Adventurer

Where You Are

You’ve set out on the adventure of defining your ideals and living them out with a group of companions who seem to get it, too. You’ve got some good things going:

• As you follow your convictions to build this community, you’re becoming more yourself

• You’re realizing that others want this community, too, and that’s exciting

• Your team or community members are creating a positive, enjoyable culture

But, in moments of stress, this unity in yourself, your team, and your community begins to break down. Some of the stressors for leaders at this stage include:

• Slow growth beyond core members; new member turnover is common

• Team members drop balls, conflict stews; difficult to find solutions

• Delegating is challenging because others’ work doesn’t live up to your standards

• Inconsistent marketing messaging and results

• Leadership feels like a burden — success or failure feels like it’s all on your shoulders

You’re facing these issues because your core beliefs are abstract and not codified, which means the community “soul” is not scalable. People will come to the community for different reasons, and each has different desires for what it should be. Leaders here often take one of two (unsuccessful) paths: they either burn out trying to fulfill everyone’s varying requests, or they try to kill the drama by regulation, which ends up just creating more frustration and alienating potentially passionate members.

Your community lacks stress-withstanding unity. You’ve made great progress in starting your community, but without a deeply shared foundation, eventually a storm will hit that’s strong enough to break you apart.

Where to Go

Your community’s shared foundation could become your unfair advantage — it’s what will attract authentically invested new members; it’s what’ll empower your team to make good decisions on the fly, without your constant oversight; it’s what will give you space to step back from working in the weeds and really become the visionary leader your community needs. 

Throughout human history, tribes have built a shared foundation by codifying their deepest values and beliefs in compelling narratives. Communities need stories and symbolism; they are the way you turn disembodied ideals — like “teamwork,” “excellence,” and “creativity,” — into animated, living realities that your tribe can imitate and be inspired by. While many leaders fail to invest in a shared culture because time seems so scarce, making your core values tangible and present is essential to scaling up without losing your soul.

Focus on the second Ring of Tribe-Building, which is, “Tribes tell a compelling myth that embodies their shared belief system.” And get familiar with the third Ring of Tribe-Building: “Tribes use symbols to create a connection with the myth (and, thus, the manifesto).”

Symbolism and storytelling might seem a little fluffy or out-there for a business leader. But it really is the secret ingredient to building the kind of unity that will:

• Give your community common ground during conflict (instead of diverging viewpoints)

• Create marketing and messaging that’s consistent and inspiring

• Reinvigorate your own sense of who you are and where you’re going

Return to the story of your tribe and retell it in the form of an epic myth so that it serves as an actionable example of your values and beliefs. Learn to see the stories you and the people around you are telling all of the time. When someone doesn’t understand you, try sharing a story instead of reiterating an abstract idea. (And, if you don’t feel like you have any stories worth telling, you’re either not looking hard enough or not living out your ideals with enough conviction.)  If you want to learn how to do this on your own, take the 7-Day Tribal Transformation or go through our Core Beliefs session.

It takes great patience and intentionality, but the process is well worth it.