• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MoreThanAHut Solutions

Header Right

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Leadership

Your big idea is a gift to your tribe

July 14, 2015 by Thomas Z Lukoma Leave a Comment

flower-8539_1280
I often tell people that my mission is to ‘help regular people do great things‘.  I am very clear on what this mission means to me, but recently I have begun to think about the components of doing great things that are universal.

My working hypotheses is that:

Regular people do great things when they have a big idea and build a tribe around it.

You need a big idea to inspire your tribe.

You need your tribe to spread the idea.

The two are symbiotic.

Sometimes you are not exactly sure what your big idea is – but you can clearly see a tribe forming around your contributions.

Other times, you have a burning idea but don’t know how to spread that idea – your tribe hasn’t formed yet.

In both instances, it is important to have a ‘homebase’ that is easily accessible to your tribe even when you are not physically present.

It is also important for you to provide different levels of engagement with your idea – most people will not be able to digest the vastness of your idea on first blush – but after slowly consuming your contributions over time, the idea will grow on them and they will become a member of your tribe.

So the first thing to discover if you want to spread your big idea is the vehicle or vehicles through which you will consistently give free gifts to your future tribe members.

It all starts with your generosity.

Filed Under: Leadership, medium, Tribe Building

Madiba

December 6, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 2 Comments

I remember in my second year of high school in Botswana, we had a history teacher named Mr. Wilson who was determined to help us gain an appreciation for the importance of understanding the past and its impact on the present.  He didn’t want us to just memorize the information for the purpose of passing the tests – he wanted us to care about the content and make it our own.

One of the ways in which he achieved this goal with me was a series he took us through about three historical figures: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.  With each of the figures, he took us through their background, how they rose up in leadership of a movement, the sacrifices they had to make and ultimately, how they changed the world.

I remember reflecting on how interconnected these three historical figures experiences were with each other.  Martin Luther King Jr. was greatly influenced by Gandhi’s ‘non-violent’ approach to protest and the earlier part of Mandela’s leadership applied the same principles.  Prior to his civil rights work in India, Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa where he developed many of his political views and methods fighting injustices in Mandela’s native land.

All three challenged a ‘status quo’ that at the time seemed insurmountable and ultimately triumphed, not because of their wealth or military power – but because of their strength of conviction which caused a movement of people to rise up that eventually could not be ignored.

Nelson Mandela PosterIn 1989, when we studied these figures, two of them were already dead and the one who was living was still serving an unjust lifetime imprisonment sentence. We did not even know what Nelson Mandela looked like because all the photos released of him at the time were pre-prison.

Our visual image of him was the young man in his 40s with a part in his hair that we saw on all the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ posters.  So we studied him like a ‘past’ figure because we did not know if he would ever be released.

So I remember very vividly the following year when it was announced that he would be released.  Our school came to a standstill as everybody let it sink in – that day no class really studied – we just rejoiced.

And then on the day that he was released, we spent several hours watching a television shot of a gate as we waited for him to emerge.  There were several delays and it only built the anticipation of who he would be after all these years.

Was he a frail old man and a shadow of his former self?

Had he lost his regal stature and magnetic draw because of the unmentionable horrors of imprisonment?

Would he be bitter and seek revenge on his now vanquished tormentors?

Thankfully, the answer to those questions was no, no and absolutely not.  He emerged and lived an amazing ‘second chapter’ to his life that most people could not manage in a single life.  From uniting a country that was on the brink of civil war, to bringing Africa its first World Cup, his imprint has resonated throughout the world over the past two decades.

nelson-jacketEven within my family his impact has been tremendous.  I think this post by my sister this morning gives a very good summary of the breadth of his reach.  I love the picture that she used in her post because I am so thankful that our visual image of him today is that imprint that she used when she designed the jacket – rather than the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ posters we grew up with.

 

 
This post was originally posted in my personal blog @ komasworld.com.

Filed Under: Leadership, Making Things Happen, Purpose, Role Models

Google Hangout with Sacha Chua

May 28, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 2 Comments

 

On Friday I had a Google Hangout session with one of my favorite bloggers, Sacha Chua, who writes the blog “Living an Awesome Life.” This was a new experience for me in reaching out and networking with a fellow writer who I have been following (and admiring) from a distance.  Despite my nervousness prior to the Hangout, it was an awesome experience (pun intended).

