Are You Indispensable?

Jacqueline Novogratz on how to recognize a linchpin from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

Here is the text of the video for those of you who cannot view the video:

I think I can tell if someone is indispensable just by the way they walk into the room. They have their head high, they look at me, their shoulders are forward, there’s a sparkle in their eye. People who are indispensable are those who make the meetings better just by being in it. They care more about what it is we are doing than to get personal credit for what it is that they do. They are not bogged down by titles or by position and they realise somewhere inside that leadership is earned, it’s not conferred.

It’s the same all over the world. It’s the listerners, the do-ers, the seekers, the questioners, the ones who aren’t satisfied with the answers that they have and aren’t the ones that are waiting for their marching orders.

I think the indispensables are sometimes born, can be made, but we need to create organisations that question themselves and that allow a culture for mistakes, experimentation and failure that’s followed  never by blame or shame, but certainly by accountability and the willingness to admit mistakes and then move and show that you are learning from those mistakes.

First spotted on Daniels Manual