Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Leaders Eat Last Reviews

• 
  Muneel Zaidi

  As a U.S. Air Force officer and pilot, I receive professional military education on leadership regularly, so much so that it is almost a nuisance. From personal experience, I can firmly say that great leaders are not born, they are developed by their experiences and knowledge. The knowledge from this book has definitely made me a better leader.
  
  Sinek's main purpose in writing this book is not to help others become better leaders so that they can jump up the corporate ladder, motivate subordinates, or increase productivity. The message of this book is that we need better leaders so we can have a better world; empathy is at the heart of his argument.
  
  I highly recommend this book for everybody, I don't care if you are a CEO or a shelf-stocker. Leadership is not a position you have, but the person you are. When leading an organization, you don't want a team of dedicated followers ready to do your every whim, you want people who can lead themselves and those around them to accomplish the task.
  
  This book will tell you that always making a profit for your company, being number one, or successfully accomplishing your mission does not make you a good leader. That is determined by how you go about achieving your results. It will also ask you:
  
  Did you set up your organization for a short term gain or long term success?
  Did you empower your team and develop them into leaders, or just tell them what to do?
  Did you forgo personal gain to succeed, or choose to compromise your integrity instead?
  Did you create a culture that promotes a circle of trust, or did you create a culture that only values results?
  
  I'm convinced reading this book will make a vast majority of people better leaders. I want everybody to read this book. Not just because I want everybody to be a better leader, but because a better leader is always a better person.
• 
  Lisa of Troy

  Simon raises some solid points: Employees should enjoy going into work.
  
  However, Simon didn't really get practical enough. He didn’t go far enough. Leaders need to listen and then ACT. The main part of LEADER is LEAD. It is a verb. When an employee is vulnerable and shares something that is horribly wrong, a real problem, the employee doesn’t just want a nod and mmm yes. They want something done. Need something done. Simon spoke about an employer where the employees complained about the lack of autonomy. Every morning the workers would have to come in based on a bell and hear another bell to start lunch and another bell to end lunch. Equipment was locked up because they didn’t trust the employees. Here’s the deal: The leader didn’t just say, “You can set your own schedule.” He actually took away the punch cards and the alarm. He clipped the locks on the equipment. A true leader needs to listen and act.
  
  Simon wrote in the book about leading millennials and how they will quit their jobs as soon as they suspect “this place isn’t for me.” However, times have changed since the Boomer generation (His words not mine). The new hires are not eligible for pensions that the leaders at the top are earning. The new hires have the opposite of a pension. They have a tremendous amount of student loan debt. Some corporations have not caught up with the times. In some companies, a new hire has to wait until someone dies or retires to be promoted. Talk about killing employee morale (Pun intended). New hires are simply not tolerating hands-off upper management who aren’t investing in them and do not have a clear career path for them. They can’t wait to “maybe” be promoted someday 10 years from now. With LinkedIn, the Millennial who knows they don’t have a career path can just now sit back and wait for recruiters to call and accept a position at another company.
  
  However, Simon doesn't address this in the book. The pyramid might have worked in the pension era, but in the digital age where a person is expected to do the work of three because they have technology and constantly evolve his or her skillset, employees need the opportunity to earn promotions. Otherwise, the best people will leave for better offers. And it isn't difficult to find better offers. Salary information at competitors is now available at the click of a few buttons.
  
  Although I agree with Simon's research and sentiments, the book seemed to start off strong and then became repetitive and a bit of a chore to read. I would highly recommend watching the YouTube video where the best parts of the book were retained, and the rest cut.
  
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• 
  Maya Senen

  Truthfully, you are better served watching this brief TED Talk delivered by Simon Sinek himself. Here:
  http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_...?
  
  The book is bloated and unconvincing stretch of some already very simple ideas. No need to tell me about the chemicals of human survival or studies with statistics out of context which are not representative in the least...
• 
  Tyler Hurst

  While this didn't blow me away like Start With Why did, it did validate a lot of things I've always hoped were true.
  
  First, good leaders empower their teams to function on their own, and this often means that once leaders move on, continued or increased success isn't necessarily because you left rather because you were there.
  
  I can think of a few groups I've been involved in that did this, which makes me feel great.
  
  Second, that team creation is the most important thing of leadership. Recruiting and working with fantastically talented people means you'll be able to spend more time on things that matter.
  
  Third, that the leaders we may have thought were leaders really were not, and that the Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers, while hard workers and excellent people, may have caused far more damage to our culture than we initially thought. This surprised me, but looking back, it makes complete sense (note, they were acting with the best intentions with the information they had at the time, so I don't think they should be demonized for this).
  
