Leaders Eat Last (And Other Advice To Build A Stellar Team)

Posted by Hannah Broaddus

Building a great team is one of the hardest things you can be tasked with as a leader.

It’s not just about hiring either — building a team is a slow growth process and your leadership will create the atmosphere that will make your team either succeed or fail. Or at least that’s what Simon Sinek says…

Simon Sinek is the author of Leaders Eat Last, one of the best business books on the market today. He also has one of the top-watched TedTalks in the world, with almost 24 million views.

I saw him speak last fall, and he’s nothing short of inspiring. His words will help you create a team of loyal employees that will build your business into a indestructible (and much loved) powerhouse.

Today, we will review some of the main points of Leaders Eat Last. We will also talk about how you can put them into place to build the best possible team (and company) in the food industry.

PS — If you want to preview his book, you can read the first chapter here



Leaders Eat Last: The Book Summary

“Imagine a world where nearly everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels safe and valued while they are there, then returns home feeling fulfilled. Leaders Eat Last is for those leaders and organizations committed to creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.”      

                                                                                                   - Simon Sinek


Leaders Eat LastLeaders Eat Last is a New York Times Best Seller, and is one of the best business and leaderships books I’ve read thus far.

He’s done years of research, and uses this book to teach us all about the automatic, instinctual reactions (I’m talking cave-man instinct) that your employees have to many different types of leadership.

That’s right — he’s says that the chemical reactions that happen in the brain (and the emotions that result from them) are all happening on a basic, body functioning level, and they typically all tie back to cave-man survival instincts.

In today’s workplace, these survival skills aren’t related to life or death anymore, but they are related to personal survival in the workplace. Overall, it’s the chemical brain reactions that have to do with trust and “happy feelings” that have the biggest impact on your employees— whether they love you and will build your company for you 10x over, or whether they will be your personal downfall.

These chemical reactions are always happening in your employees brains, whether you realize it or not. Your responses to them are a constant trigger, and as a leader, it’s completely within your control to create the level of loyalty, dedication and commitment that you want from your employees. It’s also within your wheelhouse to create a hostile environment filled with jealousy and anger, depending on your reactions to your employees.

Before we go any further, if you’d rather watch the video on this topic, you can watch his TedTalk below to learn more.



The Chemical Reactions

Sinek argues that there are four different primary chemicals at play in your (and every one of your employees’) brains.

Endorphin: Endorphins mask physical pain with pleasure. Think of a runner’s high at mile 15 of a marathon.


Dopamine: Dopamine creates the feeling of satisfaction we get after we have completed a task or goal. The flood of dopamine entering the brain operates as an incentive for progress (think of sales people hitting their quotas). This chemical is highly addictive.


Serotonin: Serotonin is the leadership chemical. It’s the feeling of pride we get when we feel that others like or respect us.


Oxytocin: Oxytocin is responsible for the feeling of love, friendship and deep trust. Oxytocin is contagious in groups.

These four chemicals in our bodies work towards driving our behavior. Simon calls the first two “selfish” and the second two “selfless”.

"Selfish" chemicals: Endorphins and Dopamine. These work to help us get things done.

“Selfless” chemicals: Serotonin and Oxytocin. These work to help strengthen our social bonds, fostering connection and collaboration.

The selfish chemicals help you achieve goals and get tasks done. They often involve competition, are highly addictive, and while helping you achieve your written goals, can often alienate you from your co-workers and create enemies.

The selfless chemicals do just the opposite. They help form bonds, create strong teams and show unity within a group.

 

The Circle of Safety

Simon purports that leaders need to create an environment where employees selfless chemicals are hard at work, and selfish chemicals are put on the back burner.

This will create what he calls the “Circle of Safety” — a group of people that feels like a supportive and loving family. This “circle of safety” is a group of people that you feel trust towards, that you want to support and that will support you. Within this circle, employees have empathy towards one another, and they prioritize each others safety. How is this created? Through the right leadership.

 

“Sinek’s Circle of Safety tells us that we should focus on helping each other rather than “one-upping” each another to make management happy. It also tells us that when we know and trust that the people inside the Circle of Safety will look out for us and protect us from the dangers of the outside, we’re more likely to freely exchange information and ideas that will move the organization forward vs keep things to ourselves because we’re afraid someone might “steal” our idea.”  Source

 

Empathy

With the circle of safety, employees need to receive empathy, respect and be treated as meaningful pieces of the whole. This will create an environment where they feel valued and have purpose. It will also make them feel safe and protected.

Leaders, and the way that they treat their employees, set the tone for this environment.

 

Autonomy

At the same time, employees need to have autonomy. When employees don’t have control over their work, they feel both stress and an emotional strain.

Creating an environment where employees have autonomy to work, have control over what they are able to contribute, and have the ability to make their environment better, will allow them to thrive. If you can help create this environment for your employees, they will soar higher than you would have ever imagined.

 

Key Takeaways

Want a bit more direction? Here are some actionable takeaways from the book to get you on a better leadership path today.

 

Trust is the most important value in the organization. Building trust requires nothing more than telling the truth.

 

The leaders of companies set the tone and direction for the people. Hypocrites, liars and self-interested leaders create cultures filled with hypocrites, liars and self-interested employees. The leaders of companies who tell the truth, in contrast, will create a culture of people who tell the truth. It's not the rocket science. We follow the leader.

 

When the people have to manage dangers from inside the organization, the organization itself becomes less able to face dangers from outside.

 

The goal of a leader is to give no orders. Leaders are to provide direction and intent and allow others to figure out what to do and how to get there. Train people to think, not comply. Responsibility is not doing as we told, that's obedience. Responsibility is doing what is right.

 

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

 

Leaders want people come to work not because they want a job, but because they want a future and sense of belonging to a team.

 

In a bad economy, employees need extra help, not the opposite (layoffs).

 

When a leader has the humility to distribute power across the organization, the strength of the company becomes less dependent on one person and is thus better able to survive. In this model, instead of trying to command-and-control everything, the leaders devote all their energy to training, building and protecting their people- so that the people can command and control any situation themselves.

 

Give authority to those closest to the information. Leaders' job is to have vision not authority.

 

For leaders, giving time and energy actually does more to impact the impression others have of us than giving money. This is the reason a CEO with a bad reputation can't redeem themselves by writing checks to charity.

 

Getting to see personally, in a human to human interaction, how their work impacts the customers is the most empowering thing for employees.

 

If leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, they are expected to offer protection to those they lead.

 

People are biologically used to living in groups (tribes) of up to 150 people, and this could be about the max size for any given unit in an organization.

 

Every single employee is someone's son or someone's daughter. Parents work hard to offer their children a good life and good education. Those parents then hand their children over to a company with the hope the leaders of that company will exercise the same love and care as they have.

 

Letting someone into an organization is like adopting a child. Being a leader is like being a parent, and the company is like a new family to join. To treat people like a family. Sacrifice the numbers to save the people and not sacrifice the people to save the numbers.

 

Managers look after short-term goals. Leaders look after long-term goals.

 

Key Takeaways Source

Topics: Business & Leadership

 

 

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