I picked this up at a Leadership Conference this weekend and started reading on the plane home. I was thinking that it would be about Internet 2.o networking but it is so much more. It’s about the kinds of leaders and leadership and it begins by describing each level of leadership and how an individual progresses from one to the next. I am part of a Level 4 organization with a level 5 leader. Don’t be confused in thinking that my day job is with a Level 4 organization . It’s a Level 3 with many folks (occasionally including me at Level 2). That’s why I take my weekends and off hours to be part of my Level 4 organization and I hope that soon I can leave the Level 3 world behind.
Tribal Leadership
Of course, before reading Tribal Leadership, I didn’t know about those levels but reading the book, it all came together. I could give a brief synopsis but this is information that any working person needs to know so I recommend that you get the book and read it. Tribal Leadership makes so much of the career struggles understandable and can help with dealing with them in constructive ways. In an unthinking way I have been striving to live a Level 4 life for the past ten years but because I did not understand clearly what constitutes Level 4 (or in fact that it had a name) I didn’t do as well as I would like. Now I have a roadmap.
This book makes very clear what these levels of leadership are and how you progress (or regress) and was very intuitive for me. I got it while I was reading and understood where my frustrations had their roots and why I was never as good as I wanted to be. It also provide advice about help yourseld and others make the progression up the levels.
From another perspective, the book is a bummer because reading it makes you aware of the difficulty in finding an organization where Level 4 and even Level 5 Leaders can work and grow other Level 4′s and where you can find fulfilling work.
For the entrepreneur, it should be required reading.
