Free Leaders Eat Last Book Summary by Simon Sinek

Key Insights

Leadership funnels down from those in charge at the top to the team of workers at the bottom executing the operations of the organization. The results of their outputs, in turn, flow back up to the top and are realized by those in charge. Within this system lies a Circle of Safety, and when that Circle is broken by ineffective leadership (destructive abundance, a result of valuing numbers over people, and the distance bred by abstraction in an increasingly isolated work culture), then the organization as a whole suffers. When leaders eat last, or in other words, put the needs of their teams before their own personal gains and use profits to fuel team culture, then the organization thrives.

About the Author

Born in Wimbledon, London, Simon Sinek is a motivational speaker, author and organizational consultant. After working for the New York ad agencies Euro RSCG and Ogilvy & Mather, Sinek embarked on his own entrepreneurial endeavors and started his own company, Sinek Partners. In addition to Leaders Eat Last, Sinek also authored Start with Why, among other books. He has given talks for the United Nations and has presented at the TEDx conference. 

Part I: Our Need to Feel Safe

-When your team is tasked with managing dangers within the organization, the organization as a whole is less able to face dangers from the outside.

-Every team member is someone’s child and like a parent, company leadership is responsible for their precious lives.

-Build more organizations that prioritize care on the human level. Leaders are charged with the sole responsibility of protecting its people. In return, the people of the organization will protect each other and the entire entity advances together.

-When leaders fail to take care of their people, it is the job of the people to take care of each other, thereby becoming the leaders they wish they had.

-A team’s ability to do remarkable things pivots on how well its members pull together as a team.

-Case Study: The feeling of belonging, shared values and a deep sense of empathy demonstrated among U.S. Marines greatly enhances trust, cooperation and problem solving. Because they don’t see each other as a threat, U.S. Marines are better prepared to handle external threats.

-Feeling safe at work is important for creating a healthy work environment. Leaders must create a culture of safety within the work environment, where intimidation, humiliation, isolation, feelings of inferiority, rejection and other stressors are not allowed to proliferate. Do this by giving team members the power to make decisions, offering trust and empathy and by creating a Circle of Safety.

-People who didn’t feel recognized for their work had increased incidences of heart disease, according to a University College of London study. What this means is that the stress of putting in hard work but feeling unrewarded or underappreciated contributed to elevated stress levels that in turn, contributed to the risk of heart disease.

Part II: Powerful Choices

-Our success as a species was earned by adapting and learning to work together in groups. 

-Because humans exist as individual selves and as members of a group all at the same time, this paradox comes with conflicts of interest inherent to those opposing roles. What may be good for us as individuals may not be good for us collectively in groups.

-Four chemicals drive our physiology: serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins and dopamine. Endorphins and dopamine drive us to hunt, gather and achieve and make us feel good when we accomplish goals. Serotonin and oxytocin are the “selfless chemicals” that make us social, loving creatures. Knowing the impact these chemicals have on our sense of self-worth and belonging, we ought to work to generate these feelings in others the same way.

-When an organization’s culture and values are clearly defined, it is the responsibility of everyone within that organization to uphold those values and maintain the Circle of Safety.

-When leaders remember whom they serve their teams will feel honored and work to see their leaders’ visions come to life.

-Good leaders eschew the spotlight in exchange for doing what is necessary for the good of their teams.

-When leaders eat last, they are repaid with the loyalty and hard work of their team members.

Part III: Reality

-When good people must work in a bad culture with ineffective leadership, the chances that bad things will happen increase. People then become preoccupied with avoiding getting into trouble and take their focus off of doing the work that needs to be done.

-Like a lubricant, trust reduces friction and improves conditions thereby optimizing performance. 

-Trust is only socially beneficial when it is reciprocal; one-way trust is useless to both the individual and the group.

-The leader’s responsibility is to create rules, train teams and build their confidence...then step back and trust them to do their jobs.

Part IV: How We Got Here

-Too many of today’s work environments put a strain on our natural tendency to trust and cooperate.

-Because of the scale and scope of today’s work environment, a sense of distance is created. This sense of distance makes it harder for us to see each other as human. As a result, we have become customers, shareholders, employees, screen names, email addresses and expenses. Though we strive to achieve productivity and happiness, we are creating strangers among ourselves.

Part V: The Abstract Challenge

-When we become divorced from humanity because of numerical abstraction (the distance created between team members and leaders as a result of our large-scale work environments and drive to function “by the numbers”), we become capable of inhuman behavior.

-The more abstract other humans become, the more okay we become with hurting them.

-When we work out of sight from the people we impact with our decisions, we are disadvantaged when it comes to making the right decisions. This distance weakens our Circles and contributes to abstraction.

-Ways to mitigate abstraction:

-Bring people together: real, live human interaction, not virtual conferencing and webinars, is how we feel a part of and build trust.

-Keep it manageable: limit working groups to 150 people, which, according to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar is the maximum number of close connections a person can effectively maintain.

-Meet the people you help: connect with the people whose lives your work impacts.

-Give time, not just money, to those you help.

-Patience is key; trust-building is not an overnight achievement.

-When challenge replaces temptation, destructive abundance follows suit.

-When destructive abundance sets in, integrity declines and cooperation relinquishes to politics.

Part VI: Destructive Abundance

-When a company culture is weak, team members abandon doing what’s right and start doing what’s right for them. 

-Bad cultures breed bad leaders; when the culture devolves, the caliber of leader soon follows.

-Innovation happens within a Circle of Safety where people trust and share both the good and the bad, the successes and failures, and what they know and that which they do not understand.

-“I before you”/ “me before we” thinking dissolves the culture of a company.

-When energy gets transferred from the leaders to teams (those doing the bulk of the work on a daily basis), the organization becomes more powerful and so does its leadership.

-Companies that focus on their people and their customers are companies that become the most successful at maximizing shareholder value.

-Customers will not love a company that its own employees do not first love.

Part VII: A Society of Addicts

-Profits are not the primary responsibility of business. Leaders who value profits as fuel for their company cultures thrive beyond the chemical high produced by chasing profits.

-Leadership requires taking responsibility for lives and not numbers; managers of metrics must learn to become leaders of people. 

-Incentive programs have turned our corporate cultures into dopamine-chasing addicts, searching for the next profit-driven high.

-The race to win has always existed and has always been problematic, turning healthy organizations into toxic entities as the desire to win precedes the desire to take care of the people we serve.

Part VIII: Becoming a Leader

-The strength to endure and the strength to help the collective good are both found between the bonds of humans.

-Case Study: This is why Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) has helped so many alcoholics get and stay sober: the foundation of long-term sobriety, according to A.A., is the Twelfth Step. Sponsoring another alcoholic (helping to walk them through sobriety) works to safeguard the sobriety of both the alcoholic being sponsored and the sponsor.

-The camaraderie, not the work, is what builds fondness and fuels productivity within teams.

-Our drive to serve others is why humans have thrived for over fifty thousand years, not our desire to serve ourselves.

-Small steps are required to take a big leap, however it is the vision of the big leap, not the action of the small steps, that inspires us.

Leadership isn’t the task of the one who sits at the top, it is the responsibility of everyone in the group. Though the individuals with formal rank may have greater authority, it is the responsibility of the entire collection to maintain the strength of the Circle of Safety.