How To Lead A Tribe

By Ajayi Joel

This is for the writers, the artists, the entrepreneurs, the employees, the fashion designers and for everyone who wants to make a change, and have an audience or a set of customers, clients, tribesmen.

I have to constantly use the word tribe so you would know how important a community is today in the world of work. A community is a set of people with a leader that leads them.

In the world of work today, no matter your sector, it is possible to be a leader and lead a set of persons.  To lead, the first thing to ask yourself is what value do I have to offer? You cannot be a starter in a skill and the next thing you want to do is lead a tribe. If you do that, someone stronger and more skillful than you will overthrow you.

So in any skill, job or profession you want to engage in, you must first strive to be good at it. If you don’t know up to a reasonable extent in it, then you are not ready to lead. Now, you are qualified – but how do you lead a tribe?

First, you must articulate a vision which you must execute. Executing that vision will require a mission. To make all of them connect, you must be solving a problem which is evident in your tribe. That problem could be growing market share, providing jobs in your community, leading a student group, or keeping your community safe from crime. To thrive, you need to be great – yes, above average.

You Must Stand Out

The era of average is over. Nobody wants an average product anymore. No company or community wants an average leader.  Matter of fact marketers and companies are facing tough times because they have been producing average products. They need leaders to drive their tribes to greater moments.

Nobody walks into a city and goes to the restaurant with a rude waitress and dirty environment. You could overlook it before, and manage it. Not anymore!

Now, there are tens of restaurants scattered across every major city in Nigeria, and consumers know the best restaurants with the polite waitresses and food.

There are tens of very good hotels with awesome customer service. You would only be making a big mistake trying to play it safe by being average. You hire an illiterate security man who cannot say “welcome” to strangers, the hotel attendants were not trained on how to receive customers because you are trying to save expenses, and yet you think you are on mission as a leader.

That era is over and you would only fizzle out. And your tribe will go and fade into oblivion. This is the world of work and jobs. You cannot afford to be average. I don’t mean based on grades because grading is not an efficient testing system even though nothing has replaced it.

No company wants an average worker. No company wants an average leader No, not anymore. An average worker is a compliant worker who would sit at his desk all day waiting for instructions to be given to him, and would do nothing else if no instructions are given.

An average worker would still request for a roadmap after the instruction has been given! When members of your tribe are like that, you are failing your tribe. If you do not make changes, your tribe will one day vanish.

The Tribe Under Assault

That era of average is over; both for the leader and the followers in a tribe.  No company has so much money to spend on less smart graduates. I mean being average was the safest thing to do before, but now it would ruin you.

Companies could survive years ago without making themselves known on the internet. Now, marketers in companies are running out of breadth to steal customers attention and the customers already know where they derive the best satisfaction. Competition is global, not local, once you hit the web. You have no hiding place anymore.

If you have forgotten, there are many like yourself with the same qualification as you and just a few would be picked. As the law of demand and supply states:”The higher the demand, the higher the price and the higher the supply, the lower the price”. Internet makes that supply extremely big that even a leader of a tribe can be picked from any place now.

You have to be remarkable to be recognized. Old shoes are no longer interesting and fascinating. You have to be remarkable to win. If you try to play it safe and fit in, you’ve played a loss and you might as well be forever forgotten. Your tribe is under assault; you must go out and battle.

All Together

How do you expect to beat Coca-cola in the world of beverage drinks if all you came out to do is claim how good the taste of your own drink is? Unless you carve out a niche, you have no chance in Lagos. Only leaders that excel can indeed be called leaders because they can save their tribes from ruins. Become a better leader by being above average. That is how to lead a tribe in commerce, business, technology and anything. Yes, be remarkable.