  Fourth, a good leader doesn't give commands, they create an environment when commands aren't always needed.
  
  Fifth, leadership is a role, and it's not limited to alphas. We can all be leaders, dependent on context and situation, and the leadership position is no more important than many others. It's a role someone has to fill.
  
  You should read it.
  
• 
  BL834

  I read the first seven chapters. I just couldn't finish it. Sinek has some really good points mixed in with pseudo-science and weird assumptions. The chapters should be titled:
  
  1: OOO RAH
  2: Don't be a dick
  3: Condescension
  4: Obvious AND oblivious
  5: My theories of Anthropology
  6: My theories of Biology
  7: Go Team!
  
  DNF pg 61 (about 30%)
• 
  Hamad

  
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  “Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.”

  
  
  September Non-Fiction book of the month!
  
  This is not a book that I would have picked by myself. I decided to read this one because my younger brother has a copy and he told me it was a good book. My younger brother is not really a reader but he followed the rule “if you can’t beat them join them” and decided to do what I do and try reading more book in his field. He studied business and marketing so I do understand him liking the book. I am as a general layman and a doctor found it good but nothing extraordinary.
  
  I also don’t know the author that much. He has popped up on my IG and sometimes on Youtube shorts and he is a very good speaker and in my opinion and many of the people who read the book. He is a better speaker than an author. Don’t get me wrong. It is not a bad book but it is simple and discusses a lot of things that sounded logical to me.
  
  The book has an audience and it is anyone in place to be a leader. I think my ex-boss could use this book very much. Once again, for me it all sounded like natural things to do but looking around me, it seems that most of the actual “leaders” don’t do these stuff.
  
  I liked the biological basis discussed in the book with the role that the chemicals in the brain play in everything including leadership. However, Sinek went over and over these points to the point that it became a bit redundant. I expected them to be a part of a chapter or two but no the whole book.
  
  Another point that kind of irked me is the glorification of everything relating to the US specially the military arm. I don’t know how to explain it but when it comes to politics there is no black and white in my opinion and there is only a grey zone. The author makes it sound like the US armies are doing a great job in everything they do. The author is American so it is his right to do so but as someone who looks at the bigger picture, it rubbed me the wrong way.
  
  Summary: I read this book because of my brother. He is in the business section which the book is helpful for. For general people like me, it was just an okay book that did not really add life altering advice to me -at least not until I become a boss-
• 
  Matthew

  Started and ended well, but I didn't enjoy the middle as much.
  
  With that said, it is still a worthy read, and here a few of my favorite takeaways...
  
  "Empathy is the single greatest asset to do your job"
  
  "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader"
  
  "It is not the genius at the top giving directions that make people great. It is the great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius"
  
  "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"
  
  "A supportive and well-managed work environment is good for one’s health. Those who feel they have more control, who feel empowered to make decisions instead of waiting for approval suffer less stress. Those only doing as they are told, always forced to follow the rules are the ones who suffer the most"
  
  "Leaders are the ones willing to look out for those to the left of them and those to the right of them. They are often willing to sacrifice their own comfort for ours, even when they disagree with us"
  
• 
  Ursula Kallio

  Meh. Within this book, Sinek summaries my own experience reading his book: "This is no soapbox rambling. It is just biology." Actually, it is soapbox rambling.
  
  Although unsurprising based on his background, Sinek writes from a heavily military-oriented perspective. I found myself needing to inject "she", "her", "they", and "their" an awful lot because this book reads old fashioned. It makes the female workforce somewhat invisible by omission.
  
  Content I found useful:
  * "A consumer is just that: an abstraction of a person who we hope will consume whatever we have to offer."
  * "It is not the abundance we need to manage or restrict, it is the abstraction."
  * "Give authority to those closest to the information."
  * "'At 3M ... We never throw an idea away because you never know when someone else will need it.'"
  
  Content that turned me off:
  * "The world around us is filled with danger. Filled with things trying to make our lives miserable." Is this a given.
  * "Letting someone into an organization is like adopting a child." By that logic, I should have felt like an adopted child several times over by now. Furthermore, what parent has adopted 100s - 1000s of children.
  * "Without oxytocin, we would have no partner [with whom] to raise our children." Two words (with whom) could have completely changed the meaning of this sentence, but unfortunately I do not think that is what the author intended. At best, it is unclear.
  * "This is the feeling we get when we all hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya' together."
  * "We have no problem with someone who outranks us at work making more money than us, getting a bigger office or a better parking space." To what extent is this true.
  
