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librarytech4's review against another edition
4.0
This book explains why being a servant leader is the best way to get the most out of your team, while also making them feel cared for and trusted to make their own decisions. The author talks about people needing leaders who trust them to be able to make their own decisions and have to authority to do so.
christopherchandler's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed his approach to understanding the neurological needs of people an organizations. I wasn't expecting to learn about dopamine, serotonin, etc and how they are at work while we work. I'll need to go back and add some notes to summarize his main points, but it was certainly not a cookie cutter leadership book.
jenfwright's review against another edition
3.0
Started off strong but ended on a repetitive and out of touch note. Some good points in the first half, though.
wordsmithreads's review against another edition
3.0
I should rate this higher because I bookmarked so many passages from it, but I found this book a slog. I'm not usually one for self-help books, so maybe I'm just not used to the voice used, but I really disliked how the author got his points across. It seemed heavily opinionated about the military and Wall Street, without giving really constructive advice of how to be a better leader. The takeaway? Understand your employees/subordinates on a human level, don't just see them as numbers.
That said, I did bookmark a lot, like I mentioned. Here's some of what I noted:
- We cannot tell people to trust us. We cannot instruct people to come up with big ideas. And we certainly can't demand that people cooperate.
- Leaders want to feel safe too. No matter what place we occupy in the pecking order, every single one of us wants to feel like we are valued by the others in the group.
- So we tell ourselves, what we have will have to do.
- Leaders have overall lower stress levels than those who work for them.
- The more we give of ourselves to see others succeed, the greater our value to the group and the more respect they offer us. ... At least that's how it's supposed to work.
- As social animals, we feel stress when we feel unsupported.
- There are people with authority who are not leaders and there are people at the bottom rungs of an organization who most certainly are leaders.
- We don't just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them.
- "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - Goethe
- Performance can go up or down; the strength of a culture is the only thing we can truly rely on
- Give authority to those closest to the information, and have them solidify behind the leader's vision.
- "I can't delegate my legal responsibilities/my relationships/my knowledge. Everything else I can ask others to take responsibility for." - Captain Marquet
- A leader's legacy is only as strong as the foundation they leave behind that allows others to continue to advance the organization in their name.
Quotes that are more interesting for the novel I'm writing:
- In other words, we can fall asleep at night confident that someone else will watch for danger.
- In a Marine platoon of 40 people, it's "our" lieutenant. The more distant and less seen senior officer is "the" colonel.
- "The goal of a leader is to give no orders." - Captain Marquet
Things I learned:
- "Mass layoffs" weren't a thing until Reagan started in his presidency + set the precedent forever (pg 92)
- That 65% of us have the capacity to kill someone (Milgram, pg 103)
- The 150 social circle number (the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink)
That said, I did bookmark a lot, like I mentioned. Here's some of what I noted:
- We cannot tell people to trust us. We cannot instruct people to come up with big ideas. And we certainly can't demand that people cooperate.
- Leaders want to feel safe too. No matter what place we occupy in the pecking order, every single one of us wants to feel like we are valued by the others in the group.
- So we tell ourselves, what we have will have to do.
- Leaders have overall lower stress levels than those who work for them.
- The more we give of ourselves to see others succeed, the greater our value to the group and the more respect they offer us. ... At least that's how it's supposed to work.
- As social animals, we feel stress when we feel unsupported.
- There are people with authority who are not leaders and there are people at the bottom rungs of an organization who most certainly are leaders.
- We don't just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them.
- "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - Goethe
- Performance can go up or down; the strength of a culture is the only thing we can truly rely on
- Give authority to those closest to the information, and have them solidify behind the leader's vision.
- "I can't delegate my legal responsibilities/my relationships/my knowledge. Everything else I can ask others to take responsibility for." - Captain Marquet
- A leader's legacy is only as strong as the foundation they leave behind that allows others to continue to advance the organization in their name.
Quotes that are more interesting for the novel I'm writing:
- In other words, we can fall asleep at night confident that someone else will watch for danger.
- In a Marine platoon of 40 people, it's "our" lieutenant. The more distant and less seen senior officer is "the" colonel.
- "The goal of a leader is to give no orders." - Captain Marquet
Things I learned:
- "Mass layoffs" weren't a thing until Reagan started in his presidency + set the precedent forever (pg 92)
- That 65% of us have the capacity to kill someone (Milgram, pg 103)
- The 150 social circle number (the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink)
marbooks88's review against another edition
4.0
Inspiring! Has me thinking how I can be a leader that inspires trust and about the importance of culture.
davidgilani's review against another edition
3.0
I do really like Simon Sinek... I loved his Ted Talks and interviews on various topics, but found myself being a bit disappointed by this book. Maybe it was the examples that he choose to give (in terms of businesses or leaders), or maybe it was the way that he evaluated success, but I just found the book to not really give much beyond basic things that we all understand. There are some underlying interesting points about the challenges of businesses prioritising profits.
genderqueer_hiker's review against another edition
2.0
For a business self-help style book, it's pretty decent. But that's a subterranean bar. This man fashions himself a qualified psychiatrist, evolutionary psychologist, researcher, sociologist, behaviorist, evolutionary biologist/archeologist, and numerous other things, despite thinking correlation indicates causation and using 'data' as singular. How he loves anecdotes/"anec-data." It's a 9 hour TED talk - lots of business leadership bravado with little substance or proof.
Perhaps I have unreasonable expectations after consuming print and voice media produced by journalists, but this fell completely flat for me. It was paternalistic, imperialistic, capitalistic, and rooted in white supremacy culture. It lacked any insight or reflection on things like sexism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, and other dehumanizing belief systems commonly encountered by people not rich white straight men. Therefore, the advice contained within centered the experience of rich white straight men, fueling current business practices to continue valuing only those people and seeing everyone else as aberrations.
Perhaps I have unreasonable expectations after consuming print and voice media produced by journalists, but this fell completely flat for me. It was paternalistic, imperialistic, capitalistic, and rooted in white supremacy culture. It lacked any insight or reflection on things like sexism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, and other dehumanizing belief systems commonly encountered by people not rich white straight men. Therefore, the advice contained within centered the experience of rich white straight men, fueling current business practices to continue valuing only those people and seeing everyone else as aberrations.
noahbw's review
3.0
Mostly pop science meets corporate america, but there are some interesting tidbits.
caseymaree's review
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Did not enjoy or take from this book as much I have in other works by the author. Felt a bit outdated. Mainly USA relevant examples/references. I found interesting the information on Circle of Security, however, it lost me when trying to make work function like a family - nope. Perhaps my feelings towards it all though are just because Iām a *Millennial* (sarcasm š)