This excellent talk by Simon Sinek about leadership organizations and good leaders was sent to me by a long time reader who is mostly a self-taught leader.
Points to Ponder:
When leader creates an environment in which people feel that someone has my back they will do extraordinary things.
Human beings are social animals. We feel our safest when we trust each other and good leaders are capable of producing that.
Story Line: Please watch the entire video to enjoy the depth of Simon’s message. By giving examples from history; wars, ancient empires, world of business and politics, Simon narrates the behaviors and challenges of two different types of organizations and people.
Here are a few tidbits.
The game of business is an infinite game constantly changing and it has existed and will exist longer than any single company on the planet.
Infinite players do not compete against their competition. They compete against themselves. How can I be better version of myself?
Infinite focuses on why, values; inherently intangible and difficult to measure whereas finite focuses on inherently tangible and easy to measure.
In military we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for the gain of others where as in businesses we are willing to sacrifice others for our personal gain.
If company misses arbitrary projections on arbitrary dates we don’t use people to balance the books. We invite them to solve problems. Creates a circle of safety.
In fear based organizations people fear for their own jobs more than the common sense.
In Infinite organizations Vision is more distant than their grasp vs In Finite organizations it is well within the grasp or put vision back within the grasp so becomes achievable.
What do you do when you become the thing you hate?
Reflection: I will leave upto the readers to reflect on Simon’s Talk themselves and share in the blog if you like. But I like to say a few words about the reader who sent this video. I met him in a strange way about 12 years ago. The level in organizational hierarchy he was at did not give him privileges of exclusive leadership summits, for senior level only trainings, access to resources offered to only “Brightest and the Best in Pipelines”. But through the years he has taken initiatives to gain knowledge through the books, excellent resources on internet; videos, Ted talks, attending external seminars and then try in his work and personal life. He also built relationships with people inside and outside of his work. He shares his ideas, approaches with them to get feedback. With mostly self-learning and trying, he has advanced through the years; real good example of infinite leadership attributes Simon Sinek talks about in this article.