As I read the book Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan I was delighted to find a resource for leadership in a corporate setting that I felt familiar with. I didn’t feel like a fish out of water! The author talks about 5 stages of personal and team leadership most commonly found in corporate world and other workplaces such as institutions of higher education and other establishments operated by large groups of people. The reading was easy to navigate. It helped me retrace and recognize leadership patterns from start of my career up to this point while easily reflecting on obstacles and learnings over the course of time. Stage one represents the smallest population and is the least developed in capability. Stage five on the other hand represents the ultimate destination populated by small group of of people at the top of the leadership pyramid. Here is a link to free downloadable audio book!

Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan
http://www.triballeadership.net/audio-book

In my map post this week I am going to talk about 2  hypothetical scenarios/ locations to avoid or get out of at any cost, and will describe how they correlate with 2 of 5 stages listed below.

1 FISH OUT OF WATER

(most commonly associated with stage 2)

I’ve encountered some changes and weathered some transitions. In not so distant time I was a child living through war. Yet at this very moment I’m sitting in my hotel room doing my homework while traveling around the world. Here I realize that at I’ve made my way through all 6 of 5 phases listed in the book! In my addendum to 5 states of tribal leadership I am starting with 0, the lowest of the stages. This stage is the virtual pit where hope and will don’t exist, and all odds are at zero. It’s this sad twilight zone where people just remain and hibernate.

Then there’s phase 1, the hardest to be in and get out of. Because person’s circumstances usually outweigh strong will to get out, leaving them hopeless and helpless.

Stage 2 on the other hand is the place where a person often chooses to remain in due to one’s own defaults. That’s was the FISH OUT OF WATER stage for me. I found myself in a job, within a team and under a boss who lacked stability, order and simple human empathy. Everyone was out for themselves without a sense of belonging. Yet the only way we bonded was in shared anger, sorrow and gossip. It was like being in an infectious disease ward.

For me this is the first location on my “to avoid” list. It’s a bad place, downward spiral where you get so consumed by other’s stupidity that you become one of them. You feed off each other. Yet when you fall down no one is there to lift you up. So if you find yourself at work or being in a relationship with a person, feeling like you can’t breathe, constantly stressed; thinking apocalyptic thoughts; LEAVE! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. There are companies, jobs, bosses, partners and friends (even family members) who will love you and respect you for who you are. Help you up when you need a hand and move out of your way with pride to let you pass by.

FISH IN A CAN

(most commonly associated with early and mid stage 3)

This was a stage in my mid to late 20’s, several years into a steady position with a large corporation. I was one of “the crowd”, we wore same brand clothes, had same designer bags, thought same thoughts, spoke the same language. Yet, we worked so hard to appear independent and different or better, more intelligent and certainly more capable than the other whose shoulders we rubbed. We even shared same hair stylists, dentists and doctors! There was always an internal war brewing inside of ourselves. We tried to outsmart and outdo the other person, always on our A game. We never shared capabilities or knowledge. We also never complemented or congratulated other when they succeeded more than we did. We were all successful, just very insular; working in a silo.

The problem with this stage, stage #3 is that while you feel successful and you move the ranks to middle management (leading while executing which is hard in itself) you realize that there is no idea exchanges happening in vacuum. You start feeling like a FISH IN A CAN. Identical to everyone around you, challenged by none. You serve a collective purpose.

One of the quotes from the Tribal Leadership book completely nails my sentiment about the positives and negatives of being a citizen of stage 3. “ Companies that are run by people who all have the same background, temperament, personality, IQ, and learning style become easy targets for competitors because the leaders all share the same blind spots, no matter how smart or accomplished they are.”

At some point (it took me over a decade), you realize that you start feeling insecure and the pendulum starts to swing back and forth. From stage 3 back to 2, back to 3, tiptoeing to stage 4. Just to find yourself going back again at high speed. Avoid this stage when possible. This is the time when change has to occurs and transition to higher stages happen.