Todd's The Man

Culture is everything at Costless Express. We strive to build relationships across all staff and departments but that can be a very difficult thing to actually achieve.

We have several departments from sales to drivers and warehouse night shifts. So it was awesome to see Todd our call center manager receive this note from Malcolm one of our night order processors. They only see each other a few times a year at company parties yet the bond is there.

 It really goes back to the book Tribal Leadership and the mantra "It's all about WE." Something everyone at Costless Express understands.

Cheers
Calvin

PEAK Leadership

Recently we had a tour of our offices by the CEO and COO of Suntech Optics & Bugaboos Eyewear to see our culture at Costless Express.

We host tours for companies who what to learn more about what has worked for us at Costless Express (and what hasn't worked). It's a highlight for me to be able to share and learn from others who are passionate about creating great cultures and businesses. Readers of my blog will know about how we enjoy the concepts of Tribal Leadership, but there is another book and author we equally gravitate to. Chip Conley - PEAK.

Here is an upcoming webinar with Chip hosted by our good friends at Rypple (great software) so please sign up to hear Chip if you are interested in adding some MOJO to your companies culture.

Cheers,
Calvin

Thursday, March 15th at 2:30 p.m. EST How to Grow into a PEAK Leader
	Chip will tell the story of Joie de Vivre's remarkable success and share other real world examples of companies that apply his theory, from Apple to Whole Foods Market. You'll learn: leadership tips from San Francisco's "Most Innovative CEO" what it means to create peak experiences at work how to build lifelong relationships that will drive your success how great companies get their mojo

Tribal Leadership BNET video

When Tribal Leadership was initially released, Dave Logan recorded this brief 6 minute video that effectively explains Tribal Leadership and the "Five Stages of Culture."

If you haven't watch the video yet, this can simplify your view of Tribal Leadership and provide a great resource to send people to when they want a quick overview.

What is Tribal Leadership?

written by Julian Bergquist, Director
Leadership Programs | CultureSync

Sometimes I get a little stumped trying to effectively explain to someone what is Tribal Leadership? I was recently asked to speak to a group about TL and was prepping up my notes.

There are so many things you could say about people, leadership, tribes, culture, values, greatness, creating results together, and triads.

The past week there has been a lively conversation on LinkedIn, answering the question "What is Tribal Leadership?"

There were 30 answers, all beautifully dancing around the answer. What I learned from the discussion is that Tribal Leadership is one of those rare, great ideas that can't be boxed in and reduced to a single definition.

Soon CultureSync, the creators of Tribal Leadership, will be sending out fresh materials simplifying the view of Tribal Leadership. I highly suggest you sign up for their blog.

In the meantime, I've included below my five favorite answers from the LinkedIn discussion.

Which is your favorite?

Top Answer to "What is Tribal Leadership?"

• "Tribal Leadership is the empowerment of a community for a noble cause with the mutual respect for core values." -- Nasar Aboubakare
• "Tribal Leadership occurs when a group of people evolve to a point in their communicative/social dynamic where they gel on collective values, share information laterally for the benefit of the group, and work together as a team to inspire, accomplish, strive and create. Tribal Leadership is less about the leader being the star of the show and more about the whole group's ability to perform. Through tribal leadership we can create effective organizations that are based on equality, integrity, competence, function, and joy." -- Kimberly Johnson
• "Tribal Leadership is the path that generates the the kind of workplace culture that most people long to be in, yet believe can never happen."-- Robert Cornish
• "Tribal Leadership is about surrendering yourself to the tribe. As the tribal will is embraced and carried out throughout the organization, the Tribal Leader fuels the development of the tribe who in turn fuel the development of the leader. Everyone evolves and builds value together, both individually and as a collective business." -- John Sedivy
• "Tribal Leadership is playing the game called creating partnership with anyone and everyone wherever they are at, getting good at it, and having a good time while doing it! It's simple and brilliant." --Brian McFadin

Click here to read the other answers or discuss on LinkedIn. http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Question-What-is-Tribal-Leadership-2355813.S.40387041

Design your success plan for 2011

Have you created your 90-day micro strategy for 2011? If not, access these tools to design your success plan for 2011.

Courtesy of my good friends over at CultureSync - the authors of the book Tribal Leadership. Click here to get your free audio copy of the book.

If you have created a micro strategy or are wondering what a micro strategy is, then let's review:

1. Did you clear the cobwebs from your mind? Are you now focused and committed to a great outcome about 90 days out? Great!

2. Did you identify an abundance of resources that will enable you you to achieve it within that time? Great!

3. Did you identify all the key behaviors that must be be completed to deliver that outcome? Great!

Sounds like you have an "unlocked strategy" and are ready for action.

There is now only one thing left to do...

Execute the behaviors on your strategy until your outcome is achieved.

That is it. Period.

One of the primary reasons people don't complete their strategy is that they have fallen into one of their habitual pitfalls, rather than doing the required actions. These are the areas where you " drift ."

There are certain behaviors that support effective leadership, falling into a pitfall is not one of them.

Enjoy the tools and create your 90-day micro strategy.

Cheers,

Calvin

Are you a Stage 4 Tribe?

Today our shipment of Tribal Leadership books arrived and we were all pretty excited.
Each member of our staff... ahem... TRIBE... gets a free copy. Earlier this year, I gave each member the e-book of Tribal Leadership, and the hard cover is just another way to keep reinforcing the message we live by at Costless Express, "Its all about WE not ME!"

What is Tribal Leadership, you ask? We are so happy to let you know all about it, and hopefully excite you and your company to take the journey to becoming a Stage 4 Tribe. It's not easy, but the rewards and happiness are worth the sacrifice.
Here's some info and a great TED Talk by the author Dave Logan.
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_logan_on_tribal_leadership.html

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
Free Audio Book Download - http://www.triballeadership.net/
Logan, King and Fischer-Wright suggest that individuals participate in organizations as members of one or more tribes. A tribe is a basic sociological unit: a group of 20-150 humans. (Like schools of fish, and flocks of birds, we have tribes of people.) The authors used linguistic research methods as well as relationship structures to identify five tribal states that build on one another dimensionally. Each tribal state is more productive and meaningful for its members than the ones below it. Each stage has unique leverage points that nudge people and teams forward in their productivity and expansion, versus an existence of universal principles for teams.

Enjoy!
Calvin