Tribal Leadership: Stage 3 Tribes

Stage Three Tribes: People at this tribal stage (49% of all groups) use language that’s full of “I’m great” and the corollary, perhaps unspoken, is “I’m great…AND you’re not!” These folks tend to believe that knowledge is power and have a series of strong dyadic relationships that aren’t connected—often to protect that power base. In companies, when these types coexist, they try to outperform each other, as a way of proving their greatness. They are like lone warriors and love to be heroes…riding in on a white horse to save others. Such cultures become like the wild west…competitive and self serving. Leverage these people and tribes to the next level: Encourage them to connect dyads to others…and form triads. Instead of keeping their contacts isolated in silos, introduce them to each other. Encourage these stage-three types to work on projects bigger than they can handle alone, connect them to stage four (“We” not “I”) people, coach them to recognize the power of the network, not their own individual prowess. Success indicators will be more triads forming, less grousing about running out of time (no bandwidth due to no relationships), and networks expanding rapidly.