In Simon Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last. Why Some Teams Pull Together and Other Don’t” a clear message of how to be an effective leader is expressed throughout the text based on three key subjects. These subjects include cultivating your own safety circle, knowing your “happy” chemicals, and how to become a long-term leader. These three major concepts display parallel features to the Army Leadership Requirements Model.
The first key topic covered in the book is called the Circle of Safety. Sinek explains that people should build up others around them, rather than one upping fellow employees to appease their management. Sinek expresses this belief by saying, “In the military, they give medals to those who are willing to sacrifice themselves,
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In this section of the book, the author gives some biology class revolving around Endorphins (the pain-masking chemical), Dopamine (the goal achieving chemical), Serotonin (the leadership chemical), and Oxytocin (the chemical of love). The first two of the listed chemicals work to help us selfishly get things done. The other two works to help strengthen our social bonds, fostering connection and collaboration. The author explores the idea that the reason our homosapien species has become the apex predator of the world is because of these hormones. Not only do people function to survive, they are also drawn to be socially involved with …show more content…
Sinek states that G.E. under the leadership of Welch had unstable profits and he would lay off the bottom ten percent of his workers to make ends meet each year. G.E. did have increasing profits each year for several years, but it had no care for it’s team members. Welch only cared about results. He lacked many of the Army Leadership Requirements Model, but he did get results. Sinek says “Welch was high on dopamine.” He only ran on dopamine and not the other chemicals. On the other hand, Costco under the leadership of Sinegal worked hard to give raises to employees to help them and retain them during hard times. This lead to a positive and ambitious work force. Ultimately, Costco’s stock is stable and predictable and boring. Which is great since Costco is the 2nd largest retailer in the country, predictability is better than
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself.
The role of a leader is often inaccurately defined as an individual who is in a position to give orders. However, there are enormous differences in the attributes of an outstanding leader, and one of mediocrity. An outstanding leader, above all else, is a role model for their peers. In doing so, a leader of the highest caliber is trustworthy in both their peer’s trust for the leader as well as the leader’s trust of their peers. A leader must also display exceptional skill in communication which transcends speaking and, more importantly, includes listening and consideration to the ideas presented to them. Furthermore, a leader must be supportive of and willing to help their peers build their own strengths. The attributes listed above represent only a small subset of what makes an outstanding leader. Yet,
In deed on June 6, 1944, the little town of Bedford, VA, suffered a tragedy that would never be forgotten. But through the pain and hardship some of officers who leaded the Bedford boys displayed remarkable leadership’s principles. One of the basic functions of leadership is to unite people: bring people together to achieve common objectives. There is truth in the statement, where there is unity there is strength. This essay will offer a working definition of effective leadership principles and discuss the function of leadership as it relates to followers, motivation and power.
This discussion will focus on leadership as described by Robert Dees in The Resilience Trilogy, Resilient Leaders text. The points made in the book can be personally related. The three most important concepts learned from chapter 1 and 2 are tribulation, risk management, and selflessness. It is crucial for anyone is seeking to delve into leadership that everything will not happen as planned all the time. After a leader experience failure, knowing the avenues to take to regain a solid footing is also key to successful leadership. Often leaders who are unaware of available resources fold and give up. In the military profession, when someone gets knock down they get up brush themselves off and get back in the fight.
“Military leadership qualities are formed in a progressive and sequential series of carefully planned training, educational, and experiential events—far more time-consuming and expensive than similar training in industry or government. Secondly, military leaders tend to hold high levels of responsibility and authority at low levels of our organizations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, military leadership is based on a concept of duty, service, and self-sacrifice; we take an oath to that effect.”
Costco’s CEO, Jim Sinegal, is certain that low priced, and the high value merchandise are exactly what is needed to maintain and achieve a staying power in the industry.
