Leaders Eat Last
This is the first Simon Sinek book I’ve read. His stuff has been on my mental to do list for a long time, but never seemed to get to the top until now. This is about a book about how employee happiness and trust in their management directly results in better outcomes for employers, and how the best way to create happy employees is via mutual trust and empathy. In fact the book goes further and outright states that staying in a job that makes you unhappy, even if it also makes you feel safe, is bad for your health and eventually your life expectancy. I haven’t seen this stayed quite this clearly before and the book wastes no time in making this point.
Leaders Eat Last also has a section on the various chemicals in our brains and how they guide our behaviour. I felt specifically called out by this quote on the addictive nature of social media and how it interacts with our dopamine levels:
…if you wake up in the morning and the first thing you crave is a drink, you might be an alcoholic. If you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is check your phone to read email or scan your social media before you’re even out of bed, you might be an addict.
How very aligned with Digital Minimalism. Now in my defense, the first thing I check in the morning is the state of outstanding GitHub pull requests so I guess I’m not a social media addict?
Biography & Autobiography
Penguin Books
2017
350
Leaders eat last : why some teams pull together and others don't is the much anticipated sequel to the global best seller, start with why by Simon Sinek. This book talks about how great leaders sacrifice their own comfort for the good of those in their care. With the help of numerous intriguing examples, the author attempts to prove that the best organisations foster trust and cooperation. As the author points out, this book is not a management theory, but it actually a biological one. Individuals thrive only when they feel safe among a group.