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Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't by [Simon Sinek]

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Simon Sinek

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't Kindle Edition

by Simon Sinek (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 14,867 ratings

Part of: Start with Why Series (3 books)

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The New York Times bestseller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of Start With Why and Together is Better. Now with an expanded chapter and appendix on leading millennials, based on Simon Sinek's viral video "Millenials in the workplace" (150+ million views).

Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.

In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?

The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care.

Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a "Circle of Safety" that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.

Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.

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Popular Highlights in this book

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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
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It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.
Highlighted by 2,777 Kindle readers
These exceptional organizations all have cultures in which the leaders provide cover from above and the people on the ground look out for each other. This is the reason they are willing to push hard and take the kinds of risks they do. And the way any organization can achieve this is with empathy.
Highlighted by 2,417 Kindle readers
Stress and anxiety at work have less to do with the work we do and more to do with weak management and leadership.
Highlighted by 2,329 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

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As refreshingly simple and easy to follow as it is thought-provoking * Management Today * --This text refers to the kindle_edition_av edition.

About the Author

Simon Sinek, an unshakable optimist, is the author of the bestselling book Start with Why, which challenged traditional assumptions about how great leaders and great companies inspire people. He has presented his ideas to Fortune 100 companies and small start-ups; to nonprofits and members of Congress; to foreign ambassadors and the highest levels of the U.S. military, among many others. His TEDTalk based on Start with Why is the second most popular video of all time on TED.com. He lives in New York City. --This text refers to the kindle_edition_av edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Protection from Above

A thick layer of clouds blocked out any light. There were no stars and there was no moon. Just black. The team slowly made its way through the valley, the rocky terrain making it impossible to go any faster than a snail's pace. Worse, they knew they were being watched. Every one of them was on edge.

A year hadn't yet passed since the attacks of September 11. The Taliban government had only recently fallen after taking a pounding from U.S. forces for their refusal to turn over the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. There were a lot of Special Operations Forces in the area performing missions that, to this day, are still classified. This was one of those teams and this was one of those missions.

All we know is that the team of twenty-two men was operating deep inside enemy territory and had recently captured what the government calls a "high-value target." They were now working their way through a deep valley in a mountainous part of Afghanistan, escorting their high-value target to a safe house.

Flying over the thick clouds that night was Captain Mike Drowley, or Johnny Bravo, as he is known by his call sign or nickname. Except for the whir of his engines, it was perfectly peaceful up there. Thousands of stars speckled the sky, and the moon lit up the top of the clouds so brightly it looked like a fresh layer of snow had fallen. It was beautiful.

Johnny Bravo and his wingman were circling above in their A-10 aircraft, waiting should they be needed below. Affectionately known as the Warthog, the A-10 is not technically a fighter jet; it's an attack aircraft. A relatively slow-flying, single-seat armored plane designed to provide close air support for troops on the ground. Unlike other fighter jets, it is not fast or sexy (hence the nickname), but it gets the job done.

Ideally, both the A-10 pilots in the air and the troops on the ground would prefer to see each other with their eyes. Seeing the plane above, knowing someone is looking out for them, gives the troops below a greater sense of confidence. And seeing the troops below gives the pilots a greater sense of assurance that they will be able to help if needed. But given the thick cloud cover and the mountainous terrain that night in Afghanistan, the only way either knew the other was there was through the occasional radio contact they kept. Without a line of sight, Johnny Bravo couldn't see what the troops saw, but he could sense how the troops felt from what he heard over the radio. And this was enough to spur him to act.

Following his gut, Johnny Bravo decided he needed to execute a weather letdown, to drop down below the clouds so he could take a look at what was happening on the ground. It was a daring move. With the thick, low-hanging clouds, scattered storms in the area and the fact that Johnny Bravo would have to fly into a valley with his field of vision reduced by the night-vision goggles, performing the weather letdown under these conditions was extremely treacherous for even the most experienced of pilots.

Johnny Bravo was not told to perform the risky maneuver. If anything, he probably would have been told to hang tight and wait until he got the call to help. But Johnny Bravo is not like most pilots. Even though he was thousands of feet above in the safe cocoon of his cockpit, he could sense the anxiety of the men below. Regardless of the dangers, he knew that performing the weather letdown was the right thing to do. And for Johnny Bravo, that meant there was no other choice.

