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Sinek’s Vision:
To “create a new generation of men and women who
understand that an organization’s success or failure is
based on leadership excellence and not managerial
acumen” (p. ix)…and to help build a world in which the
majority of people go home saying, “I love my job!”
Leaders Eat Last is New York
Times Bestselling author,
Simon Sinek’s highly
anticipated second book.
Through it’s pages, Sinek
explores the aspects of
leadership through a
biological perspective. He
compares modern
organizations with our
Paleolithic ancestors to
determine what makes a
great leader. He determines
that what people crave the
most in a leader is someone
who can create for us a
Circle of Safety.
Though a variety of
inspirational stories from
Sinek
LEADERS EAT LAST
Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Summary
WHERE TO FIND…
The Wiring of Humans …. 2 The Circle of Safety …….. 3 Five Leadership Lessons. 4 Combating Abstraction … 5 Application to Leadership Theories ……………….. 6 Evaluation …………………. 7 Meet the Author …………. 7 Credits …………….……….. 7 Become a Leader ……….. 8
the perspective of
employees and managers,
Sinek outlines how to inspire
trust in an organization
while standing up against
the dangers from outside.
Sinek invites his readers
to consider three important
ideas:
1) Understand how humans
are naturally wired.
2) Combat abstraction in the
corporate environment.
3) Become a leader.
This book will help
organizations build a culture
where the employees are
loyal and engaged, willing to
adopt supportive
mentalities, and become
motivated to take more risks
through inspirational
leadership.
Leaders Eat Last describes
why it’s all so important to
do.
“Marine leaders eat last
because the true price of
leadership is the
willingness to place the
needs of others above your
own.” (p. x)
Endorphins and Dopamine: The selfish chemicals. Sinek describes these chemicals as the reason we are alive and the reason we achieve. “They make us feel good when we find something we’re looking for, build something we need or accomplish our goals. They are the chemicals of progress.” (p 39) Endorphins mask physical pain; sometimes we call them the ‘runner’s high.’ In Paleolithic times, hunters and gatherers could go all day and night in unbearable weather conditions looking for food. Each time the pain of the hunt became too much to endure, endorphins would kick in to mask the pain and make them feel good enough to endure. Dopamine is the goal-achieving chemical responsible for feelings of satisfaction and a sense of completion; it gives an incentive for progress. A surge of dopamine gives us near-instant gratification, In Paleolithic times, dopamine encouraged hunters and gatherers to stay focused in order to reach their food-finding goals. The problem? Endorphins and dopamine can be addictive. Consuming nicotine, alcohol, drugs all release high amounts of dopamine into the body’s system. Behaviors such as gambling and high usage of social media have the same affect. Performance-driven organizations can become addicted to numbers when they are constantly striving to ‘hit the goal.’ Without proper leadership, this achievement is often at the expensive of others. Serotonin and Oxytocin: The selfless chemicals. The two selfless chemicals provide incentives to our bodies “to work together and develop feelings of trust and loyalty…so that we are more likely to work together to cooperate, so that we can ultimately survive.” (p 38) In combination with endorphins and dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin create a healthy synergy resulting in more cooperation and collaboration. Serotonin is the leadership chemical and is tied to self-confidence. When we are recognized for our successes, we feel our value go up. Serotonin is released into the bloodstream when experiencing or witnessing success. It reinforces bonds between leaders and followers and is responsible for feelings of pride, increasing confidence levels while decreasing stress levels, social anxieties and aggression. Oxytocin is chemical love. It is released during social interactions and helps build love, trust, and friendship. Like serotonin, oxytocin relieves stress while promoting attachment and generosity, solidifying relationships and instigating instincts of protection towards others. Wiring of Humans
Humans are hard-wired to work together. Nearly
everything about us is designed to help us survive and
prosper in harsh conditions. Our physiology and our
need to cooperate exist with our survival in mind. Though
evolution, Mother Nature has helped humans develop
four primary chemicals that contribute to positive
emotions: endorphins and dopamine, serotonin and
oxytocin.
“Some believe we should
always put others
first…others believe we
should always put
ourselves first…the fact is,
both are true.” (p. 38)
“Love is giving someone
the power to destroy us and
trusting they won’t use it.”
(p. 50)
“We don’t just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them.”
(p 155)
5 Leadership Lessons
For an organization to succeed, leaders must treat
leadership as a social contract. Great leaders unite a
team around a cause that they all believe in. A physical
presence is essential to cultivate working relationships,
trust and teamwork. Leaders need to put people at the
forefront of company goals and value long-term goals
over short-term aims.
