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"Tribes" is a short (151 pages) but powerful read about how vital great leadership is to our lives and to our careers. There are many examples of the power of "Tribes" but the following is one of my favorites from the book;
"Leadership is Not Management"
"In a classic I Love Lucy episode, Lucy and Ethel are working on a candy assembly line. As the candies come faster and faster and faster, the two of them panic, stuffing truffles into their mouths to keep up with the onslaught.
They had a management problem.
Management is about manipulating resources to get a known job done. Burger King franchises hire managers. They know exactly what they need to deliver and they are given resources to do it at a low cost. Managers manage a process they've seen before, and they react to the outside world, striving to make the process as fast and as cheap as possible.
Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.
My thesaurus says the best synonym for leadership is management. Maybe that word used to fit, but no longer. Movements have leaders and leaders make things happen.
Leaders have followers. Managers have employees.
Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.
Change? Change is frightening, and to many people who would be leaders, it seems more of a threat than a promise. That's too bad, because the future belongs to our leaders, regardless of where they work or what they do.
This book is available at amazon.com.
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I have been listening to "Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King" by Dave Matthews Band (DMB). It is an amazing record dedicated and inspired by LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist since their inception (1991) who passed away last year.
I have never been much of a DMB fan but this music is inspiring and very moving. My favorite song on the LP is "Funny the Way It Is."
The lyrics below are ironic and inspiring but the lyrics combined with the power of the DMB music is what really makes it great.
I have reprinted some of the lyrics from the song to give you a flavor of this amazing writing.
"Funny the Way It Is"
Lying in the park on a beautiful day,
sunshine in the grass and the children play.
Siren's passing, fire engine red,
Someone's house is burning down on a day like this?
The evening comes and we're hanging out,
On the front step, and a car rolls by with the windows rolled down,
That War song is playing "Why can't we be friends?"
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs
Chorus
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
Somebody's going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody's heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song
The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You can hear the laughter, while the children play war.
Chorus
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldiers last breath his baby's being born
Watch the sky, the jet planes so far out of my reach
Is there someone up there looking down on me?
A boy chase a bird, so close but every time
He'll never catch her, but he can't stop trying
Chorus
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldiers last breath his baby's being born
Funny the way it is, nor right or wrong
Somebody's broken heart becomes your favorite song
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