Then, just as he was preparing to head down through the clouds into the valley, his instincts were confirmed. Three words came across the radio. Three little words that can send shivers down a pilot's neck: "Troops in contact."

"Troops in contact" means someone on the ground is in trouble. It is the call that ground forces use to let others know they are under attack. Though Johnny Bravo had heard those words many times before during training, it was on this night, August 16, 2002, that he heard the words "troops in contact" for the first time in a combat situation.

Johnny Bravo had developed a way to help him relate to the men on the ground. To feel what they feel. During every training exercise, while flying above the battlefield, he would always replay in his mind the scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. He would picture the ramp of a Higgins boat dropping down, the men running onto the beach into a wall of German gunfire. The bullets whizzing past them. The pings of stray shots hitting the steel hulls of the boats. The cries of men hit. Johnny Bravo had trained himself to imagine that that was the scene playing out below every time he heard "Troops in contact." With those images vividly embossed in his mind, Johnny Bravo reacted to the call for assistance.

He told his wingman to hang tight above the clouds, announced his intentions to the flight controllers and the troops below and pointed his aircraft down into the darkness. As he passed through the clouds, the turbulence thrashed him and his aircraft about. A hard push to the left. A sudden drop. A jolt to the right. Unlike the commercial jets in which we fly, the A-10 is not designed for passenger comfort, and his plane bounced and shook hard as he passed through the layer of cloud.

Flying into the unknown with no idea what to expect, Johnny Bravo focused his attention on his instruments, trying to take in as much information as he could. His eyes moved from one dial to the next followed by a quick glance out the front window. Altitude, speed, heading, window. Altitude, speed, heading, window. "Please. Let. This. Work. Please. Let. This. Work," he said to himself under his breath.

When he finally broke through the clouds, he was less than a thousand feet off the ground, flying in a valley. The sight that greeted him was nothing like he had ever seen before, not in training or in the movies. There was enemy fire coming from both sides of the valley. Massive amounts of it. There was so much that the tracer fire-the streaks of light that follow the bullets-lit up the whole area. Bullets and rockets all aimed at the middle, all aimed squarely at the Special Operations Forces pinned down below.

In 2002 the avionics in the aircraft were not as sophisticated as they are today. The instruments Johnny Bravo had couldn't prevent him from hitting the mountain walls. Worse, he was flying with old Soviet maps left over from the invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But there was no way he was going to let down those troops. "There are fates worse than death," he will tell you. "One fate worse than death is accidentally killing your own men. Another fate worse than death is going home alive when twenty-two others don't."

And so, on that dark night in August, Johnny Bravo started counting. He knew his speed and he knew his distance from the mountains. He did some quick calculations in his head and counted out loud the seconds he had before he would hit the valley walls. "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand . . ." He locked his guns onto a position from which he could see a lot of enemy fire originating and held down the trigger of his Gatling gun. "Four one thousand, five one thousand, six one thousand . . ." At the point he ran out of room, he pulled back on the stick and pulled a sharp turn. His plane roared as he pulled back into the cloud above, his only option to avoid smacking into the mountain. His body pressed hard into his seat from the pressure of the G-forces as he set to go around again.

But there was no sound on the radio. The silence was deafening. Did the radio silence mean his shots were useless? Did it mean the guy on the radio was down? Or worse, did it mean the whole team was down?

Then the call came. "Good hits! Good hits! Keep it coming!" And keep it coming he did. He took another pass, counting again to avoid hitting the mountains. "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand . . ." And another sharp turn and another run. And another. And another. He was making good hits and he had plenty of fuel; the problem now was, he was out of ammo.

He pointed his plane up to the clouds to fly and meet his wingman, who was still circling above. Johnny Bravo quickly briefed his partner on the situation and told him to do one thing, "Follow me." The two A-10s, flying three feet apart from each other, wing to wing, disappeared together into the clouds.

When they popped out, both less than a thousand feet above the ground, they began their runs together. Johnny Bravo did the counting and his wingman followed his lead and laid down the fire. "One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand . . ." On cue, the two planes pulled high-G turns together and went around again and again and again. "One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand."

That night, twenty-two men went home alive. There were no American casualties.

