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    Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
    Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
    Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

    Written by Seth Godin

    Narrated by Seth Godin

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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, “Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateJan 26, 2010
    ISBN9780307704085
    Author

    Seth Godin

    Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, speaker, and the bestselling author of a number of business books, including E-Marketing—the first book ever published on how to do business online—as well as Permission Marketing, This is Marketing, The Practice, and The Song of Significance.

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    Reviews for Linchpin

    4/5

    315 ratings18 reviews

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    • 3/5

      Sep 17, 2020

      I am reminded of the work of Edward Tufte, a professor of statistics and 'guru' of data visualisation, who has a particular and public loathing of PowerPoint. He famously faulted it for the Space Shuttle Colombia disaster, arguing that the slides Boeing produced to help NASA assess re-entry risks obfuscated the dangers and separated out information that engineers would have better interpreted together.

      For my part, I just find slides too distracting for the audience. Presenters fail to memorize their keynotes, so they glance at their slides, prompting their audience to do the same. In the end, the slides become content rather than illustration, and the presenter loses control over the flow and attention of the audience. I prefer to work without slides, just a laptop with images and examples available. I can cut and include more detail naturalistically, and I don't need a reminder for my lines because I've already practiced my speech.

      I use keynotes, but I use them loosely, and avoid throwing them on screen unless they actually help the audience. My lectures all (in the 2000s), all, every single one, spoke off the cuff, not off by heart. For 60 minutes at a time, with a chalk and 6 great big black boards that you could slide up and down so you could have them all on display at the same time. You don't need to learn it off by heart if you know it already. Make it up as you're going along. You should already know your subject, just talk based on reminders and some visuals.
    • 1/5

      Jan 23, 2020

      Not remotely impressed. For two primary reasons, among others. One, this just seems like a lot of fluffy filler. I have no idea how Godin made this into a full length book because I just got the feeling a decent, well thought out and written magazine article would have sufficed and even been more successful, perhaps. More importantly, I disagree with the title, premise and some possible conclusions that may be drawn from the book's thesis.

      OBVIOUSLY there are typically "linchpins" in most companies and certainly most successful companies. That should be so transparently understood that I fail to see the necessity in even writing a book about it at all. However, I learned early in my business career, initially from advisors and mentors, later from employers and bosses, and sadly, from personal experience as well as witnessing such with various colleagues in many companies and businesses -- the thing that was drilled into my head from the beginning both verbally and through observation and experience -- is that NO ONE is EVER indispensable! To think someone is, is utterly foolish, totally naive, completely wrong, and places too much value on "linchpins," whom while no matter how valuable, can ALWAYS be replaced -- I've seen it dozens of times at companies throughout the country from the lowest on the rungs to the very highest, at Founder, President and CEO, etc.

      So, I have well over 30 years of business experience and I've seen this play out too many times to count. I've seen teachers with experience, great success and tenure get sacked. I've seen founders of startups that quickly grew into multimillion dollar public companies get dumped by the board. No On is Indispensable! I literally have only seen one person at one company who very likely may have been and was treated as such and who basically calls the shots as VP Engineering -- after her former boss, the VP of Engineering with multiple degrees from Georgia Tech -- was let go to move her up. Bizarre world... Book? Not recommended.
    • 4/5

      Jan 26, 2019

      This book teaches a new perspective on how to live your best possible life... I would strongly encourage you to read and give it considerable thought.
    • 4/5

      Jul 19, 2018

      Bestselling author and blogger Seth Godin argues that in this economy, you can't just follow rules and expect that your employer will take care of you. The real linchpins who become indispensable aren't just cogs in a machine, they take initiative and think for themselves, take chances, try new things, give their work as a gift, and make human connections.

