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CORPORATE TRIBES:THE HEART

OF EFFECTIVE

LEADERSHIPDave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright

Every leader wants to become a better leader, ifnot a “great” leader. But few ever make it be-yond average—even if they work hard at devel-oping themselves. Why is this the case? Because

the more you develop yourself as a leader, the less of aleader you are.

That might sound counterintuitive, but we at Culture-Sync have just spent the past 10 years conducting astudy of 24,000 people in more than two dozen corpo-rations. By focusing on the culture in which leadershiphappens—rather than just on what leaders do or say—we came up with some outside-the-box findings. Ourgoal was to understand why leadership appears effortlessin some situations and chronically ineffective in others.

Our study uncovered a slew of surprising findings on lead-ership that explain why some leaders, and their organiza-tions, never get past the striving stage. In addition to ourresearch study, the insights we’ve gleaned have come fromsuch leading and diverse figures as Brian France, chair-man of NASCAR, Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn,Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, and Mike Eruzione, cap-tain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

At the heart of our results is a simple fact that goesagainst the grain of so much conventional wisdom: thesuccess of a company isn’t a function of the leader, but ofits tribes—naturally forming groups of between 20 and150 people. A leader without a tribe isn’t a leader, andthe tribe is the context in which leadership happens.

To gain a clear understanding of our conclusions, ithelps to know more about what we mean by “tribes”and the characteristics that define each stage in the tribalculture.

The Tribal ModelSince the dawn of civilization people have formed tribes,and in part because of this tendency, humanity survivedice ages and other environmental hardships. Perhaps be-cause of the survival advantage “tribing” imparted, peo-ple form tribes in every human endeavor, includingbusiness.

As often happens with ubiquitous phenomena, peopletend not to see tribes. Business schools don’t teach usto think about tribes, much less try to manage them.

E X E C U T I V E F O R U M

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The more you develop

yourself as a leader, the less

of a leader you are.

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Yet their influence is more powerful than that of teams,companies, or even chief executives.

Tribes are larger than teams but smaller than major or-ganizational elements—around 20–150 people in num-ber. What’s so remarkable about tribes—and frustratingfor managers—is that they span departmental and orga-nizational boundaries, so they aren’t reshaped by reor-ganizations or eliminated by policy edicts.

If an organization is large enough, it’s a network oftribes. Within each tribe, everyone knows everyone else,or at least knows of everyone else.

While all companies have tribes, tribes are different interms of their effectivness, innovation, and nimbleness.Each tribe has a culture that can be rated on a scale fromone to five from dysfunctional to top performing. Tribescan be elevated, one stage at a time, to the top level.

The sidebar explains each of the five tribal stages. At eachcultural stage, a tribe has a specific “fingerprint” madeup of language that people use and observable behaviortoward others in the tribe. These two almost always cor-relate perfectly. As a result of lots of people operating to-gether at this cultural stage, a certain mood results.People trained in Tribal Leadership can detect this moodwithin a few minutes of walking into a work group.Tribal Leadership starts with recognizing which stageyou have, and doesn’t stop until you reach Stage Five.

In our study we set out to map the key leverage pointsfor elevating tribal cultures, which (to our knowledge)had never been done before. By “leverage points,” weare referring to the means by which a tribe moves onestage up—from two to three, for example. When tribesreach Stage Five, the result is unprecedented success.

The Myths of LeadershipApplying this model to companies and seeing how thisworks in everyday business life is illuminating. One canquickly see where and how so much leadership fails.Three findings in particular stood out for us in our re-search. They bring to light the elements of misguidedleadership and further point to the hallmark principlesof effective leadership.

Myth: Great leadership can take underperforminggroups to Stage Five in one transformative step.

Reality: Tribes only move one stage at a time—forwardor backward. While you can peg the culture of yourtribe on this 1–5 scale, no leader can expect—or safelyattempt—to elevate a tribe from a lower stage to ahigher one without going through all the stages sequen-tially. It also follows that Tribal Leaders must know allthe stages and all the leverage points to build high-per-forming cultures. They need to be fluent in all the cul-ture stages, not just Stages Four and Five.

Moreover, an effective leader understands (and operatesby the fact) that only tribes at Four or higher have anychance of high performance. It’s unrealistic for a leaderto think a tribe in Stage One, Two, or Three has anychance to perform like a Stage Four or Five tribe. Aleader dealing with these lower tribes should focus on el-evating them so that high performance happens lateron as people reach Stage Four or Five.

Myth: Tribes at different levels have similar leveragepoints, so consistent leadership will take underperform-ing groups to the range of high performance.