The Value of Empathy

That August night over Afghanistan, Johnny Bravo risked his life so that others might survive. He received no performance bonus. He didn't get a promotion or an award at the company off-site. He wasn't looking for any undue attention or reality TV show for his efforts. For Johnny Bravo, it was just part of the "J.O.B." as he puts it. And the greatest reward he received for his service was meeting the forces for whom he provided top cover that night. Though they had never met before, when they finally did meet, they hugged like old friends.

In the linear hierarchies in which we work, we want the folks at the top to see what we did. We raise our hands for recognition and reward. For most of us, the more recognition we get for our efforts from those in charge, the more successful we think we are. It is a system that works so long as that one person who supervises us stays at the company and feels no undue pressure from above-a nearly impossible standard to maintain. For Johnny Bravo and those like him, the will to succeed and the desire to do things that advance the interests of the organization aren't just motivated by recognition from above; they are integral to a culture of sacrifice and service, in which protection comes from all levels of the organization.

There is one thing that Johnny Bravo credits for giving him the courage to cross into the darkness of the unknown, sometimes with the knowledge that he might not come back. And it's not necessarily what you would expect. As valuable as it was, it isn't his training. And for all the advanced schooling he has received, it isn't his education. And as remarkable as the tools are that he has been given, it isn't his aircraft or any of its sophisticated systems. For all the technology he has at his disposal, empathy, Johnny Bravo says, is the single greatest asset he has to do his job. Ask any of the remarkable men and women in uniform who risk themselves for the benefit of others why they do it and they will tell you the same thing: "Because they would have done it for me."

Where do people like Johnny Bravo come from? Are they just born that way? Some perhaps are. But if the conditions in which we work meet a particular standard, every single one of us is capable of the courage and sacrifice of a Johnny Bravo. Though we may not be asked to risk our lives or to save anybody else's, we would gladly share our glory and help those with whom we work succeed. More important, in the right conditions, the people with whom we work would choose to do those things for us. And when that happens, when those kinds of bonds are formed, a strong foundation is laid for the kind of success and fulfillment that no amount of money, fame or awards can buy. This is what it means to work in a place in which the leaders prioritize the well-being of their people and, in return, their people give everything they've got to protect and advance the well-being of one another and the organization.

I use the military to illustrate the example because the lessons are so much more exaggerated when it is a matter of life and death. There is a pattern that exists in the organizations that achieve the greatest success, the ones that outmaneuver and outinnovate their competitors, the ones that command the greatest respect from inside and outside their organizations, the ones with the highest loyalty and lowest churn and the ability to weather nearly every storm or challenge. These exceptional organizations all have cultures in which the leaders provide cover from above and the people on the ground look out for each other. This is the reason they are willing to push hard and take the kinds of risks they do. And the way any organization can achieve this is with empathy.

Chapter 2

Employees Are People Too

Before there was empathy at the company, going to work felt like, well, work. On any given morning, the factory employees would stand at their machines waiting to start at the sound of the bell. And when it rang, on cue they would flip the switches and power up the machines in front of them. Within a few seconds, the whir of the machinery drowned out the sound of their voices. The workday had begun.

About two hours into the day, another bell would ring, announcing the time the workers could take a break. The machines would stop and nearly every worker would leave their post. Some went to the bathroom. Some went to grab another cup of coffee. And some just sat by their machines, resting until the bell told them to start work again. A few hours later, the bell would sound again, this time to let them know they were now allowed to leave the building for lunch. This was the way it had always been done. --This text refers to the kindle_edition_av edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00DGZKQM8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; Reprint, Revised edition (January 7, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 7, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3481 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 363 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #107,701 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #63 in Business Teams
- #80 in Social Psychology & Interactions
- #219 in Business Leadership

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4.7 14,867 ratings

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Simon Sinek

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Simon Sinek is an optimist. He teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. From members of Congress to foreign ambassadors, from small businesses to corporations like Microsoft and 3M, from Hollywood to the Pentagon, he has presented his ideas about the power of why. He has written two books, Leaders Eat Last and Start With Why and is quoted frequently by national publications. Sinek also regularly shares 140 characters of inspiration on Twitter (@simonsinek).

