A review by ajileowens
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't by Simon Sinek

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.