I try to limit the posting of Youtube videos to my Wednesday Watchlist posts and I also try not to comment on the videos I post because in my selection criteria I require that a great video speaks for itself. But after watching this video from Simon Sinek this past weekend I realized that I need to post and share this video as soon as possible. Sinek offers a biological and anthropomorphic explanation of effective leadership and what happens when we don’t have it that I believe everyone needs to watch. The following explanation of the responsibility or cost of leadership is a small sampling of Sinek’s exceptional perspective:
Leadership/alpha comes at a cost. You see we expect that when danger threatens us from the outside that the person who’s actually stronger, the person who’s better fed and the person who is actually teeming with serotonin who actually has higher confidence the rest of us; we expect them to run toward the danger to protect us. This is what it means to be a leader. The cost of leadership is self-interest. If you’re not willing to give up your perks when it matters then you probably shouldn’t get promoted. You might be an authority but you will not be a leader. Leadership comes at a cost. You don’t get to do less work you get to do more. You have to do more work and the more work you have to do is put yourself at risk to look after others. That is the anthropological definition of what a leader is.
I haven’t yet read Sinek’s latest book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