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2023

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Simon Sinek is one of my favorite authors related to business and leadership. He knows how to pull concepts into relatable stories and then use the stories to have meaningful conversations around concepts of leadership. I read this book as part of a leadership book club and we had some excellent discussions. All of his books have been good. I particularly liked this one.

I will say, as a millennial, I feel some of his discussions on my generation were a bit judgmental rather than constructive in the last chapter. Once he got to how to “manage” or help the millennial generation past the initial complaint session, I found most the tips relatable and agreed that they were things I was looking for in a manager or employer.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 25, 2023

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Great book! Simon Sinek truly shows you what leadership is, what leaders do and don't do , more importantly. I am totally going to re-read this and pass it on!

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Sean Murphy

Stories And Studies That Will Make You Think!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2020

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Once I finished "Leaders Eat Last", I noticed that most of the highlighting I had done in the book was in the first 1/4-1/2. That's not to say that the book wasn't well rounded, but I took more away from the front half than I did the back half. Throughout the book, you'll read about a number of studies/stories that Sinek uses to drive home several of his points. To me, this way of teaching really helps to solidify the lessons being taught.

I started this book thinking it would be heavily focused on business and how to be a better manager. Once I completed the book, I was surprised to find that the intent was about being a better person, not simply a better leader. There are a number of key points in the book where I had to stop for a moment and look to my past organizations and day dream about how Sinek's lessons seemed to ring true in my own working life. "Leaders Eat Last" helped to open my mind to show what organizations (and leaders) in my past did well, did poorly, and how it changed the culture within the given organization.

"Leaders Eat Last" is a great read for anyone looking to improve on their leadership qualities, and in return, improve their organizations. There are several videos online featuring Sinek. These videos incorporate a number of the same stories and studies mentioned in "Leaders Eat Last" (some word for word). Watching these videos after I completed the book helped me to understand many of the points that Sinek was making.

"Leaders Eat Last" is a much easier read than a number of management style books on the market. The featured stories are exciting, the studies mentioned are relevant (and different than what other books mention), and Sinek's style of writing kept me engaged. I do wish the ending of the book was as strong as the beginning, but I believe "Leaders Eat Last" should be on the shelf of anyone looking to rank up in their given profession.

If you ever have looked at a book after I got done reading it, you'd notice I am "one of those readers". The books are filled with random highlights and Post-It bookmarks, that point to things I found interesting or that I wanted to remember. Here are some of my favorite highlights from "Leaders Eat Last"-some spoilers possible. These highlights are just some of my takeaways. Just because I highlighted a thought, does not mean I share this same belief or that I am in agreement:

"I know of no study in history that describes an organization that has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led"

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader"

"As employees or members of the group, we need the courage to take care of each other when our leaders don't. And in doing so, we become the leaders we wish we had"

Sinek points to the nomadic Mongolian families as an example showcasing that certain groups who, "may not have much", share what little they do have with others because it's in their best interest (and survival) to do so.

I found Chapter 13 "Abstraction Kills" to be the best chapter in the book. In this chapter, Sinek goes into detail about how the trial of horrible experiment(s) in Nazi Germany, resulted in individuals pleading innocence because they were simply following orders. Sinek couples this story with the Milgram Experiment. In this study, we see that people will push the limits simply to obey orders. I found Chapter 13 to be relevant to a number of fields still today. We often watch the news and find someone did something (or lack of action) simply because a higher power advised them to do so. The lack of connection between the two parties often resulted in unfortunate circumstances.

In Chapter 15 "Managing the Abstraction" Sinek does a terrific shop in showing that numbers aren't always the best way to tell a story. Sinek describes the optics of the brutality of a government on its own people (a large number) vs a detailed story about the death of a young female (one person, but with detail). Both are horrible and sad situations, but in most cases a connection is stronger with a small number and a story, then a number that is almost too big for us to comprehend. "At some point the numbers lose their connection to the people and become just numbers, void of meaning.

Sinek details a story about Captain Marquet who was set to take command of the most efficient crew in the US Navy. Captain Marquet was moved to take command of the lowest ranking crew (but with one of the newest subs). Through a series of events Captain Marquet had to change his management style and admit that it was not about his command, rather it was the crews ability to work together that resulted in a complete turnaround.

