Seth Godin
Tribes
ISBN: 978-1-59184-233-0
Do you have your own tribe? Do you consider yourself part of a tribe? Who do you consider a good leader – someone from whom you would take advice, or would help with a project? What characteristics does this person have which sets them apart from other supervisors or bosses you’ve had in the past?
Seth Godin discusses these topics and more in his book, Tribes. On the glowing recommendation of a friend of mine in the startup community, I picked up a copy of Tribes to see how I could become a more effective leader, and to examine the things that make someone a leader. I wouldn’t exactly call this book a “how-to” guide to becoming a leader – it’s more of a series of stories highlighting different aspects of leadership.
Unfortunately, just highlighting a series of stories on leadership doesn’t make a cohesive book. It really felt like this was a series of blog posts that have been reconstituted into a half-finished work. There were central themes bringing the stories together, but more connection was needed between the stories. The writing tended to meander one way for a while, and then another way for a bit after that, navigating around the concept of a tribe, but never really hitting home.
Honestly, I hated to write this review because of the glowing recommendation I received to read it. He may have loved the text, but I just don’t share the same enthusiasm for it. There were great stories inside, but I feel like it would have worked just as a well as a series of blog posts or an email newsletter behind a paywall. I don’t know anything about any of Godin’s other books – perhaps they feel the same way?
If this book were ever reworked, I feel like it could benefit greatly from a few pages here or there bringing all of the major points together, or possibly how leaders have used the information contained within to build their own tribes of like-minded people. There are plenty of books which focus on the “how-to” of being a leader – most bookstores have an entire “leadership” section among the business books. There needs to be something in between those “how-to” books and this meandering collection of anecdotes.
I don’t feel like there is a lot of re-readability in this book. It was difficult to write a full review on this book mostly because it lacks a lot of what brings really good books together. Central themes, while illustrated by the different anecdotes presented, didn’t flow together and sometimes seemed disjointed. I do reserve judgment until I’ve had a chance to read more of Godin’s work, to see if this book was an outlier of some sort, or if all of his work resembled printed and bound blog posts.
Overall, 5/10, would slightly recommend only for those who enjoy a quick read on an airplane or a train while traveling – the book is a great size to fit in a backpack or a purse, and each of the segments is only one or two pages long. I read it while on a trip, and it was great for that purpose. I probably won’t pick it up again, however.