• 
  Morgan Blackledge

  God dang this is a good book. I have to say, Sinek NAILED IT!
  
  Sinek is a Brit, and therefor different than an American in an absolutely crucial way.
  
  Like other British intellectuals, he's not afraid to integrate the evolutionary perspective into his theory and analysis.
  
  Maybe it's because Charles Darwin is British. Maybe it's because all of the super psycho religious fanatics came over here (America) circa 300 years ago. Probably a little of both.
  
  What ever the reason. British intellectuals demonstrate a kind of ease when referring to evolution where as Americans tend to feel at least a little self conscious about dropping the E bomb in public.
  
  If you're an American you know how polarizing Darwin's dangerous idea can be. We sort of have to tip toe around the subject (if we go there at all) for fear of alienating someone in the audience.
  
  Trying to navigate the stultifying, anti-intellectual culture of American christianity is a little bit like how I imagine being an intellectual in communist Russia must've been like.
  
  You know, the walls have ears, we have to be carful about what we say and how we say it. That sort of thing.
  
  Of course, there is no equivalent Gulag or anything like it. But suffice it to say, in a country where conservative estimates report somewhere between 50-70 percent of Americans believe in the literal existence of angels, there is a lot of pressure on our intellectuals to steer clear the evolutionary perspective (at least in public discourse) if you want your career to survive and reproduce (if you catch my drift).
  
  Anyway, Sinek comes large with the Darwin.
  
  In fact, the evolutionary perspective is essentially the foundation of his analysis and theory of effective leadership and more broadly, of human behavior.
  
  And for good reason. evolutionary psychology has clarity and profound explanatory and predictive power. Why wouldn't you apply it to managerial and leadership theory.
  
  Sinek also sprinkles in some neurobiology. Although he paints in broad strokes and his science is a little soft. He achieves his important mission of grounding human behavior in biology.
  
  He even attributes corporate short sidedness and greed to an addiction to dopaminergic activation. Not unlike other behavioral addictions, like for instance ummmm...gambling?
  
  Maybe he's going out on a limb with this one but I'm willing to be generous with him here ;-)
  
  Sinek also utilizes the findings experimental psychology quite effectively. Again he paints in broad strokes, but he nails his intention of supporting his hypothesis with some very relatable, very dramatic experimental data.
  
  While the scientific method isn't precisely a British export. British dudes like Newton have been using it for years with some pretty neat results. That Karl Popper dude is from the U.K. too. I'm pretty sure he contributed a coupe of important things to the philosophy of science.
  
  Sinek is also a really good storyteller. Another classically British trait. He is charismatic and impassioned, just a bit of a bullshitter and really entertaining. I bet he could rock a pub if he was so inclined.
  
  It's really one of the BIG strengths of this book. It's very informal, fun, inspirational and engaging.
  
  You get the feeling that it's almost too easy for Sinek. He brings just a little Darwin and a little neuroscience to the land of the Jesus barbarians and wows em'. At least the smart ones anyway. It's probably like taking candy from a baby.
  
  In the end, it's Sinek's humanistic values (yet another highly British trait) that really shine through and make the message literally irresistible.
  
  In a nutshell, Sinek's message is great leadership is all about putting people and relationships first. And demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice your individual comfort for the good of the team.
  
  In the end, Sinek is expounding the real, tangible, dollars and cents benefits of prioritizing cooperation over strictly self interested competition in the name of longterm benefit. Maximizing nonzero-sum gains if you will. A very neo-Darwinian insight.
  
  Not only does it feel good to put people before profits, it's also (ironically) more profitable. Furthermore, the reason it feels good to lead by example, to put your people first, and for that matter to follow a leader who does so, is because we're hard wired to survive in this way. And all of our happy chemicals squirt when we're in this type of social environment.
  
  Human beings are wired to win via cooperating. Chimpanzees lead via domination. Effective human leadership emerges from environments of empathetic cooperation. That's (ironically) why were the dominant primate species on the planet and not chimpanzees.
• 
  Linh

  All right, folks. No need to thank me, but I'm about to summarize the entire point of Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek in one sentence for you. Here it is:
  
  To be a good leader, you must care for those you lead.
  
  Dassit. Should it take 300 pages to drive home this point? In my opinion, definitely no. But I suppose those that don't agree or understand the statement above might find value from reading this. 🤷‍♀️
  
  Before I walk away from this book and never think about or revisit it ever again; I'm going to leave the one single quote that I thought was worth highlighting -
  
  

  The biggest thing the self-help industry seems to have helped is itself.
• 
  Христо Блажев

  За лидерството, вдъхновението и смисъла:
  http://knigolandia.info/book-review/l...
  