So Goes the Culture, so Goes the Company
So Goes the Leader, so Goes the Culture
Integrity Matters
s
Just as like culture, corporations have their own history, traditions, and beliefs. Once employees identify themselves with this culture, they will form attachments to their company and speak about it with pride. The reverse is also true. “Bad cultures breed bad leaders.” (p 133) “ In a weak culture, we veer away from doing “the right thing” in favor of doing “the things that’s right for me.” (p 129) The Circle of Safety can easily be destroyed when a leader chooses to believe “I before You. Me Before We.” (p137) Far too often, those with authority but none of the information are the decision makers. An organization will only begin to reach it’s maximum potential when those in authority are prepared to surrender some of their control. “The rank of office is not what makes someone a leader. Leadership is the choice to serve others with or without any formal rank.” (p 141)
(p 144)
Trust is vital. When we suspect leaders of dishonesty or neglect to take responsibility for their actions, our Circle of Safety shrinks. If during war, a soldier hesitates after questioning an officer’s decision, people could die. They need to have complete trust in their officer to follow them into the foxhole. Although corporate decisions are not often a matter of life and death, the same is true for every organization. In the words of Sinek, “Leadership is about integrity, honesty, and accountability. All components of trust…to be a true leaders, to engender deep trust and loyalty, starts with telling the truth.” (p150)
Companies who firmly develop a Circle of Safety succeed because they treat employees like family. They create loyalty resulting in low turnover rates. When workers feel that their leaders are also defending them from the dangers outside, the company can then invite customers into that same Circle of Safety. “Letting someone into an organization is like adopting a child.” (p23) (p 178) Combating Abstraction leaders are able to ignore the pain they inflict on others and destroy livelihoods. They can be so driven to increase profits that they focus solely on short- term rather than long-term gains. In order to combat abstraction, one must manage the abstraction. This can be done by following five simple rules:
- Bring people together.
- Keep it manageable.
- Meet the people you help.
- Give them time, not just money.
- Be patient. Leadership is difficult because you can’t give your time and energy to everyone. This is why you have to trust others to trust others to trust others. Great leaders empower the levels of management and the managers become leaders trust others to trust others. Great leaders empower the levels of management and the managers become leaders themselves.
“ When a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers,
then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader’s vision comes to life the
right way, a stable way and not the expedient way.” (p 177)
Friends Matter
Lead the People, Not the Numbers
In order to truly lead, leaders need to spend time with those that they serve. They need to establish positive connections because “enemies fight [but] friends cooperate.” (p 162) Cooperation – a means of working together, regardless of opinion, allows entities to not only reach a common goal, but to show progression. “Like any relationship, some [people] will get along, and some won’t. But in time, cooperation will happen.” (p 165) In Leaders Eat Last, Sinek reveals the concept of abstraction with Joseph Stalin’s infamous statement that “The death of one man is a tragedy…the death of a million is a statistic.” Intrinsically, all leaders should know that it is imperative to put people first, but so many corporate leaders fail to do so. By focusing on numbers before people, poor
“Great leaders sacrifice the
numbers to save the
people, because when
push comes to shove,
numbers won’t save you,
people will. ” (p. 110 )
(p 115)
MEET THE AUTHOR
Simon Sinek wrote his first book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action , in 2009. Since then, he has become a well-known motivational speaker making notable appearances on TED.com and 99u.com. Sinek popularized the leadership concept of the ‘golden circle’ of human motivation. With a degree in Cultural Anthropology, Sinek teaches Strategic Communications at Columbia University, New York. CREDITS http://www.success.com/article/leaders-eat-last http://blog.storyandheart.com/blog/2014/3/20/the-chemistry-of-storytelling- 4 - ways-to-embrace- our-biology-and-work-together#.Vk0XjXv2YWJ http://gojunto.com/the-sickness-of-working-in-healthcare/ http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/leadership/ http://www.shutterstock.com/similar-124662049/stock-vector-doodle-stick-figure-confident- businessman-standing-on-the-crowd.html?page=1&inline=30211954- 1QmoQg0c%2Fs1600%2Fsimon%2Bsinek.png&f= http://www.visualistan.com/2014/09/why-some-teams-pull-together-and-others-dont-learning-from- leader.html http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/illustration/join-our-workforce-royalty-free- illustration/ Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications,
- Print. Evaluation General Electric, Costco and 3M helped illustrate his points clearly. I responded well to Sinek’s style of writing and organization of the book. This was the first opportunity I had to consider leadership from a scientific perspective. Sinek defines the traits of a strong leader in relation to human biology, which is an argument I found quite interesting and generally agreed with. Having recently left a position where I continually faced internal conflicts. I now realize how much influence my former director had over the school environment and how it could have been more positively managed. If what Sinek says is Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek was a great book to accompany this course in Organizational Leadership. I found it easy to relate various leadership theories presented by Peter G. Northouse in Leadership: Theory and Practice through his numerous stories and informal case studies. References made to the American Marine Corps and to organizations such as true, my reactions to the pressures of the job resulted in an abnormal amount of cortisol, and contributed to the demise in my health. Happily, I’ve taken a new position at a school where I feel safe, appreciated, and heard. I feel the Circle of Safety around me. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in a new, biological perspective of leadership, but would warn readers that Sinek hasn’t presented any new theories. Instead, he has given us the opportunity to consider our actions and determine if we are doing all we can to create safe, inclusive environments for our colleagues, manage internal conflicts and fight against external ones.
Are you eating last? 8
BECOME A LEADER
“Each of us has a responsibility to keep the Circle of Safety strong. We must all start today to do little things for the good of others…one day at a time. Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.” (p 216)
Would your
followers jump
into the foxhole
with you?
Can your eating
change your
workplace?
How can you hand
more control over
to your
employees?
Are you one of the
few who get to
say, “I love my
job”?
What can you do
to create a Circle
of Safety?
Are you the leader
you wish you had?
