Every successful organisation has at least one linchpin, some have dozens or even thousands. The linchpin is the essential element, the person who holds part of the operation together. Without the linchpin, the thing falls apart. If you want a job where you are treated as indispensable, given massive amounts of responsibility and freedom, expected to expend emotional labor, and rewarded for being a human, not a cog in a machine, then please don’t work hard to fit into the square-peg job you found on Craigslist. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.
Seth Godin in Linchpin
To grow into being a linchpin, there are a few things you can work at:
- Learn how to connect and network
- Be generous and give gifts
- Make great art
- Acknowledge the lizard
- Ship things and get them out there
- Be willing to fail forward
- Never stop learning
Linchpins have seven abilities:
- Provides a unique interface
- dDelivers unique creativity
- Manages a situation of great complexity
- Leads customers
- Inspires other staff
- Provides deep domain knowledge
- Possesses unique talent
Shawn W.rites 