Book Club: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

The latest Book Club meet dived into the words of Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last. Amongst the club there was only a few who managed to finish the author and motivational speaker’s book on leaderships challenges, as most didn’t find it to be a page-turner and, as always, finding time to read proved difficult.

The book aims to give readers an understanding of why some organisations do better than others by detailing all elements of the leadership challenge. The book club meet did spark some insightful conversation off the back of Sinek’s comments and there was an overall agreement that it is important for leaders to understand the impact their leadership has on those they lead irrelevant of position within the business.

Discussions kicked off with thoughts around the concept of protecting the tribe. Conversation around this theme had the general feel that Sinek’s stance was agreeable – that people aren’t numbers and that businesses who drive numbers vs everything else, actually might not see favourable results or provide a desirable environment. Instead, seeing people as people and considering them to be one of the most valuable assets and that by looking after them, the numbers look after themselves.

Some felt the book was a little negative when it came to discussing millennials. The group touched on Sinek’s criticisms of millennials and their technological habits. This lead to a conversation around millennials and social media, and how they can get addicted to the dopamine hit that comes with scrolling.

Within this same theme Sinek touches on the impact of multi tasking and if it can really be done! He says that you can’t physically do two things at once so your actually switching between tasks. This was quite eye opening for the group and think it will influence some of their behaviours going forward!

The circle of safety was an interesting talking point and one the group felt relevant to Wilson Partners. The concept that we need the feeling of safety and security in order to survive. For most of us, this means that we depend on a network of people that we trust and rely on. Trust and reliability are two attributes deep rooted in the culture of Wilson Partners. Conversation moved to how the circle of safety also represents the ability to fail and learn from those failures due to the ‘safety’ of the environment and the culture leaders have championed.

Some of our main take-aways…

• Leaders sacrifice their own comfort for those around them
• Simon’s military analogy: The Army Leadership Framework idea of ‘what leaders are’: leaders have psychological influence because they prove they are in it for their tribe, not in it for themselves. This makes them trusted, it makes them safe – even in dangerous places.
• Negative effects of social media, the expectation to one-up people

Final thoughts

A little repetitive and not particularly ground breaking as many were already familiar with the themes and concepts discussed, either from previous Simon Sinek books or the WP Academy Leadership Programme. There were nuggets that made for great reading, but those parts in between made it  dull to read and reduced the urge to pick up the book (hence some not completing it!). Overall they felt the book could have been more concise. However, if a reader was new to some of the topics and themes, it makes for great reading.

Overall rating: 6/10

Readability rating: 5/10

Recommendation rating: 6/10

Up next: Menopausing by Davina McCall