Halee Fischer-Wright is a management consultant who recently came out with a book called “Tribal Leadership,” which shows leaders how to assess their organization’s tribal culture on a scale from one to five and then implement specific tools to elevate the organizational stage to the next level. Based on a ten-year study of approximately 24,000 people in more than two dozen corporations, Fischer-Wright and her co-authors Dave Logan and John King discuss practical strategies for success.

We took a moment to review Fischer-Wright’s ideas and how they relate to successful women:

1) Why is it important for women striving for success in their workplace to care about their “tribe?”
A way for women to be successful is to be the leader of their tribe. What remains a secret is that women are naturally better leaders for the tribe than men. Men are driven by ego to be leaders, while women are driven by the needs of the tribe. The tribe is the basic building block of society. Composed of 20-150 people in a naturally occurring group, its the tribe who decides who the leader is.

What determines the success of a group is the culture, not the leader. In fact, its the culture who determines the leader- and often its not the person who carries the senior title. How do women rise to the position of leader within their tribes?

2) What are your top three suggestions on how women in the workplace may form their own “tribes”?
The top three actions are:

* Help others build their careers- especially women.

* Find out the interest and values of the members of the tribes.

* Create triads within the tribe, where you introduce a member of the tribe to another member of the tribe based on values, and create values based relationships.

3) What was your reason for writing the book?
The reason we wrote the book was that we kept reading the latest bestselling leadership books, and despite their glossy promises nothing inside the book was engineered to get you any closer to an understanding of what leadership actually is, and how to lead other people. When my co-authors figured out that it was the culture of an organization that determined its success, that opened the door to the study we did of over 24,000 people. We wrote the book to share our insights.

4) What is the main message you’d like to give to women in business or in leadership at their company, organization, or group?
As women, we are our own worst enemies. We sabotage other women to make ourselves successful. The road to your success is to build the success and career of other people, and especially women. If you build the careers of the people around you, you are a true Tribal Leader.

http://www.triballeadership.net/order_book.php

My takeaway:
We always have an opportunity to learn from other researchers, scientists, and people who study human nature so we gain a better understanding of what works and how we may succeed in our business and personal lives. Fischer-Wright’s book has some concrete examples of how we may use our positions of leadership to help one another and contribute to the success of our organizations and companies. Thanks Halee for your responses!

Halee Fischer-Wright (Youtube video) is a partner of CultureSync who began her career in pediatrics and has since become a leading expert in not only healthcare but also general business and management circles. Prior to joining in 2005—where she heads up projects related to financial services, education, high-technology, healthcare, and entrepreneurial ventures—Halee spent the previous 10 years wearing multiple hats as an owner, manager, and physician at Foothills Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Denver, Colorado. She has served on several executive hospital boards and is currently President of a 400-physician group in Denver.

With a focus on balancing quality with profitability, Halee initiates programs that build values-based partnerships in client organizations. She also helps businesses create high-performance teams with energy, purpose, and motivation. She holds an M.D. from the University of Colorado, a Masters of Medical Management from USC, and a Certificate in Executive Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. Dedicated to her passions in both medicine and business, she continues to serve on faculty at the University of Colorado as an Assistant Clinical Professor, as well as teach executive programs at USC.

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