Seth Godin is the 21st century marketer. In his previous book Purple Cow Seth declared: “Everyone’s a Marketer Now!” In All Marketers Are Liars, he tells us that “Everyone’s a Storyteller Now!” And finally in Tribes; he aserts that, “Everyone’s a Leader Now!”.
In Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? , he makes us look inside ourselves. He defines a linchpin as somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—whose role is too unique and valuable. (No surprises so far.) Then he goes on to say that you need to be one of these people, you really do. To not be one is economic and career suicide. (Here again, this is not a surprise.)
Then he drops the bombshell… he says that to be a linchpin, you have to be an artist at work. An artist? That really took me back. He’s not talking about wearing a beret and moving to Paris, he’s talking about having a passion for your work, caring about your craft and delivering work that matters. (He emphasizes ‘delivering’ citing a Steve Job quote targeted at a software engineer that could never deliver his code. )
Enough of the rambling book review. I highly recommend this book. (So much so, that I may actually BUY it.) I know… crazy huh!
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Lean Learning Revolution! 