Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [96]
THE SEVEN ABILITIES OF THE LINCHPIN
Is There a List?
Linchpins do two things for the organization. They exert emotional labor and they make a
map. Those contributions take many forms. Here is one way to think about the list of
what makes you indispensable:
1. Providing a unique interface between members of the organization
2. Delivering unique creativity
3. Managing a situation or organization of great complexity
4. Leading customers
5. Inspiring staff
6. Providing deep domain knowledge
7. Possessing a unique talent
A Unique Interface Between Members of the Organization
If your organization is a network (and it is), what holds that network together?
Is it just the salary and each person's fear of losing his job? If so, you've already lost.
In a story so good that it should be apocryphal, Zappos offers graduates of their two-week
paid training school $2,000 if they will quit their new jobs. Why would Zappos offer to
pay great people to quit? Tony Hsieh, CEO, does this because he wants to be sure that
every person at the company is there for the right reasons, not because she's getting paid.
If you're willing to leave for a few thousand bucks, good riddance.
In great organizations, there's a sense of mission. The tribe is racking up
accomplishments, going somewhere. That mission doesn't happen accidentally. A
linchpin helps lead, and she connects people in the organization, actively and with
finesse. This takes emotional labor, and it can't be done by following the instructions in a
manual.
The organization also includes its customers and prospects. That means that if you are the
person who provides the bridge between the outside world and the company, you are in a
critical position.
In most organizations, people do these jobs because they have to, and they do them to
spec. But occasionally, you find someone who relishes the opportunity. Darienne Page is
the first civilian you meet if you're called to a meeting with Barack Obama at the White
House. As the official receptionist of the United States, she views her job as an
opportunity to make a connection.
In the moments between your being checked through security and arriving at her tiny
office, she'll have Googled you. She'll be ready with not just a warm welcome and a
smile, but with relevant information you can chat about. She's looking forward to the
engagement, it's a chance to perform, to do some art.
Certainly, the White House will function without Darienne Page. But by escalating the
job above the manual, she changes it.
Delivering Unique Creativity
Three fairly simple words, very difficult to combine in a meaningful way. Let's go
backwards:
Creativity is personal, original, unexpected, and useful.
Unique creativity requires domain knowledge, a position of trust, and the generosity to
actually contribute. If you want to create a unique guitar riff, it sure helps if you've heard
all the other guitar riffs on record. Unique implies that the creativity is focused and
insightful.
Delivering unique creativity is hardest of all, because not only do you have to have
insight, but you also need to be passionate enough to risk the rejection that delivering a
solution can bring. You must ship.
The resistance, our fear of standing out, rears its ugly head every time we're on the hook
for this sort of work. So we avoid the work. The sparse list of people willing (and able) to
do this sort of work makes it particularly valuable.
Managing a Situation or Organization of Great Complexity
When the situation gets too complex, it's impossible to follow the manual, because there
is no manual.
That's why linchpins are so valuable during times of great complexity (which is most of
the time). Linchpins make their own maps, and thus allow the organization to navigate
more quickly than it ever could if it had to wait for the paralyzed crowd to figure out
what to do next.
When I used to help run a summer camp in Canada, the craziest day of the year was
travel