Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? » (Unabridged)

Seth Godin is the author of Tribes, The Dip, Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars, Permission Marketing, and other international bestsellers that have changed the way businesspeople think and act. He's the most influential business blogger in the world and consistently one of the twenty-five most widely read bloggers in the English language. He's also the founder and CEO of Squidoo.com and a very popular speaker. He lives in Westchester, New York.

Visit www.SethGodin.com and click on his head to read his blog.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there's a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They 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. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they're indispensable. And in today's world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn't reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back.

As Godin writes,...

Library Journal

In these difficult times, what does it take for an employee—or a manager, or a CEO—to be truly indispensable to an organization? Here, Godin (www.sethgodin.com), author of the BusinessWeek best seller The Dip (2007), lays out a plan to help readers/listeners navigate their own route toward greatness, instructing them on how to make more meaningful contributions and forge stronger connections both at work and in their personal lives. No matter if you are in the production line or in the front office, Godin believes you can improve your position by assuming the indispensable role of "linchpin" within your organization. Godin himself reads, passionate but occasionally strident as he makes his case. For business, personal motivation, and self-help collections.—J. Sara Paulk, Fitzgerald-Ben Hill Cty. Lib., GA