Seth Godin

Seth Godin has a new book out Linchpin. I know this because I subscribe to his blog and also because, rather than use traditional media to publicise the book, he sent advance copies to lots of the bloggers and smart people he admires and asked them to read it and interview him if they wanted. Which of course they did want to, because he’s very smart, so now there’s a lot of high quality coverage of the book out there and it’s not even out yet (in the UK at least).

I’m looking forward to reading it – it looks to be a rallying cry for people to be extraordinary and make a difference. But with a lot more substance than your average self help book baloney.

Something that stood out for me in one of the interviews he’s done is the concept of ’emotional labour’ (labor to the Americans but I’m not having that): “bringing guts and ideas and love to work when you and others don’t feel like it”. That in pretty much every job “there’s a chance to lead and make change and connect and create tiny breakthroughs”.

I really like that idea – when I think about all the people I admire that’s what they do: emotional labour. They bring themselves and their passions and  imperfections to their work and take the risk of being criticized or laughed at. And in so doing they create more impact and change than a hundred people who just keep their heads down and only engage the rational, sensible bit of their brains.

I hope that emotional labour is what I am able to do for my clients, at least some of the time – to bring energy and new thinking and the ability to engage a group of people so that things that feel a bit stuck get unstuck.

Here’s a link to Seth’s blog where he lists the interesting people who have talked about the book. A good opportunity to discover some great blogs, if nothing else.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/the-20-media-tour.html