recommend) key roles:
1. Visionary (or leader – sees the future)
2. Manager (maintains what worked in the past, with incremental improvements)
3. Entrepreneur (Fixes problems in the present)
I have read “Small is the new big” by Seth Godin, quite interesting many new ideas are pointed. I like his books.
In leadership I think the “fear” factor does not work well on long run especially if you want to utilize the creativity of the stuff.
I have read some where that best way to treat your employee is to treat them as you treat your customer, show them respect and give them what they want and they will return what with what you want.
I’m a fan of Seth Godin too. I love to read his writing. Very informational and powerful idea that moves the current Internet world. I will check on that book.
I really liked the book, I’ve been a fan of Seth’s for some time now and I liked that the book combined leadership and management to show how they worked together for success. I don’t know if its the most ground breaking of Seth’s ideas, but its still a good read and can really get you in the mindset for starting another Monday at the office.
It sounds like an interesting book, can you get it pretty much anywhere. Like Barnes and Noble? Also how much is the book, or audio book?
Sounds interesting, gonna check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!
I’m listening to this book right now, and am only a few chapters in. It’s very intriguing to hear the mechanics of leaders vs. managers and even different types of leaders. I’m excited to get to the rest!
Danelle Ice / Homemaker Barbi
I think it’s very important to position yourself as a leader this is the easiest way to have people seek you out because you offer them value
Seth Godin is an amazing person. His books are worth reading