  Изхождайки от всичко това, “Лидерите винаги обядват последни” на Саймън Синек ми привлече вниманието, най-малкото защото системата на сегашната ми работа позволява такава самостоятелност, че всеки от нас е своего рода лидер на екипи от хора, които работят по безбройните проекти. И ако нещо наистина искам, това е хората, които ми се доверяват и работят неуморно, да бъдат щастливи от това – и да не го правят само за парите, макар те да са важни. Все пак си давам ясна сметка, че някои успешни лидери, които познавам, или дори лидери-тирани като Илън Мъск и Стив Джобс, са абсолютно отрицание на всяка дума в тази книга – но постигат резултати по свой различен, често смазващ за хората начин. Така че и може и така.
  
  ИК Кръгозор
  
  http://knigolandia.info/book-review/l...
• 
  Michael

  Incredible. Love the concept of the Circle of Safety. Great tie in to recovery and Step 12. Sinek examines how four chemicals incentivize and repeat behaviors. They are:
  Dopamine - Gratification, tied to addiction
  Cortisol - Fear, stress
  Oxytocin - Serving, being a part of
  Endorphins - Runner's High
  
  Makes a strong case for Empathy as a major missing component in organizations.
  
  "Empathy is not the something we offer to our customers or our employees from nine to five. Empathy is, as Johnny Bravo explains, "a second by second, minute by minute service that [we] owe to everyone if [we] want to call [ourselves] a leader."
  
  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." p. 214 Hardcover, 1st Edition.
• 
  Katarina Szulenyiova

  I never thought I could hate a book more than I hated
  Fifty Shades of Grey, but here we are...
  
  While 50 Shades was atrocious, at least it was not masquerading as self-respectable business book, whereas Sinek lost absolutely any credibility he might have had by pretending this book was anything more than an overstretched TED talk with zero new insights to bring on the table.
  
  I have never ever NOT finished a book before, but this one will have to break the rule. My free time is too precious to spend it on regurgitated case studies wrapped in appallingly weak and simplistic sentences, following next-to-no storyline.
  
  56% down the line and after three painful hours forcing myself to read on in the hope of finding anything resembling substance, I give up.
• 
  Briana Ford

  Like many people, I loved Start With Why, and was really anticipating this book. Wow, what a let down. Simon's thoughts were sort of all over the place. It started out strong, providing great examples of good & bad leaders, how leaders can influence company loyalty. Then there were parts of the book where I was like "what is he talking about and what does this have to do with leadership?" He'd get to the point eventually, but he was reaching more often than I would've liked. Stopped 84% into the book. I would've finished, but the last few chapters I listened to weren't promising, and I didn't see how he was going to save it. Disappointed, not the best leadership book by a long stretch.
• 
  Yousif Al Zeera

  Simon Sinek really inspire you into something big. Following his initial great book "Start With Why", he immensely added great value by discussing a crucial element into the success of any organization, and that is the "environment/atmosphere". As it is titled, "Why Some Teams Pull Together?". You have a team with great education and great skills but how they are pulled together into long-term success? Simon delves into biology, evolution, anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, economics and much more and share his insights.
• 
  Pawel Domagala

  Overrated. (in my opinion)
  
  I just don't like it and did not enjoy reading EVEN despite the fact I do agree with most of the mentioned theories. I couldn't get rid of the impression that author is trying to get easy applause by combining common truths (or statesments you can't deny) and unobvious, "sensational" findings (better presented in many other books, btw).
  
  What annoys me the most, Simon Sinek does not leave much room for independent thinking and drawing conclusions by reader himself... he preach. Perhaps he himself does not believe that his reasoning can lead the reader to appropriate conclusions? I wouldn't be surprised to be honest, as there is everything from soup to nuts in this book what make it looks like an essay in which student is trying to prove that he has read enough books related to the field.
  
  Summing up, I do not argue with presented concepts, just don't like the way they were presented. :)
  
• 
  Iman Narimani

  یه کتاب خیلی عالی برای مدیریت و رهبری در سازمان که میتونه دیدگاه ادم رو نسبت به خیلی از اتفاقات در سازمان تغییر بده. کتاب بیشتر نگرشی هست و با خوندنش میتونیم تو تصمیمات که در سازمان میگیریم موفق تر عمل کنیم. و ادم با خوندن این کتاب ها کلی حسرت میخوره که چرا دقیقا برعکس اینها تو سازمان های ما انجام میشه...
  
