The Benefits of Being a Leader Are Real. But Are There Costs? With Simon Sinek | Big Think

The Benefits of Being a Leader Are Real. But Are There Costs?
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Why did we, Homo sapiens, survive into modernity while others died out over time? According to Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, the answer lies with evolution. Starting with our first tribal collectives, humans evolved acute collaboration and community skills. That sort of organization keeps us alive. But there's a catch...
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SIMON SINEK:
Simon O. Sinek is an author best known for popularizing the concept of "the golden circle" and to "Start With Why," described by TED as "a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?"'. He joined the RAND Corporation in 2010 as an adjunct staff member, where he advises on matters of military innovation and planning. His first TEDx Talk on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is the 3rd most viewed video on TED.com. His 2009 book on the same subject, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009) delves into what he says is a naturally occurring pattern, grounded in the biology of human decision-making, that explains why we are inspired by some people, leaders, messages and organizations over others.

He has commented for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, FastCompany, CMO Magazine, NPR, and BusinessWeek, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, BrandWeek, and IncBizNet.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Simon Sinek: The reason we have leaders goes back to 50,000 years. When Homo sapiens step foot on this planet, there were other hominid species that existed, but we survived and they died off. And one of the reasons is because we work together. And for 40,000 of the 50,000 years we've been on this planet, we lived in populations that were never bigger than about 150 people. That all changed when we started farming 10,000 years ago. But there's still an inherent problem with living in a population that's about 150 people. We're all hungry. What if somebody brings food back to the tribe and dumps it on the ground? We all rush in to eat. And if you're lucky enough to be built like a football player, you can shove your way to the front of the line. If you're the artist of the family, you get an elbow in the face. This is a bad system because the odds are that if you punch me in the face this afternoon, I'm probably not going to wake you and alert you to danger tonight. Bad system. And so we evolved into hierarchical animals.

We are constantly assessing and judging each other all the time. Who's alpha to us? Who's more dominant in the pecking order? Sometimes it's informal, but very often it's formal like in an organization. We know what the rank structure is. People have titles that inform us who's more senior and who's more junior. And when someone is more senior, we defer to them. So going back to those cavemen times when we assess that someone is alpha to us, we voluntarily step back and allow our alphas us to eat first. So our alphas get first choice of meat and first choice of mate. And though I may not get to eat first, I will be guaranteed to eat and I won't get an elbow in the face. Good system. Nothing has changed in our modern day.

In other words, we're used to deferring to and giving special treatment to those who are higher in the pecking order. However, none of those perks come for free. You see the group is not stupid. We don't give all those advantages to our leaders for nothing. There's an expectation. There's an expectation that if danger threatens the tribe that the leader, the one who's better fed and more confident, who's stronger, will rush towards the danger to protect us. That's why we gave them first choice of mate because they might die first and we want to keep their genes in the gene pool. We're not stupid. And so what makes us loyal and love and respect our leaders is when we know that they uphold that deal. When we have visceral contempt for some of our leaders, like we have this visceral contempt for some of the banking CEOs and their disproportionate salaries and bonus structures, it's because we know that they allowed their people to be sacrificed so they could keep their bonuses and salaries. Or worse, they chose to sacrifice their people to protect their bonuses and salaries.....

[michaelwiesinger]

three minutes and straight to the point

[bdafeesh]

Excellent points. Finally a good video from Big Think in a while. Bring this guy back for more!

[andersh]

Straight to the point and interesting!

[kharnakcrux]

power is nothing more than the acquiescence of another.
This is important...
as Noam chomsky said... "it's not like it's a law of nature that the ones with more capital should have the most control"

[EugeneKhutoryansky]

Human beings did not invent pecking orders. Even the word itself comes from watching the pecking order of chickens and other birds, and such hierarchies are common in the animal kingdom. As for expecting the leader to rush towards danger to protect the tribe, this has no longer been common since the existence of modern armies. Although a few leaders chose to put themselves on the very front lines during battle so that they would be the first to die, this is the exception and not the rule.

[nizamishirin]

Best video that explains true meaning of leaderhsip

[TannerWilliam]

Oh wow, this is actually perfect for my research paper on social change. Thank you for this!!!

[nathanpen]

People are not looking to be led because most of them think of themselves as leaders, but when it comes down to it they are mostly just sheep. It takes vision and commitment to be a leader. Excellent video.

[Oolliwan]

I've never seen leadership explained so elegantly and concisely before.

[LolLol-jg]

I’m liking this guy wisdom straight to the point & getting straight to the point ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[itsdannyftw]

That was dope! Love the connection back to anthropology! Makes it way more intuitive and logical.

[kevinhepworth]

What an absolutely INCREDIBLE video! The topic of leadership or even what defines a leader for that matter is not often discussed. Simon not only pulled the doors wide open on the subject, he brought light to the unsaid "agreement" leaders and followers have. He broke leadership down to the simplest of terms and In just over 3 minutes, taught us what makes a great leader, their responsibilities and what the benefits and trade offs are for such a role.

Does anyone consider themselves a leader, and if so, does this make you want to fill the role or shy away from it now after watching this?

[rabreu]

Best big think video in weeks! keep' em coming

[rodrimaux]

I think that the best leader sees no downside in leading cuz for him it is a joy to sacrifice himself in the name of the "tribe", putting effort to make thinks better and stable is seen as a pleasure and not a cost.

[Sam-xbum]

Loved the book start with why! Simon Sinek is great

[Jenkkimie]

Every benefit you have comes with a cost. If you are a leader, then you'll get to lead but you will have to sometimes make decisions where you wish you wouldn't and carry the consequences of those choices. That stress is why many don't actually want to lead and prefer more stability and security instead.

I get a lot of patients who are sometimes described as having it all good but truth is that eve millionares have issues of thei own. They are not perhaps same issues that commonly people have but they do still have issues of their own. I remember this one younger fella who felt that his " girlfriends " were only with him because he came from a wealthier family. Now I can't tell how much of that was true ( I won't) but that is how he felt.

[TheDanShaikh]

That was very concise and to the point, thank you.

[JM-ztvq]

Nice video, Sinek always has good info

[aakkoin]

I know he is talking about humans specifically, but the leadership-thing goes back way more than 50 000 years. The dominance hierarchy is sort of embedded in biology of all life that lives in groups or colonies. Like bacteria and stuff, basically all life.
It's natural. It keeps order. It gives you a place in society. But I totally agree that we need real, compassionate, honest, trustful, respectful leaders. Not forced, formal hierarchies. I think a change is going on for the better.

[roshifugai]

This is why in my opinion salary should be inversely proportional to hierarchical position within the entity; there should be a financial sacrifice for the privilege of leadership.