Leaders Eat Last

I love Simon Sinek, and recommend that anyone who has an interest in leadership and organizational behavior explore his work and follow him. He has a great way of conveying ideas in a way that makes them seem like common sense, and he provides context and real-world examples to illustrate his points.

This particular book really resonates with me, as it is very much aligned with my style and approach of leadership, built on the principle that the leaders have a responsibility to their teams, like a duty of care, and that true leaders elevate the organization and the individuals within the organization, regardless of team and organizational boundaries – they make people feel included, valued and trusted, with leaders sacrificing their own comforts to protect their people.

This aligns very much with my beliefs and values, and I would say that I have been very fortunate in having had outstanding teams that were able to do incredible things given the guidance, motivation, and encouragement. In many cases, people who had struggled under command-and-control style leadership – where decisions were made at the leadership level and down-streamed to the foot soldiers to dutifully execute – flourished and thrived when brought into an environment where people were empowered to step up, make decisions, take some risks, and occasionally make mistakes.