Every leader cares for and supports a movement.
This ties in closely to the homework I assigned in the previous post. Your “movement” is connected to your Idea Sentence. Your job as leader of your tribe is to care for and support your idea.
Think of your movement as a small house plant. To help it grow you provide direct care such as watering it regularly and protecting it from pests and harmful environments. You also support it’s growth by making sure it gets enough sun.
What can you do for your movement and idea that provides the proper environment and care for it to grow and spread?
Here are a few ideas:
- Challenge the status quo. Point out the ways you are working to change things. Identify a common enemy (a person or an idea).
- Create a culture. What makes the people in your tribe different? Do you have a common language? Common ideals or backgrounds? What would you want people outside your tribe to know about you and your followers?
- Have huge amounts of curiosity about the world you are trying to change. Never stop learning. Always be looking for bigger and better ways to care for and support your movement.
- Communicate your vision of the future. What do people’s lives look like after they have been a member of your tribe for a long time? How is their life better?
- Commit to your “idea” and make decisions based on that commitment. Your Idea Sentence from last week should be the litmus test for everything you do. All of your efforts and movement should be to spread your idea further.
- Go first. Leaders are always the ones that step out first and then call people to follow them.
- Put your own skin in the game. Be willing to make mistakes (and admit them) and move on. People respect and follow a leader that steps out and risks their own reputation.
Homework
Get a piece of paper and write your Idea Sentence at the top. Now go through each item in the above list and write down at least one concrete step you can take to care for and support your movement.
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