Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Summary (from the publisher): "This is what the future of work (and the world) looks like. Actually, it's already happening around you." -Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com 

In bestsellers such as Purple Cow and Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is about you-your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there's a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there's no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. They may not be famous but they're indispensable. And in today's world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom.

As Godin writes, "Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must."

Review: Linchpin was certainly not the most entertaining book I've read this year, but it did provide some excellent insight into a mindset shift for today's employee. Seth Godin challenges every employee to stop being just a cog in the machine and doing the bare minimum required to get paid. He asserts that it's time to break away from the mindset that has people complaining that "that's not my job" and embracing employees who go above and beyond the call of duty and do so with enthusiasm. For workers who operate on the edge of box, constantly pushing its boundaries so they expand for the rest of us.

I found this book particularly relevant for my hometown, which has traditionally been heavily manufacturing based but is now struggling to adapt post-factory jobs and has the highest unemployment rate in the state of Virginia. As a community, we can no longer produce employees who fit the assembly line and are replaceable. We need to focus on employees who can think for themselves and make themselves stand out.

This book really motivated me to want to be a better employee. I read it on my lunch break at work and I honestly put it down and got back to work with a really pumped up, can-do attitude. As Godin says about an employee that gives least than his best effort, "if he waits for a  job to be good enough to deserve his best shot, it's unlikely that he'll ever have that job."

Another interesting food for thought idea: "You can either fit in or stand out. Not both. You are either defending the status quo or challenging it. Playing defense and trying to keep everything 'all right,' or leading and provoking and striving to make everything better [...] Being slightly remarkable is a losing strategy. Blander than bland can work, and it has. Indispensable linchpin works and it is the future." Also - as Steve Jobs says, "real artists ship." The only purpose of getting started is to finish. To start is not enough. You must produce. Godin advises us to complete a task, hit the publish button, give the presentation, whatever - but ship. Get it done.

Stars: 4