Lastly, one of my favorite highlights of "Leaders Eat Last", was Sinek's take on the idea of participation trophies and rewards. "Rewards for basic participation have other adverse effects as well. They not only deny children the chance to learn important lessons about adversity, loss, and resilience, but they can also encourage complacency and overconfidence.

30 people found this helpful

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chris

beginners guide and expert reevaluation guide to being a better and more effective leader

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 21, 2023

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Inspired by the plain English ways and examples in addition to statistics to be a leader. God (His ways)was not left out of this book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2023

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It kind of seemed all over the place. Otherwise a great read.

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Kathleen Mansfield

Good leadership tips about creating healthy, successful environments

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2019

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I read this book as an assignment for one of my doctoral classes. Having never read Sinek’s work before, I was hoping to glean some leadership tips. Overall, this book gives some good, solid tips for creating successful work environments, changing the toxic idea of placing profits before people, and working with millennials. Although I enjoyed this book and took away many leadership ideas, I would have rated it higher if it hadn’t contained flawed information about human biology and millennials.
Taking the title from a Marine Corps tradition where officers eat after the junior enlisted men, Simon Sinek uses this leadership practice to exemplify successful, safe and trustworthy environments.
He claims there is a need to feel safe held by employees and that it is the job of leaders to create a protective environment, which he calls a Circle of Safety. To create this circle, Sinek shares his idea that human physical chemicals play a part in this process. He develops the idea that toxic environments are led by toxic chemicals which are unchecked by leaders. To create an environment of safety and trust, Sinek shows how to work with the “selfless” chemicals to create balance.
As a former biology instructor, I felt this “research” behind these chemicals was flimsy at best. He claims that evolution has conditioned all humans to be led solely by their chemicals without any restraint by reasonable thought or self-will. He extends this to the realm of work environments, by naming those toxic environments as those led by the bad chemicals. He claims successful environments use the “selfless” chemicals to create environments where everyone is in the Circle of Safety.
Contradicting himself, he claims at one point that everyone has these chemicals and that these primeval urges cannot be stopped. Then, he advocates for environments led by them to change their chemical makeup. If we can’t help it, how are we ever going to be able to change it?
Despite this major flaw, using relatable stories from military and corporate leadership, Sinek provides great examples of failed and successful environments. He also gives steps to help create profitable and healthy environments.
In an interesting section, Sinek points out the addiction of technology tools and social media and how it affects the workplace. He provides leaders with helpful and practical tips to manage these addictions in order to keep a safe, trusting environment within a work setting.
This edition of the book contains an expanded guide to leading millennials in the workplace. His research reveals the tendencies of the group as a whole and how a leader can use those to develop them into workers of integrity, trust, and innovation that benefits everyone.
This section was extremely helpful, but it has received criticism about its overgeneralization of millennial behavior. As someone who works with children and millenials, I found this criticism to be true. Many of the characteristics he mentioned -- especially impatience, inability to deal with failure, and task perseverance -- are seen in younger children rather than millennials. This can be attributed to the influence of technology from a young age, which was not experienced by most millennials since the boom of PCs and mobile phones occurred in the mid-90s.
Also, he unleashes on the “Me” generation, parents of millennials, as the source of the troubles. He makes unfounded assumptions about the background and upbringing of the entire generation, of which he is a part, but never acknowledges as so.
This book gives great advice about creating organizational environments that are healthy and successful. It is filled with real stories of organizations and people who have made a difference in the lives of workers. Although not providing any earth-shattering ideas, it gives solid advice for leaders about creating great environments for their followers.

15 people found this helpful

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C. Smith

Amazing book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 8, 2023

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Building trust, becoming a leader at work or maybe a better parent this book covers so many important topics. One of the best books I've read in year's.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 22, 2023

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John

Vacuous and empty by a fraudster with no expertise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 15, 2019

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This book says nothing more than "treat employees well" - it's totally obvious. As another reader has commented, he has hand-selected anecdotes which he retro-fits to fit his ideas. Another reader says that the book is grounded in evidence. It is not. It uses flimsy, hand-picked evidence which readers lap up because they'd like it to be true ("nice" companies do well and "nasty" companies do badly in the long run). There are lots of examples of companies that failed because they focused excessively on being nice rather than being efficient (see O'Toole's "The Enlightened Capitalists"). He plays to every stereotype and has the standard one-sided populist rants against business, banks, shareholders. He then branches off into the dangers of multitasking and social media which has nothing to do with leadership - this book is everything he wants to say about the world.

