Turning Pages

Summer of 2011, I spent a month living on a ranch with my mentor and he gave our group a list of must read books to help us with our horsemanship and life in general. The goal of the course was for us to become a better leader for our horses. I wish I still had that list of books but with that being said, I did purchase a few treasures from it. One of them was called “tribal leadership”. I read the whole thing and I must say, I thought I learned a lot from it but fast-forward to today and I feel like I need to read this book again.

You can learn a lot from different reads and every time you come back to it, you see it from a different angle, you learn something new. From what I understand about this book and what content I transfer to my life is that language does form reality and depending on which level you are in your life; your language will reflect it. This book reflects that there are 5 different stages of leadership, the following table will give you an idea of what they look like:

Stage	Mood	Theme
5	Innocent Wonderment	“Life is great”
4	Tribal Pride	“We are great (and they are not)”
3	Lone Warrior	“I am great (and you are not)”
2	Apathetic victim	“my life sucks”
1	Despairing hostility	“Life sucks”

Before you start thinking of where you are at, I must insist on it being way more than what you see in the table. Most of us will be at the stage 2 and 3 phases for most of our lives and that is the reality that we face. That does not necessarily mean that we will not experience success.

Before we start judging others and comparing ourselves to them, ‘’because we all do’’ says the person who loves to race, I wanted to reflect on that “lone warrior” stage since I have been witnessing a lot of it lately, myself included.

What is important to recognize is what does that stage represent? It is based out of performance so it is a great way to start in our careers. Some people will stay there through their lifespan reporting that they never have time and that they have never felt supported. We pride ourselves on our dyadic relationships and keep them for ourselves when we should share our network to grow. We look for tips, tools and techniques that will help us become more efficient with our time. We may talk of our own values but that does not mean that they will empower others.

Tribal leadership is a tool (what can I say, tools for growth are good for you) that helps you grow into the leader you want to become. It is not about you anymore; it is about your team and your network and the relationships that you build.

In order to do what we have never done before, we must go where we haven’t gone yet, we must get out of our comfort zone. Growth is a process and when you finish growing is up to you. Knowledge isn’t just power anymore; it is about what you do with the knowledge that is so much more important. If you get to that later stage number 4, it is no more about you fighting for your place in the world. It is about identifying core values for your business or work place that will empower the people around you. To make change out there, you have to be ready to change and it isn’t easy either you are trying to change your life to become healthier or to grow your business.

My question for you is do you want to keep learning and growing? Are you ready to break the pattern? What do you do already that makes you a team leader? If you read the book “Tribal Leadership”, let me know what you think about the read.