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

by Simon Sinek

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

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.

Every single employee is someone’s son or someone’s daughter. Like a parent, a leader of a company is responsible for their precious lives.

Being a leader is like being a parent, and the company is like a new family to join. One that will care for us like we are their own . . . in sickness and in health. And if we are successful, our people will take on our company’s name as a sign of the family to which they are loyal.

The leaders of great organizations do not see people as a commodity to be managed to help grow the money. They see the money as the commodity to be managed to help grow their people.

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.

a child’s sense of well-being is affected less by the long hours their parents put in at work and more by the mood their parents are in when they come home.

There are four primary chemicals in our body that contribute to all our positive feelings that I will generically call “happy”: endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. Whether acting alone or in concert, in small doses or large, anytime we feel any sense of happiness or joy, odds are it is because one or more of these chemicals is coursing through our veins.

ENDORPHINS SERVE ONE purpose and one purpose only: to mask physical pain.

DOPAMINE IS THE reason for the good feeling we get when we find something we’re looking for or do something that needs to get done.

There is another thing to add to that list of things that can hijack our dopamine reward system: social media. Texting, e-mail, the number of likes we collect, the ding, the buzz or the flash of our phones that tells us “You’ve got mail,” feels amazing.

Oxytocin boosts our immune systems, makes us better problem solvers and makes us more resistant to the addictive qualities of dopamine. Unlike dopamine, which is largely responsible for instant gratification, oxytocin gives us lasting feelings of calm and safety.

“All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren’t meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaces you. Because you only ever deserved a Styrofoam cup.”

Our ability to work hard and muscle through hard labor is thanks to endorphins.

Our ability to set goals, focus and get things done comes from the incentivizing powers of dopamine.

Serotonin helps to ensure we look out for those who follow us and do right by those who lead us.

the mysterious power of oxytocin helps us form bonds of love and trust.

Trust is like lubrication. It reduces friction and creates conditions much more conducive to performance.

What too many leaders of organizations fail to appreciate is that it’s not the people that are the problem. The people are fine. Rather, it’s the environment in which the people operate that is the problem.

It’s not how smart the people in the organization are; it’s how well they work together that is the true indicator of future success or the ability to manage through struggle.

“No one wakes up in the morning to go to work with the hope that someone will manage us. We wake up in the morning and go to work with the hope that someone will lead us.” The problem is, for us to be led, there must be leaders we want to follow.

What produces loyalty, that irrational willingness to commit to the organization even when offered more money elsewhere, is the feeling that the leaders of the company would be willing, when it matters, to sacrifice their time and energy to help us.

The chain of command remained intact. The only difference was a psychological shift. The person performing the action now owned the action instead of carrying out an assigned task.

“I can’t delegate my legal responsibilities, I can’t delegate my relationships and I can’t delegate my knowledge. Everything else, however, I can ask others to take responsibility for,”

“The goal of a leader is to give no orders,” Captain Marquet explains. “Leaders are to provide direction and intent and allow others to figure out what to do and how to get there.” And this is the challenge most organizations face. “We train people to comply, not to think,”

taking responsibility for one’s actions must happen at the time you perform your actions, not at the time you get caught.”

Leadership, the Marines understand, is not about being right all the time. Leadership is not a rank worn on a collar. It is a responsibility that hinges almost entirely on character. Leadership is about integrity, honesty and accountability.

When we are disconnected from the people with whom we work, we spend more time focused on our own needs than the needs of the people for whom we’re supposed to be responsible.

A rising tide lifts all ships.

Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

According to the American Psychological Association, “shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone’s productive time.”

those who think they are more productive because they are better at multitasking are just wrong. What they are better at is being distracted.

Addiction, in any form, undermines relationships. The desire for instant gratification allows no time for relationships to develop.

And then there is oxytocin. Those feelings of trust and love, all those warm and fuzzies, as it turns out, are critical to helping us beat addiction.

Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more. And that’s the trouble. Leadership takes work. It takes time and energy. The effects are not always easily measured and they are not always immediate. Leadership is always a commitment to human beings.