Linchpin: Are you Indispensable

By Seth Godin

Description

Why are some people easily outsourced, downsized, or freelanced into obscurity, while others have their pick of opportunities? In his most powerful book yet, Seth Godin argues that it’s more essential than ever to become indispensable – to become a linchpin. Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations: they invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They love their work and pour their best selves into it and turn each day into a kind of art – and, in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom.

Godin shows that the key to being indispensable is overcoming the fears that hold most of us back. If you have you ever found a shortcut that others missed, seen a new way to resolve a conflict, or made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach, then you have what it takes to become indispensable. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.

Reviews

Review 1

If you like Seth Godin’s other books, you will like this one. The main riff throughout the book is about the new world of work – one based on intellect and ideas rather than an ability to move stuff from one place to another. While not necessarily a new idea (see Dan Pink’s “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”), it is well presented and compelling. Seth develops his argument for how to succeed in this new world and how to make yourself indispensible. Actually, I think “indispensible” might be a little overstated, I think it would be more correct to say “achieving your full potential to a point where you if you are dispensed with, then someone else will always want you!”. Either way, a great message.

It does read a little like a self help book in places. I am not entirely convinced that this was unintentional or necessarily a bad thing. It depends on what you were looking for.

On the downside, some readers might find his “in your face” style a bit evangelical in places, particularly some of us Brits. Undoubtedly, this style has been developed through his blog writing where space is limited to get the point over. However, when the same style is used throughout a book, it can be a bit over powering at times. That said, I read the book cover to cover. Every 2-3 pages I would find a nugget of an idea that would make me carrying on reading. Before long, the book was finished.

Like his other books, I enjoyed reading this one. It helped me understand a little more about the complex world I seem to live in and gave me some further insights into how to get more out of work and life. Recommended.

Review 2

Others have their own reasons for praising this book. Here are five of mine. First, this is by far Godin’s most personal book in which he reveals more of his emotions and “soul” (for lack of a better term) than he has in any of his previous books. Also, from the beginning, he establishes a direct and personal rapport with his reader. I felt that he had written this book specifically for me. Although he and I have never met, I felt as if he were speaking to me and discussing ideas with me as if we were engaged in a face-to-face conversation.

Moreover, unlike in most of his previous books, Godin does not climb up into a pulpit and launch a tirade, engaging his audience with a confrontational tone and Old Testament vehemence. He obviously cares deeply about the thoughts and feelings he shares but is at all times respectful of his reader. He repeatedly explains that everyone has several choices and urges his reader to make those only choices that are in her or his long-term best interest.

In addition, meanwhile, Godin creates a multi-dimensional context, a frame-of-reference, in which to anchor his insights and recommendations throughout the narrative. He skillfully uses what I describe as a bi-polar strategy: passively but alertly observing what is happening (and not happening) in order to recognize and understand the ever-changing realities of the world that we share and then actively challenging whatever demeans and diminishes anyone’s dignity. Finally, Godin utilizes the manifesto genre as a means by which to celebrate humanity at its best, not as an ideal beyond human fulfillment but as an attainable destination if (HUGE “if”) vision, faith, courage, integrity, and commitment are sufficient to the formidable challenges that await each pilgrim.

Near the downtown area here in Dallas, we have a Farmers Market at which some merchants offer complimentary slices of fresh fruit as samples. In that spirit, I now provide three brief excerpts from Godin’s book.

On becoming indispensable to customers: “Here’s the win (actually, there are two).

“If you want customers to flock to you, it’s tempting to race to the bottom of the price chart. There’s not a lot of room for profit there, though…In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way to win is to race to the top. When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect directly with customers, it becomes indispensable….

“Second, the people that work for you, the ones you freed to be artists [i.e. creators of unique, compelling, and substantial value], will rise to a level you can’t even imagine. When people realize that they are not a cog in a machine, an easily replaceable commodity, they take the challenge and grow. They produce more than you pay them to, because you are paying them with something worth more than money….

“As a result of these priceless gifts, expect that the linchpins on your staff won’t abuse their power. In fact, they’ll work harder, stay longer, and produce more than you pay them to. Because everyone is a person, and people crave connection and respect.” (Pages 35-36)

On résumés: “If you don’t have a résumé, what do you have? How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects? Or a sophisticated project an employer can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you? Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up? Some say, `Well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.’ Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have these things, what leads you to believe that you are remarkable, amazing, or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have more than a résumé, you’ve been brainwashed into compliance. Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for – those jobs don’t get filled by people e-mailing in résumés.” (Page 73)

On the power of being genuine and transparent: “Virtually all of us make our living engaging directly with other people. When the interactions are genuine and transparent, they usually work. When they are artificial or manipulative, they fail.

“The linchin is coming from a posture of generosity; she’s there to give a gift [no-strings support of your efforts to succeed]. If that’s your intent, the words almost don’t matter. What we’ll perceive are your wishes, not the script.

“This is why telemarketing has such a ridiculously low conversion rate. Why corporate blogs are so lame. Why frontline workers in the service business have such stress. We can sense it when you read the script because we’re so good at finding the honest signals.” (Page 214)

For various reasons previously indicated, I hold this book is very high regard and conclude my review of it with one more observation: The person whom Godin characterizes as “indispensable” is defined by what is indispensable to that person. It could well be, for example, a sincere desire to be of service to others. Or it could well be a sincere desire to offer unconditional “gifts” of trust, faith, respect, and candor. Those whom Godin characterizes as “artists” possess the vision, faith, courage, integrity, and commitment needed to create — in collaboration with others — a “post-commercial world that feeds us, enriches us, and gives us the stability we’ve been seeking for so long.” That said, it would be a serious mistake to underestimate or ignore the importance of self-interests. Those who create the world to which Godin refers also feed and enrich themselves as well as those whom they serve and with whom they share a community of faith. Only then can they obtain for themselves as well as others the stability they have been seeking for so long. That should be our vision and Godin challenges us to fulfill it.

Feb 22nd by admin