Reality: The leverage points that move tribes at differ-ent levels are not the same. Because they are different,what works on a Stage One tribe will fail on a StageTwo tribe, and so on. For example, any discussion ofvalues, passion, potential, possibility, or goals will fail

A leader without a tribe

isn’t a leader.

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in a Stage One or Stage Two culture, produce uneven re-sults at Three, but potentially transform a Four or Fiveculture. Why is this so? Because a tribe talks a specificlanguage. At the lower levels, the language people speakdeflects values or passion. In reality, only those who have

reached Stage Four can fully hear leadership, and onlythose in the later parts of Stage Three and above canhear values. Trying to preach values to tribes in StagesOne, Two, or the lower parts of Three is like trying toteach a pig to sing. You will only annoy the pig.

THE FIVE STAGES OF TRIBAL CULTUREStage One runs the show in criminal clusters, like gangs and prisons, where the theme is “life stinks,” and people act out indespairingly hostile ways. This stage shows up in 2 percent of corporate tribes, but leaders need to be on guard, as this is thezone of criminal behavior and workplace violence. Here, people say life is unfair, and to survive, anything is permissible.

Stage Two is the dominant culture in 25 percent of workplace tribes. It says, in effect, “my life stinks,” and the mood is acluster of apathetic victims. People in this stage are passively antagonistic, crossing their arms in judgment yet never gettinginterested enough to spark any passion. Their laughter is quietly sarcastic, resigned. Their speech deflects accountability, in-stead placing blame for their situation on others. As we heard from one tribe in our research (about a change initiative): “Wetried this in 1990, and again in 2001. Didn’t work then, won’t work now. Just wait. This too shall fail.”

Stage Three is the dominant culture in half of U.S. workplace tribes. Here the theme is “I’m great” or, more fully, “I’m great,and you’re not.” In this culture, knowledge is power, and so people hoard it, from client contacts to gossip. People at this stagehave to win, and winning is personal. They’ll outwork, outthink, and outmaneuver their competitors. The mood that results isa collection of “lone warriors,” wanting help and support and being disappointed that others don’t have their ambition or skill.What holds people at Stage Three is the “hit” they get from winning, besting others, being the smartest and most successful.Most every sentence includes “I,” “me,” or “my,” as in: “I work harder than anyone else,” “I try harder,” and “I’m reallygood at my job.”

Nearly half of all American companies operate in Stage Three. This is the stage where members are likely to overrate them-selves (ironically, they don’t hear the references to themselves, and instead think they are talking about leadership, values,and vision). Global economics of the future will be based on Stage Four partnerships—not Stage Three dominance, whichhas been the American model, in part because this is how business schools have taught people to talk and behave.

Stage Four represents 22 percent of tribal cultures, where the theme is “we’re great” (and another group isn’t). Stage Fouris the zone of Tribal Leadership where the leader upgrades the tribe as the tribe embraces the leader. The leader transformstribes of individuals into Stage Four groups, and the tribal leaders in these groups focus people on their aspirations and de-fine measurable ways to make a worldwide impact. At Stage Four, people use “we” language, but except for immature “im-portant” tribes, the basis of comparison is shared values. For example, we heard: “we’re doing important work,” “we workharder for our customers,” and “we win because we’re more dedicated.”

As the tribal attention shifts from “we’re better” to “we can make a global impact,” their culture shifts to Stage Five.

Stage Five is the culture of 2 percent of the workforce tribes, where the theme is “life is great” and focuses on realizing poten-tial by making history. Teams at Stage Five have produced miraculous innovations. The team that produced the first Macintosh wasStage Five, and we’ve seen this mood at Amgen. This stage is pure leadership, vision, and inspiration. At Stage Five, valuesand vision are the only compass—not relative benchmarks against a competitive group. We heard: “we’re pioneers—no one hasbeen here before,” “our mission is all that matters,” and “if we didn’t have our values, we wouldn’t know who we are.”

The ultimate goal is for a tribe to sustain itself at Stage Five. It is the place where organizations stand to change the world.

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Trust is also impossible in the lower stages. Stage Twotribes are “betrayal waiting to happen,” and, therefore,don’t trust. Stage Three Tribal members say in effect,“trust me,” but they trust no one but themselves. StageFour hardwires trust into relationships by basing ongo-ing communication on merit, rather than trust. If therelationship isn’t meritorious, it will dissolve.

An effective tribal leader knows that each interventionmust be stage specific, and target the right leverage tools:

• Because Stage One is the zone of criminal behav-ior and workplace violence, the best way for aleader to intervene is to get individual membersout of the tribe and into another.

