Tribes: Group Blogging Project – Leadership is like a fire hydrant
Posted on | May 12, 2009 | View Comments
Photo by Chris Inside
This is a part of the Tribes Group Blogging Project based on Seth Godin’s book “Tribes“.
Leadership is like a fire hydrant. Most people notice the brightly colored top because it’s what you can see. What they don’t always realize is the underground portion of the fire hydrant that connects to the water and it is what makes the top work.
One of the hardest things for a leader to do is listen. This is because we often see that leadership is making decisions and we often only see the outcome of the thought process, we never see the events leading up to that decision – we only see the top of the fire hydrant. On page 128 of Tribes, author Seth Godin refers to President Ronald Regan’s secret:
Regan’s secret, is to listen, to value what you hear, and then make a decision even if it contradicts the very people you are listening to.
Listening to those around you is important because it IS the lower half of the fire hydrant. Connecting you to the life of the organization, listening gives others the chance to share with you why they believe something. In most cases the people you lead will respect a decision made if they feel like their opinion was heard. Listening isn’t always easy to do, and the trick here is to really listen to people. You can’t just listen to them because it will make them feel like you care about what they think, because that will backfire in a major way. Chances are you’ll learn about the issue, you’ll learn about your people and you’ll grow as a leader.
You need to listen because you need buy in from the people around you because leaders without followers aren’t leaders.
So plan time in your day to listen – you’ll be better and your organization will be stronger.
Tags: church crunch > fire hydrant > leadership > leadership metaphor > seth godin > tribes
Comments
View Comments to “Tribes: Group Blogging Project – Leadership is like a fire hydrant”
Leave a Reply
Twitter Updates
- gavinbaker: RT @Stammy: Notifo Sends Push Notifications from Popular Services or the Command Line to Your iPhone http://t.co/ZqngcSw via @lifehacker ...
- gavinbaker: RT @markmarkoh: The Poor Man’s Market Development, a #leanstartup technique to discover market size and find potential customers. http:/ ...
- gavinbaker: Conversation #2 I never thought I'd have at Rooster's was about tech transfer from ORNL and creating new cimpanies
- gavinbaker: Conversation #1 I never thought I'd have at Rooster's was about switch grass and its viability as an alt fuel.
- gavinbaker: At Rooster's for some beer
Most Recent Posts
My Twitpics
My Flickr Photostream
Prefer an email?
You can find me
Where I’m going
Blogroll
Do good
Knox Vegas
World Changing
May 13th, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
[...] May 9th: Jason Jeong: Pages 117-120 Day 25 – May 11th: Adam Herod: Pages 121-125 Day 26 – May 12th: Gavin Baker: Pages 125-131 Day 27 – May 13th: Cleve Persinger: Pages 131-135 She doesn’t lead the way other people lead. [...]
June 5th, 2009 @ 10:05 am
[...] May 9th: Jason Jeong: Pages 117-120 Day 25 – May 11th: Adam Herod: Pages 121-125 Day 26 – May 12th: Gavin Baker: Pages 125-131 Day 27 – May 13th: Cleve Persinger: Pages 131-135 Day 28 – May 14th: Adam Shields: Pages 135-140 [...]