A few weeks ago, I made a concious effort to engage more on the places that I have an online presence and so far I have found the experience to be quite rewarding.  Part of that experiment is to actively comment on blogs where the author is covering a topic that I care about and feel that I can contribute to the conversation.

In Sacha’s case, she blogged about some questions she was asking herself about the direction of her blog and I felt that a lot of the issues she was reflecting on were in line with the Platform theme I have this year.  So I wrote a long comment in response to the post and was quite surprised when she offered to do a Skype call or Google Hangout to discuss the topic further.

I did not know what to expect when I joined the Hangout on Friday but she immediately put me at ease with her calm and humble nature.  We covered a wide range of topics at the beginning of the call – from some of the challenges of communicating with family that lives overseas, to how much we both love learning new things.

When we moved into the meat of our conversation, there were three key areas that we covered:

One: How can Sacha reach more people while staying true to her ‘brand’?

A consistent theme that emerged while talking with Sacha (and something that I share with her) was her desire to remain authentic to her ‘true self’ through the process of building out her platform.  For her, building her platform is not about fame or increased profits.  She genuinely loves sharing with people about things she learns and helping those people ‘live an awesome life’ in whatever way that means for them.  She has a good income from her offlilne consulting work and doesn’t feel the need to focus on monetizing.

Although she is already very active on the main social networks and has a pretty good following that she shares her thoughts, ideas and help with, I recommended Michael Hyatt’s book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World as good reading for thinking about all of the aspects involved in building out a platform.  The book has a lot of focus on building a platform to mass and monetizing it – two things that I know are not focuses for Sacha right now – but I thought the framework he provides would be a good template to use.

Two: What type of things make sense for Sacha to ‘package’ from the topics she covers in her blog posts?

In addition to the book suggestion, my personal recommendation for Sacha on how to reach more people was that she looks for ways to ‘package’ some of her content into ‘bite size pieces’ that people who are not blog readers could consume and still get the ‘essense of Sacha’.  Some of the work she does with Sketchnoting is an excellent example of this and she has already had a very positive reaction to one of the topics she has started packaging in that way.

In addition to sketchnotes, I suggested she consider creating free ebooks on some of the other areas she consistently covers on her blog like ‘The Quantified Self‘ and her ‘5 Year Experiment‘.

Three: How can Sacha help people who are starting out or trying to be more consistent writers / bloggers?

The last topic we spent a lot of time on was sort of a ‘therapy session’ for me.  Sacha asked how she can help people like myself who are either starting out with blogging or desire to become more consistent in their writing.  My honest answer was that I didn’t know what would help since I was still trying to work it out for myself.

We spent a long time talking about what we both agreed was the root cause of a lot of the main struggles in becoming more consistent (The Resistance) and something Sacha said stuck with me and I think will help me going forward. I asked her how she keeps to such a prolific posting schedule and whether she ever feels a pressure that she is going to let her readers down if she doesn’t post.

Her answer was that she would be letting herself down.

In addition to a forum for sharing, Sacha really sees her blog as a holding place for her thoughts because she doesn’t ‘trust her memory’ and because she sees the blog that way, regardless of whether or not somebody reads a post she puts up, she continues to write because it helps her work through her thoughts and organize them.  This perspective on the process of blogging is very freeing because it helps me to avoid some of the second-guessing and perfectionism that makes me inconsistent.

As a practical follow-up to our discussion, Sacha is going to pilot a Google Hangout session in mid-June and I agreed to participate as one of her ‘guinea pigs’.  I am looking forward to that session and using it as motivation to get back on a consistent schedule so that I have some good questions for her during that talk.

 

This post was originally posted on my personal blog @ komasworld.com

Filed Under: Leadership, Role Models Tagged With: network

How Jesus developed His platform: definitive declaration

January 14, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma Leave a Comment

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

(Luke 4:18-19)

In my last post I wrote about the importance of private reflection and how you can use this to prepare yourself for the launch of your platform. The themes that you clarify through this process are the basis for the next step that Jesus used in developing His platform.