Hobbes claims that man is never happy in having company, unless that company is utterly dominated. He says, “men have no pleasure, (but on the contrary a great dea... ... middle of paper ... ... vivalist instinct that involves self-preservation. Hobbes, however, is unable to explain altruism, thus we developed the Varied Levels of Survivalism as a layer above his theory.
Leadership is contagious throughout the world and most importantly in the Army. It is not just my view, but of all leaders, at all levels, that organizations are responsible for setting conditions that lead to long-term organizational success. As I reflect on my experiences, through experience and observation, I realize how my values, beliefs, and perspectives about leadership continuously evolve over time. Recognizing these changes over time helps me better understand that people in organizations have different perspectives in life. This leadership narrative serve as important guiding principles for how I will lead at the organizational level and represents my thought, values and beliefs.
Through out his tenure at Sunbeam,Al Dunlap’s advocated profit by firing many employees and shutting down many factories.If we look at it in the short term ,this approach seems very attractive as it brings in quick short term gains.In the long term ,however, such a decision would not ensure the sustainability of the company. Profitability and responsibility can and should be combined in an ideal world, however it is clear that they are at least partially contradictory. Shareholder pressure should not force a company to make short-term decisions that might be detrimental to the long-term profitability of the company.
Simon Sinek’s idea and concepts of leadership are very similar to ones used by the Marine Corps. The Marines are one of the most successful military organizations around the world. They have achieved success by accomplishing missions and winning battles. Battles fought in difficult terrains, climates and circumstances. They have thrived in times when other military branches are better funded and equipped and never lost sight of their purpose and goal. Marines always seem to defy assumptions. They appear to have something special and different when compared to the other military branches. Extract young man and woman from a broad society filled with different cultural backgrounds and make them a Marine. Furthermore, they prepare these young individuals to fight for this country and give their life if necessary defending it. Marines have no problem standing out. The Marine Corps and Simon Sinek’s ideas and concepts for successful leadership are related because both know “why” they do what they do,
All soldiers, especially leaders, are highly recommended to keep a certain set of values that radiate throughout the entire U.S. Army. They are challenged to keep them near and dear to their hearts and to define and live them every day. A leader is one who takes these challenges serious and abides by
Regardless of the career you choose in your life, whether it be an accountant or a Soldier in the United States Army, someone, somewhere most likely had an influence to bring you to that decision. The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (JP, p. 1). Now imagine you are a young Private, in one of the most dangerous places in Iraq and you have constant leadership changes, and not much support from your direct leadership. I am sure at this point you can imagine, it is not the best scenario to be in. Throughout the duration of this essay you will read about Sergeant First Class Rob Gallagher and Sergeant First Class Jeff Fenlason, their leadership abilities, and the techniques they attempted to use to resolve the issues in this Platoon that was in a downward spiral after losing many leaders to the hell of war.
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several separate focus areas and identified my overall strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Over the course of this paper I will briefly discuss each one of these assessments and journal entries as they pertained to me and my leadership.
Using the lessons and framework from the book Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading I will explain how it has contributed to my understanding of Leadership and draw parallels to how it applies to my work as the Deputy Flight Chief of Engineering for the Utah Test and Training Range or in my previous position as the Chief Engineer of the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division at the Naval Surface Warfare Center: Crane. The first chapter Heart of Danger explains that being the leader is dangerous. As an engineer there is an overwhelming bias against shifting into a management position as the added headaches aren’t balanced with the reduction in technical workload and the slight pay raise. The first key takeaway
... firm can attract qualified management without causing an influx in operational costs (wages), if portions of employee compensation were to be replaced with stock options; adjusting options with company performance. If accomplished in this manner, every employee would be concerned with how well the company was doing financially. I also recommend that Chuck Lacy find non-financial arguments and data which justify the recruitment of top managers in the marketing and production departments. In addition, Ben & Jerry's could counter employee turnover by establishing new techniques in the recruitment and interview processes to detect candidates who do not share values consistent with those of Ben & Jerry's.