PINK TV (NEW!) Watch career coaching videos, learn more about PINK and see our founders making the talk-show circuit.>>

THE POWER OF "THANKS"
Let your employees know they're appreciated with a unique thank-you.>>

RECESSION HIRING: A
MUST-DO
Hiring during a recession actually does make sense. Here's why.>>


WOMAN-OWNED & GROWN
Becoming a certified woman-owned business can really pay off.>>

MANAGEMENT

Tribal Leadership: A Case Study

Are you a tribal leader? Darla Longo is. Here's why.

By Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright

For the past 10 years, I have studied the leadership of more than 24,000 people with John King and Dave Logan, resulting finally in our book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization (HarperCollins, 2008). A tribe is a naturally occurring group from 20 to 150 people. For example, you probably belong to a work tribe, a tribe of friends and an extended family tribe. We've discovered that the Tribal Leader is the person who understands the culture of a tribe and has the group's permission to lead. These leaders experience higher job satisfaction for themselves and their teams – and are more highly compensated.

Women are uniquely suited to become Tribal Leaders because successful, professional women bring who they are, their values and their strengths to lead their tribes. Women have an inherent advantage when it comes to being a leader; they are typically motivated less by ego and more by the needs of the group. However, women also have a disadvantage: Some of us still tend to hold down other women. Fully expressed leaders go out of their way to mentor and support the careers of other women. To do this, we need to find out the interests and values of the women around us and build relationships. We call that triading, which women are brilliant at.

Here's an example of a woman who exemplifies tribal leadership: Darla Longo, CB Richard Ellis vice chair.

Every September, a remarkable party takes place at which people in commercial real estate discuss and close more business than on any other night of the year. At the center of the party is CB Richard Ellis Vice Chair, Darla Longo.

Longo's behavior was remarkable at the party, and most missed her magic. She didn't promote herself, to talk about her accomplishments, or say "I," "me," or "my," other than to say, "I'd like you to meet …" Longo played matchmaker. She introduced clients to brokers, senior brokers to up-and-coming rookies, and clients to one another.

If we were to take any moment of the evening and watch it in slow motion, we'd see three elements:

• First, Longo always had at least two people around her.
  
  
• Second, she would talk to them both, at the same time, even if they didn't notice each other.
  
  
• Third, if we listen to her words, we'd notice that they would have the effect of building or deepening the relationship between the other two people.

If we look close at the third element, we'd see that Longo is introducing people at two levels. First she's going through the résumé issues – who each person works for and what they do, and why it's such a good idea for these two to meet each other. Second, and far more important, she's discussing what makes each great as a person – his or her core values.

In our years of watching her, one simple act of behavior stands out: her ability to "triad" – to create business relationships between two people based on core values and mutual self-interest, and then move on. She naturally receives the reciprocal benefit of this action by others' saying good things about her, and her resulting reputation is a magnet for business. She is one of the most successful people in commercial real estate because her actions build triads, the foundation of being a Tribal Leader.

(Excerpted from Tribal Leadership, HarperCollins, 2008)

Women almost innately create networks. Our research demonstrates that those women who "triad" like Darla are the Tribal Leaders within their organizations – leading to unparalleled loyalty and productivity from their tribes and unparallel career success.