In the middle of a regular gathering for worship on the Sabbath, Jesus stood up and read a scripture from the book of Isaiah. This was not unusual for Him to do because the text mentions how this was “His custom”. What was extraodinary in this particular instance was the effect that His reading of the scripture had on the other people there.

When he sat down after reading “…The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him.”

He captured their attention with what he read because there was an authority with which He read this particular passage. And to make sure that it was clear to the people why they were feeling the way they were, He made a definitive declaration that “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

After His time of fasting and reflection in the wilderness, it was time to let the world know definitively about His purpose – that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy that He had read about.

The components of your declaration

In the same way, once you have spent time in reflection and are clear about your themes, you need to find a way to make a definitive declaration of your purpose with authority.  Your declaration does not have to be anything flashy, and you can choose a smaller audience than a room full of people.

But it does need to be two things:

  • Focused – Clearly outline your vision and ‘why’ you are embarking on your journey
  • Remarkable – Enchant your future tribe members with the themes that you have reflected on and start the process of drawing them in

The vehicle for your declaration

There are many different ways that you can make your declaration. Doing it is more important than how you do it.

In my case, I decided a blog would be the best place for me to ‘go public’. I actually have two public declarations – one that is very specific about my focus in 2013 and one in the form of a personal manifesto that I used to derive the themes for this year.

The personal manifesto is something I wrote 2 years ago and filed away for reflection to make sure that it wasn’t just something that I made up on a whim. I wanted to make sure that it truly reflected who I am and why I do what I do.

In your case, it could be in the form of a tweet, a Facebook post, an email, an announcement at an event, a YouTube video, a podcast or even a few phone calls to people that you know fall into your tribe.

Just put yourself ‘out there’ and you will be amazed how energized you will feel.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you might approach making your definitive declaration. Post in the comments below to let me know.

 

This post was originally posted on my personal blog @ komasworld.com

Filed Under: Leadership, Purpose, Role Models, Tribe Building Tagged With: Leadership, models

Is this the year for your platform?

January 4, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 4 Comments

Do you have a message that is burning inside of you that you want to share with more people?

Do you have a remarkable company, product or service that you want to have more impact?

Do you want to have more influence on your career trajectory than you currently have?

Are you somebody that is constantly asked for advice on a specific topic?

Do you currently mentor a few people but would like to have a greater impact on a greater number?

Do you have a vision to bring about a change or start a movement?

Throughout my adult life, all of the above questions have resonated with me at some point or another and I have tried to find a coherent model through which I can build something consistently that would help me to be more successful. After observing how others have done this and reading extensively in a wide area of topics about technology, finance, marketing, personal development and success, the model that I believe is the most organic way to increase the impact of your unique contribution to this world is by building a platform.

I am primarily influenced by the writings of Seth Godin on this topic, but I have also observed first hand both at my job and in my personal life how people have taken the concepts he writes about and made them real. I invite you on a journey with me where I will explore platforms, both in my writing and by practicing things in my own life. I would also like to help you to move forward in building your own platform because whatever God has uniquely put in you to share with the world is for the world’s benefit and whatever is holding you back from sharing it can be overcome.

For the purposes of this exploration, a platform is:

  • a homebase from which you can rally supporters (a tribe) for your cause
  • a place for you to both demonstrate and increase your credibility in your area of expertise by teaching, mentoring and/or entertaining your tribe
  • a watering hole for you to build lasting relationships with your tribe that over time can help you increase your influence to a larger group

 

A platform is not:

  • a soapbox
  • a 24/7 marketing pitch
  • a vanity publication to boost your ego

 

I do not have all the answers so I invite your feedback and dialog as we go on this adventure together.

This post was originally published on my personal blog @ komasworld.com

Filed Under: Leadership, Making Things Happen, Role Models, Tribe Building Tagged With: inspiration, Leadership, Making Things Happen

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Cleaning up hosting quality for better service and efficiency
  • Your big idea is a gift to your tribe
  • Joining the ‘Toastmasters’ tribe
  • 10 online tribes I am proud to be a member of
  • The most important asset for your online presence does not cost a fortune

© Copyright 2016 MoreThanAHut Solutions · All Rights Reserved · Powered by WordPress ·