I’ve read a lot of leadership books. I’ve read each of them exactly once, except for one. There is one book that has challenged my thinking and shaped what I believe about the nature of work more than any other book I’ve read. I’ve read it, re-read it, and re-read it again because there is wisdom there that I still need to fully grasp and integrate into my work life.

The book I’m talking about is Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin, published in 2010. It’s not Seth’s most popular book. He’s better known for his 2003 book, Purple Cow. I’m going to attempt to describe why this should be the next book you read or why this should be the only leadership book you read if you only read one.

The System is Broken

The problem at hand is that the world economy has changed and we’ve been lied to about how work is supposed to be. The industrial revolution and the American Dream brought forth a promise: Work hard, show up on time, follow instructions, keep your head down, and you will be taken care of. This is no longer true. First, it fell apart for the blue-collar workers, and second the white-collar workers. Now, being compliant and following instructions is a recipe for being easily replaceable.

One possible reaction to this reality is to get upset, and demand that the system be restored to how things used to be. This isn’t practical, nor is it even right. For all of human history, this system has only been in place for a relatively short period of time. It isn’t natural. It isn’t what we were born to do, it is how we’ve been trained to think. We were raised to be good, competent, white-collar factory workers because that is what the economy needed. The deal has changed, and I’d argue, it’s for the better.

Can you become indispensable? Yes. Every one of you can. Not everyone will, but everyone can. It’s hard, it’s risky, but it’s totally doable. You are a genius. You are an artist. You were born that way, and somewhere along the way, it was beaten out of you. You can get it back.

The old mantra was to work hard, show up on time, follow instructions, keep your head down, and you will be taken care of. The new truth is this: be remarkable, be generous, create art, make judgment calls, connect people and ideas, bring your humanity, and there will be no choice but to reward you. Don’t be confined by your job description, but do the job that needs to be done.

Gifts and Art

The difference between a linchpin and a replaceable cog is largely attitude. It’s quite possible that much of the daily work looks similar. Inspiration isn’t a constant flow, but when brilliance strikes, linchpins run with it. Those moments of value creation can be career-defining to the point of making everything else seem like background noise. Your job is your platform, your context for doing your art.

I consider my profession to be two things: Enterprise Technology and Leadership. Treating this context as art means that I have to challenge norms. Not from the outside, but from within. There aren’t formulas. There isn’t a rule book to follow. There isn’t a diagram to tell me what to do. I need to make the map. It will be messy. It may be brilliant at times. Picasso made 1,000 paintings, but you can probably name less than three of them.

As quoted in the book, Roy Simmons said, “most artists can’t draw.” Seth adds, “but all artists can see.” The medium doesn’t matter. Sitting in a cubicle with a computer isn’t different from sitting in front of an easel with a paintbrush. What makes it art is the intention to use passionate creativity as a personal gift. A gift that goes well beyond what you are paid to do. A gift that doesn’t only change the recipient, it changes the giver too.

At the end of the day, would you rather be in an effort contest or an art contest? Would you like to be judged by how many widgets you made, or how many lives you changed? This takes optimism and confidence.

The Resistance

Seth wrote extensively about why this is so hard. He calls it “the resistance.” It’s basically our survival instinct that keeps us from taking risks and doing emotional labor. There’s a lot there to overcome. The fear, anxiety, and meaningless busywork lull us away from the remarkable.

“Real artists ship” – Steve Jobs

One way to overcome this resistance is the self-driven pressure to ship. Get it done. Done is better than perfect. Done gets it out there, and makes us vulnerable to potential ridicule or criticism, so it’s easier to sit on something and polish it, but never ship it.

This blog is case-in-point for me overcoming my fear of shipping my art. Before I registered zachonleadership.com, and before I published my first blog article, I made this commitment to myself: I will publish a new blog article every Friday for a year: 52 articles. This book was a driving reason behind that commitment. I know myself, and I know the resistance would keep me from publishing.

I could so easily let myself off the hook. I also knew that the pressure to produce weekly articles may produce some mediocre ones. So what? I can accept that. They won’t all be amazing. But if I keep up the discipline, I might produce a few that are brilliant and remarkable. That’s worth it.

Some might think that this is stuff for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and the self-employed. This isn’t practical for a corporate employee in a Fortune 100 company. I’m willing to bet my entire career on this. This is the new economy, for every industry, for every company, big and small. I’ve left jobs, interviewed for jobs, turned down jobs, and accepted jobs based on these overarching criteria. Frankly, I don’t want a job that a non-linchpin could get. Do you?

At the end of the book, Seth provides a suggested list of the attributes of a linchpin:

1. Providing a unique interface between members of the organization
2. Delivering unique creativity
3. Managing a situation or organization of great complexity
4. Leading customers
5. Inspiring staff
6. Providing deep domain knowledge
7. Possessing a unique talent

There you have it. This has been part blog, part book review. I just had to write this considering how influential it’s been for me. As I mentioned in the introduction, I need to keep reading this book every so often. Why? Because of the resistance, because of life-sucking cynics, and because of the allure of meaningless, but easy busywork. Ultimately, I sometimes forget and need the reminder. Thoughts? Reactions? Have you read it? Please comment below. I’ll end this blog with my favorite quote from the book:

The world works too fast for centralized control. These systems can’t be run by a supervisor at the top of the organizational chart. Bullet trains in Japan run fast and on schedule without a centralized switchboard. It turns out that pushing decision making down the chart is faster and more efficient. So now, having learned from machines, organizations are applying the same logic to people. Letting people in the organization use their best judgment turns out to be faster and cheaper— but only if you hire the right people and reward them for having the right attitude. Which is the attitude of a linchpin.