• Tribal leaders intervene in Stage Two by findingthose individuals who want things to be different,and mentor them—one at a time. Tell them thatyou think they have potential. Over time, somewill start to talk the Stage Three language. At thatpoint, invite them to mentor another member ofthe tribe.

• Tribal leaders intervene in Stage Three by identify-ing people’s individual values and then seeingwhich cut across the tribe. Point out the valuesthat unite people, and then construct initiativesthat bring these values to life.

• By the time a tribe reaches Stage Four, it’s in thezone of Tribal Leadership. Now bring people to-gether on current projects and shared values (moreon this later).

The message is simple: If leaders know the five stages oftribal development, their efforts will be more effective.

Myth: Effective partnerships require two people.

Reality: The basic building blocks of Stage Four rela-tionships are triads—relationships supported by at leastthree people. The three form a triangle, with each legof the structure responsible for the quality of the rela-tionship between the other two parts.

Stage Three tribes are composed of hub-and-spoke re-lationships, where individuals use their titles, education,wit, or hard work to influence others, one person at atime. Examine a Stage Three culture and you see a se-ries of dyads—two-person relationships, each one strug-gling for control.

We can see the weakness of unsupported two-personrelationships when we look at the culture surroundingromantic couples, when two people love each other de-spite disapproval of family and friends. As soon as theirrelationship hits a rough patch, the surrounding tribewill say, “we’re sorry, but you can do better.”

Imagine the same couple having a fight and complain-ing to supportive friends and family. The tribe will re-mind the lovers of how special their relationship is,increasing the odds of a reconciliation.

Triads stabilize tribes, and they are magnets for innova-tion, with new ideas moving through the web of con-nections with remarkable speed. In fact, triads are thekey to more than simply stabilizing at Stage Four.

The Characteristics of a GreatLeaderGreat leaders know they can’t instantly change the cul-ture of 100,000 people, or even 50 people, with gim-

Upgrade the effectiveness

of your tribe one stage at a

time.

Only those who have

reached Stage Four can

fully hear leadership.

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micks or trendy initiatives. As we’ve outlined, success-ful leaders focus on developing their culture one tribe ata time. The heart of leadership development is helpingleaders upgrade the effectiveness of their tribes, onestage at a time.

Tribal Leaders focus on building the tribe—or upgrad-ing the tribal culture. If they succeed, the tribe recog-nizes them as the leader, giving them discretionaryeffort, cultlike loyalty, and a track record of success.They are the people who can unstick the conveyer beltof cultural stages—and make it run faster—for wholegroups of people, no matter which stage they’re in. Theresult is more effective workplaces, greater strategic suc-cess, less stress, and more fun. Divisions and companiesrun by Tribal Leaders set the standard of performance intheir industries, from productivity and profitability toemployee retention. They are talent magnets, with peo-ple so eager to work with the leader that they will takea pay cut. Their efforts seem effortless, leaving manypeople puzzled by how they do it. The ultimate expres-sion of Tribal Leadership is companies filled with peo-ple who know how to unstick themselves andothers—creating a tribe of Tribal Leaders.

How can you use this information today? Start by iden-tifying the natural tribes that already exist in your orga-nization. Listen to how they communicate, and whichtypes of relationships they form. Move your tribes tothe next stage, until they reach Stage Five.

With this knowledge, you can better own your role as atribal leader, and you can develop other leaders on thesame axis of effecting global change.

Dave Logan is co-founder and senior partner of

CultureSync (www.culturesync.net), a manage-

ment consulting firm specializing in cultural

change, strategy, and negotiation. CultureSync’s

clients include Intel, Colliers International,

American Express, Prudential, and Health Net.

Logan is also a professor at the Marshall School of

Business at USC, where he teaches leadership and

negotiation in the USC Executive MBA program.

This article is adapted from “Tribal Leadership:

Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving

Organization,” by Dave Logan, John King, and

Halee Fischer-Wright.

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John King is co-founder and senior partner of

CultureSync and the coauthor (with David

Logan) of “The Coaching Revolution,” a book

presenting the author’s best practices in the realm

of executive coaching. Clients of his coaching

practice have been featured on all major television

networks and in the Wall Street Journal. Culture-

Sync’s clients include Intel, Cedars-Sinai Health

System, Southern California Edison, CB Richard

Ellis, Colliers International, OliverMcMillan,

The California State Appointed Executives,

Amgen, American Express, and The Space Fron-

tier Foundation.

Halee Fischer-Wright is a partner of CultureSync

who began her career in pediatrics and now heads

CultureSync’s health care practice. She has served

on several executive hospital boards and is cur-

rently president of a 400-physician group in Den-

ver. She also serves as an assistant clinical

professor at the University of Colorado.

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