This is classic Simon Sinek. He has no expertise - he's neither a top executive, nor a top business journalist, nor a top business researcher, but just makes stuff up and makes it sound good like the advertising executive that he is. He did this with Start With Why (but now claims Apple is an evil company that pays insufficient tax, even though he praised it in SWW) and repeats the formula here. Some of his arguments are completely ludicrous. He claims Wells Fargo is an ethical, motivating company founded on a Why rather than targets. This has been shown to be patently false as targets are what caused Wells Fargo to open fake bank accounts. Moreover, his argument for how Wells Fargo motivated employees was that a customer would come in and tell them a story of how their loan changed their life by allowing them to pay off a debt. He claims that Wells Fargo serves some higher purpose by doing this - when all it is is giving a customer debt to pay off debt, so the customer is just as indebted as before.

75 people found this helpful

Wilberforce

An empty credo

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 2, 2019

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A book of baseless assertions 'supported' by anecdotes spun to suit them, founded on the idea that military leadership is applicable to real-world organisations. (It isn't.) Business journalism at its most eye-catching and most awful.

35 people found this helpful

E. Gopalakrishnan

The science of great leadership

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 13, 2022

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This book is truly amazing. I can't imagine the amount of time that went into doing all the research behind this book.
The anecdotes are so good, you just keep reading/listening, based on whether you're using audible or not.
Sinek is a great story teller and this book is an example of how to explain what most people might consider relatively difficult topics in a very interesting way.
The psychology and the play of hormones behind our behaviours was probably the most valuable part for me. I had never thought of it that way prior to reading the book. And suddenly a lot of things that I kept wondering about started making sense.
I wish I had read this book before I took the leap to a leadership role. But maybe I wouldn't have been able to relate it as much if I hadn't given leadership a shot and made my own mistakes earlier.
I loved it once and I am sure I will read it many times throughout my career to remind me how to keep being an amazing leader.

5 people found this helpful

Nonny Mouse

Excessive examples detract from worthwhile core idea

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 3, 2020

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Leaders Eat Last is a worthwhile read. I would give it 3/5 stars with the following comments:

Sinek offers a brief explanation of how psychology and biochemistry guide our choices and behaviours. He then develops this by proposing his ‘Circle of Safety’ theory of human behaviour, and relates this to working environments. I found this part of the book the most compelling. Although not intended to be an academic text, he grounds his theory in scientific evidence, expressed in uncomplicated straightforward language. He also provides real-world examples to develop your understanding and to place his explanations firmly within a work or business context.

Further into the book historical context is given to support the observation that workplace cultures change along with the psychologies of those that inhabit them- I found this worthy of reflection, although it was a little long and tedious in places. Whilst not an instruction manual for creating workplace trust, nor a presentation of ‘The Business Case for Workplace Altruism’ it is possible to glean ‘dos and don’ts’ from the many case studies given.

Whilst undeniably hopeful, there are several areas for improvement. The book lost 2 stars because the examples became repetitive after the first few chapters; I found them excessive and unnecessary. They didn’t add anything to the argument being made. The structure and pace of the book also left much to be desired. I kept reading hoping that the last two-thirds of the book would show a development of the author’s ideas, but they merely re-stated the first third with another gush of case studies.

I think the ideas in this text would have been expressed in a more interesting way if they had been presented as a series of three or four essays. This might have curbed Sinek's habit of repetition and overuse of illustrative examples, making his arguments clear and more persuasive. He might have paced himself more effectively and linked his ideas better (for example his explanation of the Baby Boomer and Millenial work ethics).

7 people found this helpful

@Timothy_Hughes

Not as good as “Start with Why” and “The Infinite Game” but worth a read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 23, 2020

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Not as good as “Start with Why” and “The Infinite Game” but worth a read. In the book Simon describes a number of the drugs that the body makes when it does certain things. As always Simon has some great examples and case studies. The reader must understand that Simon backs his arguments with a sample of one and we should never use a sample of one. Just because one company is “bad” it does not make all companies "bad". Must admit, I found that last 100 pages tiresome as Simon as these are all based around Simon’s opinion.

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