      I was initially put off by the fact that there's no road map for how to do this: Godin's focus is primarily on what's making you tick as a worker internally, not on how you do it. And really, it's part of his point. There's no one way to do it, and as soon as you try to bottle it up in a list of how-tos, you've made it part of the "factory" mentality, as he called it, rather than truly becoming a linchpin. The book is a little repetitive and in my head it read with a *lot* of enthusiasm, which I tend to find off-putting. He also has as way of giving things names - the resistance, lizard brain, and more - that I didn't follow what he was talking about at first. But there are some good ideas in here and plenty of food for thought if you're willing to put the work in.
    • 2/5

      May 24, 2017

      Ten sentences into the introduction Godin repeats an urban myth about Einstein. It takes a few of his sound bite contrived chapters before he reveals "we've been taught to fit in." This is not news. Hasn't been for a long time, but then we've been home educating since 1993, so maybe it's just the books we've been reading. The industrialists of he early 20th century wanted schools that could churn out mindless, compliant factory workers. And they got them.

      Instead of saying something useful, Godin fills his nonsense book of cliche after cliche with brilliance like "“The only way to win is to race to the top.” He does nail what kids are taught in schools today ("Follow instructions", "use #2 pencils", more), but his list isn't original, nor all that eye opening. (See previous paragraph.)

      And yet, people buy into his crap! Look at the number of five star ratings on Amazon. Scratching my head over that.

      The good thing is that it was short. And rather mindless reading.
    • 3/5

      May 7, 2017

      This audiobook was okay. He did quote himself muchore freequently than I felt was honorable. When I first got this book I had expected it to be sort of self-help make yourself an entrepreneur like "TGE FOUR HPUR WORK DAY" then when I started it I thought it was a "Stand in solidarity with your brothers in the factory" book. But it ended up being none of those. It was a we can't all be entrepreneur, but factory work doesn't exist anymore book. A you need to be happy and get your work done and if you can't you need to leave your job book. Did I follow his advice? I'm honestly not sure. So if you are at a place with more ?Questions than answers TG his might help or it might just be another book that has lots it's way.
    • 4/5

      Jun 11, 2015

      My favorite reading experience is when a book changes my way of thinking and hence, changes my life. This book is positively abrim with fantastic motivation and advice. I could spend forever poring over the elementals but key for me were 1)what the book stands for: being a linchpin, which is what I am now motivated to be at work, and 2)shipping. Godin carefully and meticulously explained Steve Jobs' famous "Real artists ship" quote, which he basically described to my ears as the embodiment of "If I am not for me, who will be...and if not now, when?" It has motivated me to do what I have to do to promote and promulgate my writing career, specifically, the non-writing parts of it. Therefore, this book has encouraged to be better at my work, and my leisure. Quite the bifecta on the writer's part.
    • 5/5

      Jan 7, 2015

      Awesome read. Lots of good thoughts about living with passion to make your art.
    • 5/5

      Mar 11, 2014

      "There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do." - one of the best lines in the book. Makes you think how you can do better at your workplace.
    • 3/5

      Apr 4, 2013

      So Seth...I understand by using terms like lizard brain and the resistance you want to take complex concepts and simplify them to be understood easier. But you realize that I just kept thinking about Terminator and zoo animals.
      Good ideas but also rather too simplified. It's a call to action that doesn't outline much action. It also borders on self-help at times and comes off preachy. I also feel like even though this was written 2010, there was alot that I already knew.
    • 4/5

      Apr 3, 2013

      Whenever we went to the McDonald's near my college campus, it was like dining at a five-star restaurant. At this particular Mickey D's, every single customer was greeted by the most cheerful and friendliest guy I have ever encountered. He held the door open, asked you about your day, stopped by your booth to see how your Big Mac was, and engaged you in some witty repartee.

      People loved this guy. The Husband and I certainly did. Its been 20 years since I last laid eyes on the guy and while I can't remember his name (if indeed I ever knew it to begin with), I think of him every single time I walk into a McDonald's. Any McDonald's. It's like I expect him to be there because he has made an indelible impression on my mind. I've connected him with that experience so strongly that he has come to be part of what I associate with the McDonald's brand, even two decades and two kids later.

      Seth Godin would know the name of this guy.

      Linchpin.

      In his latest book, Godin writes about the qualities and characteristics of linchpins - those people in every organization who are the go-to people, who are the ones who seem essential and indispensable, who don't know the meaning of the phrase "not my job."

