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acousticdefacto's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
misscaroline09's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
ajileowens's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Overall, not quite what I was expecting. I thought this would be a book focused primarily on actionable steps to being a servant leader — or a leader committed to eating last. Instead, this was a strange amalgamation of sociology, neurobiology, evolutionary anthropology, and Simon Sinek’s personal opinions that never quite brought it all together.
For example, Sinek references our “reward” hormones extensively and how they were useful for our prehistoric ancestors. However, he never really touches on how to overcome that biology or strategies for leaders to leverage a knowledge of dopamine & oxytocin to create the results they want. More importantly, Sinek’s assumptions and omissions are at best distracting and at worst offensive. Some of the biggest offenses are how he glosses over racism & sexism and paints rose-tinted vignettes of the US coming together during WWII and 9/11. He also speculates pretty heavily on the reasons behind the rise of mental health challenges in children. “I honestly believe you’d do less damage to a child putting them up for adoption than handing them a device every time you don’t want to deal with them” …. No comment.
In general, this book could’ve been really strong. His overall idea of servant leadership is inspirational and many of the industry & military stories shed insight into how important quality leadership is. However, this book could’ve been half as long simply by removing the surface-level science and personal opinions.
kristine8446's review against another edition
3.0
After watching the TED talk, I was genuinely excited to pick this book up. However I felt the topic was better described in the short talk - it really isn’t a groundbreaking enough idea to warrant 300+ pages. I found this to be filled with a lot of anecdotes and disjointed scientific statements that loosely supported his ideas. I think the core of the book, and the part you need to carry with you as a leader, is a simpler concept than made out to be.
dustworth's review against another edition
4.0
It’s worth your time and provides an insightful on strategies and techniques you should be using and ones you need to remove from your toolbox.