Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

About five years ago, I had lunch with Dave Logan, then a new associate dean at USC. He was the head honcho of USC’s executive development programs and had been thinking about writing a book based on his experiences teaching and consulting for top executives. Just as dessert was being served, he leaned forward to ask me a question: “Who’s the audience for the book I have in mind?” I thought that this was the key question every author should ask, and I suggested that he learn to write for impact and for the audience of business professionals. I said that he should write about what he not only knows best but what, in his view, would be the most important issue facing leaders, say, five years from now. Tribal Leadership, he, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright tell me, is an outgrowth of that chat over crème brûlée. The three of them have written a book that both adds to what we know about leadership, and challenges some conventional wisdom. I have to confess that five years ago I had no idea of Dave, John, and Halee’s prescience. I cannot think of a more timely book, not just for the corporate world but for nation-states as well.

This book points to a fact that is so ubiquitous it’s invisible: human beings form tribes. Logan, King, and Fischer-Wright point to the relationship between leadership in tribes, and those who lead them. They assert that this connection raises important questions about how leaders develop, become great, and leave a legacy. As the leaders build the tribes, the leader develops the tribe. This action in turn contributes back to the leader; the leader surrenders himself to the tribe and becomes far greater than an individual alone could ever become.

This book is the result of a ten-year field study of twenty-four thousand people in two dozen organizations. Instead of bringing us tables of numbers, the authors found people to epitomize their findings, giving us a book that is both interesting and informed. They learned that what separates average tribes from those that excel is culture. Furthermore, tribal culture exists in stages, going from undermining to egocentric to history making. Their work explains why some tribes reject any discussion of values, character, or nobility, while others demand these conversations. One of the most compelling interviews is with Gordon Binder, the former CEO of Amgen. Binder is the model of what a Tribal Leader should be: someone who artfully builds his corporate tribes, then gets out of the way so people can achieve greatness.

This work addresses several intriguing questions. Why do great leaders often fail in a new environment? Why do average leaders sometimes seem better than they really are? Why do great strategies fail more often than they succeed? The authors argue that the answer is the relationship between leaders and tribes. Great leaders build great tribes and engage in history-making efforts as they also recognize their great leaders.

About two years ago, I watched a video of a final leadership project for a class I co-teach with USC President Steven Sample. One of the student groups raised funds to fly high school students from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods to Sacramento to be trained by leaders in the California state government. While there, they worked with John King. The video highlighted King’s message, which was that a leader’s behavior is shaped by an unwavering commitment to personal and tribal values. The students were moved as they found ways to become leaders of their own tribes. The insights in this book don’t just have the power to change organizations; they can touch the human heart. That makes them very powerful, indeed.

Warren Bennis