      "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." (from the book jacket)

      Godin's view is that as managers, we have the ability (and some might say the responsibility) to develop linchpins among our employees. But more importantly, as employees we have the ability to develop linchpin characteristics within ourselves.

      This is becoming more essential in order to survive in the workplace because the days of being a cog in the wheel are over. Back in the day, we bought into a mentality of work where, in exchange for doing what we were told and what was expected of us without any resistance, we were rewarded - with a paycheck, with health insurance, with job security, with the gold watch upon retirement.

      As we all know, those days have disappeared - taking with it our paychecks, our health insurance, our security, our gold watches - but that "factory" mindset still persists. ("Factory" being a term for workplaces and organizations of any type, not just assembly-line style processing plants.) According to Godin, one of the only ways to survive this new world of work is by becoming a linchpin. After all, think about the people who usually survive the layoffs, get the bonuses and the perks others don't. They are people considered to be essential to the organization or the brand. They're indispensable. (Not irreplaceable. Indispensable. There's a difference.)

      Linchpins produce art, says Godin. Not art in the Michaelangelo sense, but art as it relates to our work. Delivering (or "shipping") three grant proposals in one day, as I did on Monday. It needs to be consistent and often.

      And, we need to give our art away, as a gift. Kind of like we do here on our blogs. There are so many stories (like the one about the McDonald's guy, like the one I'm about to tell you about my Uncle Warren) that I could keep to myself or perhaps store up so that they become fodder for some of my writing, work that someone, somewhere might pay a couple pennies for. And maybe it will, but in the meantime, giving it to you as a gift makes me feel good. I like that my posts are being read, enjoyed, retweeted. It's a gift to recommend a great book that I loved. In doing so, those of us who do this - often - are becoming the linchpins to readers. This is what Ron Hogan was talking about at the Book Blogger Convention when he referenced Linchpin in his talk.

      When we start giving gifts, we become identified as a person who gives freely of him or herself. People who give gifts do so often (Godin says that you have to) and people gravitate to that person, making him/her a linchpin.

      My grandfather's family did this constantly. They were the ones who were always at church, usually fixing something like the heater or volunteering on some committee. I spent many a Saturday of a my life reading or writing in an empty Sunday School classroom while my Dad checked on some plumbing issue or did some other sort of maintenance job at our church. At my Uncle Warren's funeral (which was a packed house and - I swear, standing room only - and the man was pushing 90) they told a story about how they found him climbing on the newly repaired church roof "just checking on whether the contractor did things correctly."

      (Uncle Warren was known for giving gifts. He'd shake your hand or embrace you, and you'd look down in your palm and there was a peppermint candy. He was so subtle, so quick, that you didn't even feel the peppermint being offered. If you didn't like peppermints, he would have your favorite candy the next time he saw you. For every single person he met, there was always a piece of candy ... even at the foot of his open casket, where a basket of peppermints was there for the taking.)

      Think about it. These are really not unique concepts: be good with people, connect with them in a memorable and unique and powerful way, provide joy, don't be a cog in the wheel, do great work and do it often, deliver the unexpected and give people something unexpected for free. We've heard much of this before and Godin admits just as much. The reason it hasn't stuck is because our brains (the "lizard brain") have resisted this new way of thinking. We're scared stiff that we'll lose our jobs if we take a risk, try something new, speak up in meetings. We think that we don't have the authority to be bold, yet the irony is that our bosses want these sorts of qualities. They hire for these sorts of intrinsic qualities because it is almost impossible to teach them. In some ways, I think, you've either got it or you don't. And those who have are going to be the ones leading us out of this gawd-forsaken economy we're in.

      I'm a fan of Godin's. I've been one for quite some time now, primarily through Seth's blog. He has the ability to take the whole concept of marketing and other communication (whether it is in the workplace or personally or whatever) and explains it in such a way that makes sense for the average person. Linchpin is a little bit of a departure from that while still being written in the straightforward, no-nonsense style. Each chapter is divided into short, blog-post like subheadings.

