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

by Simon Sinek

The more abstract people become, the more capable we are of doing them harm.

Further proof of how much the quality of our work improves when we can attach a human being to the results

When we don’t have a sense of belonging, we wear a T-shirt stamped with the company logo to sleep in or while painting the house.

The cross-pollination of ideas—combined with an emphasis on sharing across product lines—has led to an atmosphere of collaboration that makes 3M a place where employees feel valued.

3M has succeeded not because they hire the best and the brightest (though I am sure they would argue that they do), but because they have a corporate culture that encourages and rewards people for helping each other and sharing everything they learn. Though 3M surely has its share of problems and bureaucracy, they work very hard to foster collaboration.

“Those at the top,” explains Captain Marquet, “have all the authority and none of the information. Those at the bottom,” he continues, “have all the information and none of the authority.

The more energy is transferred from the top of the organization to those who are actually doing the job, those who know more about what’s going on on a daily basis, the more powerful the organization and the more powerful the leader.

Building trust requires nothing more than telling the truth.

The impact of leadership is also best judged over time.

The only reason people like Johnny Bravo, or any Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine, are willing to risk their lives for the person to the left or right of them is because they have the utmost confidence that the person at their side would do the same for them.

It is not the work we remember with fondness, but the camaraderie, how the group came together to get things done.

Our challenge is that our visions of the future are confined to our means. We need to reframe our visions to outsize the resources we have to realize them.

What ignites the human spirit is when the leaders of our organizations offer us a reason to grow. Aiming for the quarter or the year just isn’t that compelling, it doesn’t offer much of a struggle.

Human beings have thrived for fifty thousand years not because we are driven to serve ourselves, but because we are inspired to serve others. That’s the value of Step Twelve. All we need are leaders to give us a good reason to commit ourselves to each other.

We all want to work for a company with a clear sense of Why and have our work be worth more than the money we are paid to do it.

Encourage Notetaking on Paper Instead of Computers According to a study published in Psychological Science, those who take notes on paper are better at processing and retaining information.