Book Review – Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek is closing in on 20 million views of his TED talk entitled “How great leaders inspire action,” the second-highest viewed speech on the not-for-profit’s website. If you’ve seen it, you likely agree that it’s highly effective and indeed it works quite well as summary of his outstanding first book, Start With Why. In the past five years, Sinek has branded the sticky theme that people don’t care what you do or how you do it, they only care why – great advice for anyone who needs to spark action by motivating a single person or entire teams. In his follow-up, Leaders Eat Last, Sinek tackles career fulfillment, saying “having a job we hate is as bad for our health and sometimes worse than not having a job at all.” He holds executives largely responsible for the malaise that is the unhappy employee, using military tales to help make his point (with the title being a tip of the cap to Marine officers who always let their troops eat first). As great as his prior book was, this one is a bit of a letdown, feeling at times like a disorganized collection of blog articles strung together by yarn and bubble gum.

But let’s focus on the quality parts. As a business owner, leader, or regular earthling, you will benefit by knowing a good deal of what’s revealed here. Are you aware that the less control one feels at work, the higher their stress levels? Or that children are better off if their parents work into the night at a job they love rather than arrive home early – and unhappy – from a one they despise? These may seem like obvious factoids and yet they’re perhaps worthy of additional reflection. You may have one employee or dozens and regardless Sinek would challenge how healthy the work environment is. He admonishes leaders to build what is termed the Circle of Safety, through which one harbors a “feeling of belonging, of shared values and a deep sense of empathy” that “dramatically enhances trust, cooperation, and problem solving.” His passage on the concept of Lifetime Employment at the tech company Next Jump is particularly enlightening. Next Jump is where leadership takes great care during the hiring process to select those with solid character traits and when one of the chosen hits a slump, they get coached – a lot. The company has managed to free its culture of the fear of getting fired which has reportedly resulted in a workplace where communication is healthy to the point where mistakes and problems are openly discussed.

Sinek addresses a number of hot-button political issues as well, such as Ronald Reagan’s mass firing of air traffic controllers, which the author claims opened the floodgates in Corporate America for using huge layoffs as a means of staving off economic disruption, and Olympia Snowe’s walking away from what would have been a cinch of a reelection because she was so dismayed by partisanship in the U.S. Senate. He goes on to remind us of last year’s Gallup poll which revealed that same Senate having an approval rating among Americans of 14%, a hard-to-fathom statistical anomaly which is lower than that of “used-car salesmen or even Genghis Kahn.” You remember Kahn – the twelfth-century Mongolian emperor was widely known for his smooth dance moves, passionate bowling league participation, and the slaughter of some 40 million people (you know, ballpark), mostly civilians. Sinek says that guy scored higher approval marks than your elected senators. Amazing, no? So here’s to a moment of silence on this Election Day, a time to consider what a random survey might reveal about our own leadership qualities.