      Seth Godin has been getting a lot of press lately - good and bad - for his decision to make Linchpin the last book he publishes via a traditional publisher. Personally, I don't care whether Godin publishes his next book traditionally, exclusively on an e-reader, via subscription on his blog, or by scrawling on papers delivered piecemeal by carrier pigeon. Just as long as the man keeps writing stuff like this - as well as his previous books (they were darn good, too) - then however he thinks is the best way to get them into my hands or my eyes to the screen, it doesn't matter. I mean, who the hell am I to tell him what to do or how he should do it.

      Instead I say good for him. After all, that's exactly what being a linchpin is all about.
    • 4/5

      Nov 17, 2010

      This book pumps you up. It comes at you in a preaching/ pleading tone that is enjoyable in parts but also felt long due to the repetition. One of the concepts I liked was not looking for a road map to become exceptional. While I am not sure there was anything new in this book it does make you feel like you can and should make a difference wherever you are.
    • 4/5

      Aug 12, 2010

      The world of learning and work has changed, but for the most part we continue to use old solutions to address new challenges. This is the setup for Seth Godin's "Linchpin" which is his plea for us to not be cogs in the machinery anymore.

      A linchpin (a worker, learner AND artist) is one who is indispensable within her life network. This could be where you work, where you volunteer, where you go to school or even at home. Those who continue to contribute solely by following the instructions of others are seeing their value decline unforgivably. The world has changed and those who can navigate without a road map are the future leaders.

      Moreover, as Godin explains, the linchpin will be an unconditional gift-giver. Giving to others above and beyond what you're paid to do will make your own contributions unique and allow for a human connection that business interactions often seriously lack.

      I recommend giving this book as a gift to someone in your life who craves more humanity in their world of work.
    • 5/5

      Jul 15, 2010

      Seth Godin is on a mission to free people from the false implied contract current leadership boxes them into. In this, he is exactly right.

      How has the nature of work changed? What has happened to the implied agreement where workers do what they are told and are protected from the difficult work of thinking? Finally, what are WE to do?

      Godin dives into these meaty questions with a seasoned perspective that both clarifies and sounds a call to action.
      Godin’s book is directed to the individual, to the person frustrated by the current state of affairs. It could just as easily be directed to the “bosses,” those people who are using a leadership structure that is living on borrowed time, who are ham-stringing their employees and causing significant costs in terms of employee turn-off and lack of intellectual commitment. Gallup estimated that employee dis-engagement costs American businesses $300 billion a year.

      It is a timely book and we add Seth Godin to those business thinkers who recognize the current leader-follower arrangement just isn’t working, and are calling for changes.

      We take Godin’s point one step further. We do not believe a patch on the current leader-follower leadership structure will solve the problem; the better way to think of it is that it is the leader-follower structure itself that is the problem. Instead, replace leader-follower with leader-leader, rejecting the notion that we should put anyone into a follower role!

      Let’s not lose the best of our intellectual capability by putting people into follower roles.

      My name is David Marquet, from Practicum, Inc and we help our customers get everyone be a leader and avoid casting employees into follower roles. To continue the dialogue respond to david.marquet@practicuminc.com or follow our blog or follow us on twitter.
    • 3/5

      May 27, 2010

      Some interesting points about the social changes that are happening now, but not my favorite of Godin's books
    • 4/5

      May 25, 2010

      Empowering, especially for anxious people who want to change career.
    • 4/5

      Apr 22, 2010

      I really liked this book (as I do most by Mr. Godin). This one really struck a personal nerve with the discussions of efficiency and commoditization of employees and work, as one of the things I am involved in as a technologist is that very thing. It also gave name to the nameless fear that I confront (and I suspect we all do) in the face of change : "the resistance". Basically, the most important thing an employee or individual can contribute is "emotional labor", or involvement and personal stake in the products of their work. I get to continue to be a linchpin in all areas of my life by being my best, following my heart, and overcome my own personal resistance to change!
    • 5/5

      Feb 14, 2010

      Godin is one of the best business and creative minds around. His blog is a must read. Linchpin offers great guidance on how to manage your career and market yourself.