Using Your Super Power and Being Indispensable.

As part of my summer concentration on books written by Seth Godin, I recently read his 2010 Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  It ties to many of the themes I summarized in my post,“Leaning In” as a Woman Lawyer, found here.

 

Godin argues that with so many means of direct communication with so many different “tribes” in a hyper-competitive world, each one of us can make an indispensable contribution, as a linchpin, to a business, art, project, or something we care deeply about.  You have the choice of being indispensable.  Just make it.

He defines linchpins as the “people who own their own means of production, who can make a difference, lead us, and connect us.”  “The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create, and make things happen.  Every worthwhile institution has indispensable people who make differences like these.”   They are artists and givers of gifts.  They bring humanity to work.  They have vision and engagement.  They help the organization fulfill its mission.

We live in a revolutionary time that gives each one of us the opportunity to bring our “best sel[ves] to the marketplace and be rewarded for it.”   Each one of us can chart our own path and create value as we go. 

But the path involves difficult work.  The tasks require “maturity and soul and personal strength.”  And, you must be motivated by the right reasons.  You must be “brave enough to make a difference.”    You must be bold and think bigger.  

Linchpins do not wait for instructions, but identify and choose the next steps.   They can chart those steps with confidence because linchpins “understand their subject so deeply.”

The linchpin understands that the work requires him or her to make something happen every single day!  Knowing that “changes what you do all day.”  So many opportunities exist to lead.  So many things need to be done.  So many situations offer a way to contribute. 

  

The seven abilities of the linchpin are:

• Providing unique interface between members of the organization;
• Delivering unique creativity;
• Managing a situation or organization of great complexity;
• Leading customers;
• Inspiring staff;
• Providing deep domain knowledge;
• Possessing a unique talent.  It’s a superpower!

“The 'super' part and the 'power' part come not from something you’re born with, but from something you choose to do, and more important[ly], from something you choose to give.”

The work connects the linchpin to others.   When the work fails to connect with others, the linchpin has received the signal to create new work that will.  Godin advises to make the choice of a linchpin again and again.  Learn from what you did and then create something else. 

In contrast, most individuals respond to the messages of their “lizard brains” and avoid situations that feel risky, threatening, difficult, or generous.   These folks “want [a] pretty safe skill to be enough.  Enough to make you valued, enough to make you fairly paid, enough to make your life stable.  But it’s not.  It’s not enough because in a very connected, very competitive marketplace, there are plenty of people with your pretty safe skill.”   

Amen.  Choose to be remarkable.  Choose to be indispensable.  

Make art. Think like an artist.

I finished Seth Godin's new book, The Icarus Deception.  I like his "big ideas."

In this book, he argues that in a post-industrial economy, in which we are bombarded with media messages, we will stand out only if we give a gift to the world that is REMARKABLE.  The gift, freely given from a place of urgency and pure joy, is our art.

While I don't see an effort to clearly define what "art" he means, he uses the term so broadly that it could include any creative effort that you pursue diligently, passionately, and with increasingly greater skill and insight.  It requires you to face down your own fears of failure and inadequacy (which he attributes to the "lizard brain," aka the amygdala and other fear centers of the left brain, mostly).

It requires you to pursue your art even when those around you discourage you actively and more passively.  It requires you to separate your art from your own self-worth, so criticism of your art does not unbalance or undermine your identity as an artist. It requires you to make better art, all the time.  It requires a fearless commitment to expressing yourself in a way that sets you apart from everyone else.  It makes you REMARKABLE.

He argues that our economy is one based on connectivity, provided by the world wide web, in which we now have the luxury of finding all the people who may share with us even the narrowest interest in music, photos, painting, gourmet meals, sports, fiction, poetry, gardening, woodworking, web design, crafting, fashion, home decor, architecture, research, film, theater, and every other form of creative endevour.

In the old days, an author needed to find an established publisher.  Now with Kickstarter fundraising and on-line publishing tools, an artist can bring his or her work quickly to an audience.  In the old days, a musician had a minuscule chance of every getting a record label to produce a commercially viable recording.  Now YouTube watchers regularly discover new talent.  iTunes provides the vehicle to make that new talent a commercial blockbuster.   The difference now from then?  The artist must use these new tools to create the audience for his or her art.  She no longer needs, or should rely on, a middleman.

How exciting is that big idea?  How will I apply it in my own life?  I'll tell you later.