  بخشی از کتاب:
  مشتریان عاشق یک شرکت نمی شوند، مگر آنکه کارکنان آن شرکت عاشقش باشند.
• 
  Bogdan Blaga

  A very insightful book about people behavior, social mindset and modern company cultures. It ties in nicely concepts of human psychology with the biological mechanisms inside us to give an explanation of human behaviors and how to deal with them. Personally, I recommend this book to everyone working in an organization today but especially those that lead or aim at leading an organization some day.
• 
  Mid-Continent Public Library

  With examples of successful pro-active steps taken to improve working environments, this book is an excellent read to evaluate your action and reaction in the workplace no matter your role. Easy to read and written without jargon, pomp, and filler.
  
  On a personal note I was forced to purchase this book as my post-it notes were getting out of hand! This is something I intend to read again.
  
  Lisa - Information and Readers Services Department
• 
  Daphne Hazlehurst

  In my opinion, the high rating on Goodreads was rather misleading. I found this book to be annoyingly redundant. It regurgitated a lot of very obvious and simple information that has been studied before by others. The cases presented were interesting on their own, but I felt they were excessive bunched together as evidence of his argument.
• 
  Jeremiah Lorrig

  This book reminded me why I hate “Leadership” books. It moralizes, picks great sounding principles out of a hat, and uses questionable science and asserts a lot about social studies, as undeniable evidence of his own dubious theories.
  
  I did find a few helpful nuggets, but it is probably not worth wading through the whole book.
• 
  Christine Hamblen

  I loved this book! It is packed with relevant stories of effective and ineffective leadership, giving me the insight and strength to recognize applications in my own life.
• 
  Ema Patrichi

  Minunat scrie Sinek. Minunat si bine. E o carte potrivita pentru profesori, pentru parinti, ar putea fi lecturata si de catre adolescenti. Cultura organizationala e de mare interes si actualitate acum, se aplica foarte bine si scolilor si claselor de elevi. M-a ajutat domnul Sinek sa imi explic nu doar cum functionam noi, dar si de ce au actionat intr-un anume fel oameni din toata lumea, sefi si lideri, manageri de companii, militari, profesori, oameni de business si nu numai. Functionam foarte bine doar in legatura cu altii, totul are sens doar prin eforturile tuturor. De fiecare data cand cineva se pune pe sine inaintea altora, echilibrul se strica. Daca am putea vedea acest lucru in actiunile noastre!
• 
  Jacob

  Well, I figured it would be near impossible to do better than his first book, "Start With Why" and this comes really close :)
  
  I watched the introduction video of Simon's on YouTube and was really surprised when he talked about good leadership being a "literal" part of human survival. I didn't see how a leadership book was going to go there but it did.
  
  The book sticks to science by discussing in part how our own physiology as humans plays a part of our own satisfaction in the work place. This breaks down the various chemicals in our body that are designed to help us survive but often reinforce a negative environment.
  
  One of the key things I took from this is how leaders have to essentially care for the people in their ranks the same way a parent cares for their children. We would have a lot less turn over and decrease expenses if instead of dismissing people who don't meet expectations we instead think of how we can help them grow into who we need them to be.
  
  I also love his premise that we all have the responsibility to be leaders by keeping the circle of safety strong. When we feel safe, able to be vulnerable, we are able to work at our very best.
  
  These are just a few of the many strong insights and powerful ideas in this book. I would strongly recommend this for anyone who works with other people.
• 
  Mihnea

  A book probably every leader should read.
  
  Simon Sinek offers insights on how biological triggers and mechanisms work in the context of team-work and leadership, and explanations on why certain leader behaviors are appreciated or disliked by their peers. At the same time, Sinek offers some advice on how better to treat peers, colleagues and subordinates from the perspective of a leader or co-worker.
  
  One gets a better understanding and appreciation of how our biological wiring works in current times with the technology, habits and rituals of modern society.
• 
  Daniel Hrenak

  Túto knihu by som dal povinne čítať každému, kto vedie ľudí. A ako doporučené čítanie každému kto je vedený. Aby si ľudia uvedomili o čom to celé je alebo môže byť. :) Nie je dôležitá funkcia, ale človek. Nie je dôležité byt neomylný a tváriť sa sebavedomo, ale byť ľudský a úprimný. Tak si môžeme zachrániť ľudí v tíme, zdravý rozum a pohľad na vzťahy a svet.