What Is Tribal Leadership
Tribal leadership is fairly simple at its base. It is the ability to lead a group of people who may be at a certain mindset at that particular time. You will see in certain groups they will all have the same mindset. Whether is a defeatest mindset or one of total positivity. Your ability to bring them from the defeatest mindset through to total positivity is what it means to be a tribal leader.
First and foremost you should know what a tribe is. A tribe is a group of people that consist generally of about 20-150 people. Ya, that’s a wide gap in numbers but those tribes that are made up of the 150 people are usually broken down into sub-tribes. Now, what does this have to do with you as an athlete? Your team is your tribe. Your team is who you are looking to bring through the ranks.
Recognizing Your Tribes Stage
Knowing where your tribe or team is currently is going to give you the tools to know how to handle the situation. Also knowing where you are personally is going to be the first step. The fact that you are reading this article means you are somewhere near being positive.
Now if there are 5 stages. Life sucks, my life sucks, I’m great, were great, and finally, life is great. These are what the stages are called in the book Tribal Leadership. There are certain tells that you will see in your tribe that will get you to know where they currently are.
Life sucks tribes are usually the team you see everyone fighting amongst themselves. There is no team they don’t care about anything but themselves. This is the first stage of tribal leadership
Stage: My life sucks
My life sucks tribes usually consist of depressed individuals who are always talking about how great others have it but they have some sort of circumstance that takes away from their ability to perform or do well. This is the second stage of tribal leadership
Stage: I’m Great
I’m great tribes are the teams you see filled with all-stars. Everyone thinks they are the best and that it. No one on the team itself is better than them. Everything is a competition and they need to have the spotlight. This is the third stage of tribal leadership
Stage: We’re great tribes
We’re great tribes are championship tribes. They know how to be a team. In fact, the buy-in for these tribes is so high that the only thing that matters is the team. The tribe is all the matters in these teams. This is the fourth stage of tribal leadership
Stage: Life is Great
Life is great tribes are really hard to find on sports teams but they are the team that is not concerned with the competition but much more worried about the progress of the game itself. The advancement of the sport forward. This is the fifth stage of tribal leadership
Progressing Your Tribe Forward
Once you have established that where your tribe sits at this moment in time you can then put in the word in bringing them towards the life is a great stage. The goal is to get to the “we’re great” stage. That way you can be a championship team. The one thing that is going to be needed is your ability to lead them there.
You are going to also need to have a tribe that is ready to move forward. If you are sitting with a life sucks tribe or team the people of the team themselves need to be willing to move. The human will is extremely strong and if they do not want to budge they won’t. It won’t really matter how much you push and prod. However, let’s assume you have a tribe ready to move on to bigger and better things. Let’s break it down.
Lifes Sucks: The first stage of tribal leadership
Those that are in this state are hard to move forward. They simply need to see that it is possible for those in their situation to move on to the next level. Stories of rags to riches tend to get them moving forward. Getting them to think that life only sucks for them is a good step. It may not sound like it but it is. They understand that the world is not just a heaping pile of garbage. It is only a heaping pile of them. Sounds bad but it is good. They recognize there is a possibility.
My Life Sucks: The second stage of tribal leadership
Now that your tribe has come to the depressing stage of this process your job as the leader is to bring them to the next stage. Encourage them to make a relationship. Get to know one person. Or make dyadic relationships. one and one friendships if you will. Give them tasks that they can easily complete. Make them grow in confidence. All of this will bring them to the third stage. They will see that hey actually are great. They can do whatever they want.
I’m Great: The third stage of tribal leadership
These people can be hard to move. They have become ego-driven. They only really care about their success. However, you must encourage them to form relationships between 3 people. You need to create Triadic relationships within your tribe. Give them projects that are bigger than one person. The need to work together to get things done. Training exercises that bring a group together and they need to work in unison to complete it.
You have to make these members of your tribe realize that the next stage is where real success is. It is where you get that championship. Win all those games. Form real connections with people. Tell them about how greener the grass is.
We’re Great: The fourth stage of tribal leadership
Congratulations you are now in the real winning zone. At least as far is it goes for sports generally. You are winning, you are in a real tribe that wants to win together. However, if you want t to be a beacon in this area you will ant tog et to the Lifes great mindset. You have to get the members of your tribe to see that what you are doing is for a greater cause.
You will need to show that the progress of the sport is more important than that championship. However, those that are at this level cannot stay there. Life is a great stage is not stable. You do have to win sometimes and that’s where we’re great comes in. Tribes will never really stay in the lives of great stage. They will go in and out of it throughout time.
