Why Leaders Eat Last (Cinco de Mayo special)

 

Points to Ponder:

“Marine leaders are expected to eat last because the true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.”

“Destructive Abundance happens when the players focus almost exclusively on the score and forget why they set out to play the game in the first place.”

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

Vimeo Link for countries where there is no YouTube access

https://vimeo.com/79899786

Story Line:

Originally this week’s Friday Reflection was planned about my first year of Freedom (aka Retirement). But during the week I received this outstanding video from one of the readers, microCEO. After watching, I concluded that the readers will benefit immensely by spending time on this video about leadership. In a short time you will discover the leader within you and learn the powerful concepts that are normally offered only to "special people" in "special classes" in a week long expensive seminars. Please watch: I urge, I request, I Insist.

Reflection:

While watching this I remembered some of the greatest individuals-Leaders that I have been fortunate to meet and learn from in my career and life. From a rookie new college graduate, line workers, technicians, great bosses, to people in all walks of life and some pioneers. I was fortunate that our paths crossed. Through the years, I have shared many of these stories in Friday Reflections. I am sure you will remember many such leaders you have met in your life. Please share your memories.

Some additional quotes from Simon Sinek talk.

“It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.”

“The leaders of great organizations do not see people as a commodity to be managed to help grow the money. They see the money as the commodity to be managed to help grow their people.”

“Those who have an opportunity to work in organizations that treat them like human beings to be protected rather than a resource to be exploited come home at the end of the day with an intense feeling of fulfillment and gratitude. This should be the rule for all of us, not the exception. Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right to which we are all entitled and not a modern luxury that only a few lucky ones are able to find.”

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

YouTube link in case there is a problem with the links above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRcHdeUG9Y

 

Comments

[email feedback from three readers]

1. really fantastic video! Thanks

2. Great video. I'd been meaning to watch it when I saw it on Facebook, but your Friday Reflection was a great reminder / kick in the butt.

It's a good reminder that leaders (and really, all of us should be leaders regardless of position in the company) should strive to help others and help the group feel safe. I've been thinking a lot lately why I feel so different at work here in ....vs.... in , and a lot of it has to do with the human connection to my co-workers. In ....., we spent (....) a lot of time together, had lunch together, walked over and talked to each other instead of just emailing. It was much less transactional. This video serves as a reminder that I need to reduce the 'transactions' and work more on building relationships through actual interaction.

Thanks, as always, for giving your readers something important to think about,

3. Good timing on this one.

[Don Lee]

It's an incredible story.

[Tica]

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

Thanks for the great video full of science based explanations of organizations and behaviors we encounter daily

[RJ]

This guy is Incredible!!1

[China]

Very very true, every single piece of them!!

[Bottom Line]

This says it all
“The leaders of great organizations do not see people as a commodity to be managed to help grow the money. They see the money as the commodity to be managed to help grow their people.”

[microCEO]

Thank you Anand for sharing this talk.
Simon Sinek makes a great story-teller, and he frames his story around just 5 biochemicals in the human body, and uses just 2 flip chart pages (2 slides) to illustrate his ideas during a 45-minute odyssey. I watched this video and was grabbed by some of of the ideas he finds behind the biochemicals...lessons about leadership, safety, cooperation, generosity.

Sadly, the big companies of the world are increasingly alienating their employees in order to satisfy their shareholders and to enrich their own purses. This is primarily justified in terms of long-term survival (cutting the weak people and the unprofitable projects). Without a doubt, the cutting of failed projects is important, but cutting people indiscriminately can have an unintended, uncontrollable counter-reaction...to propagate distrust throughout an entire organization. (A similar story was told to me years ago as a boy, the fable of "warm-fuzzies & cold-pricklies" http://www.originalwarmfuzzies.com/tale.htm )

As Sinek points out, some big corporate leaders sacrifice others for their own benefit, rather than demonstrating leadership for the benefit of the whole team. The people in the organization see this, and their feelings of safety and cooperation are compromised. This reflects on how effectively they work with each other, or with customers. It is potentially a death spiral. Aesop's fable of the 4 oxen and the lion is the perfect description.

In Sinek's definition, leadership is the ability to foster trust and cooperation in an organization, and trust and cooperation are the 2 qualities that enable long-term survival for humanity. One can only hope that organizations (and indeed the whole human race) will someday grasp this concept.

[California Guy]

Like

I am glad that I spent 45:50 of my personal time to watch this video. I will watch this video again and pause it many times so I can capture all of the key points.