The true definition of
leadership is taking care
of those in our charge.
What does it take to be a leader?
According to Sinek, the problem with
leadership is that there is no standard
definition of what it means to be a
leader. “Some think leadership means
being in charge. Others think leadership
is being the most senior person. But
here’s the good news, there’s actually an
objective definition of what leadership
is, and it’s based on the fact that we are
human beings and social animals,” he
says. He points back to our instinctive
desire to feel safe. In fact, this is true
even as far back as in the “cave man”
days when we rely on others for our
survival to help us identify or avoid
danger. “Our very survival depends on
our ability to live in communities
wherein we can trust and cooperate with
each other in order to feel safe,” he says.
1.
Great leaders offer those
in their charge a safe
environment.
What separates a good leader from a
boss is that great leaders create a circle
of safety. “When there is a circle of
safety, the natural human reaction is
trust and cooperation. When we do not
feel safe in our own environment, the
natural human reaction is cynicism,
paranoia, mistrust and self-interest,”
Sinek says. He stressed how we, as
social beings, respond to the
environment we are in. Put a good
person in a bad environment, and he or
she tends to perform poorly, and vice
versa. “This is why we have leaders
because leaders are responsible for
setting the conditions to create a safe
environment.”
What is often a sign that people do
not feel safe in their own work
environment? “If you work in a company
where it’s standard practice for people to
feel the need to send a ‘cover your ass’
2.
email after every decision they make,
that is a sign that people are taking time
and energy out of their day away from
their job in order to protect themselves
from their own company. When staff
members do not feel safe at work, the
ones who suffer the most are the
customer and the company,” he says.
To inspire action in
others, good leaders offer
a purpose or a cause.
In creating a circle of safety, Sinek says
it’s important that leaders give those in
their charge a sense of destination so
they feel and know the work they do is
contributing to something bigger than
their own selves. “This is what gives our
lives and work a sense of value,” he
says.
But to do this, one must first have a
vision. A vision, he says, needs to be
concrete, like having mile markers in a
marathon. “The reason why it is called a
vision is because you have to be able to
see it,” he says. “The difference between
a goal and a vision is the finish line. A
goal is 26.2 miles, I don’t know what it
looks like but I know how far it is. A
vision, on the other hand, is a crystal
clear sense of what the future state
looks like but I don’t have an idea how
far it is. In reality, every goal takes us
closer to that vision.”
3.
Being a leader is similar
to being a parent, it
comes with great
personal sacrifice.
Leadership, according to Sinek, is a
choice and a daily practice. “Like
becoming a parent, everyone, has the
capacity to be a leader. It doesn’t mean
everyone should be a leader nor
everyone wants to be a leader,” he says.
So how do you become a good
leader? According to Sinek, leadership is
a balance of intensity and consistency.
As an example, he says practicing little
4.
things that display selflessness, like
opening the elevator when someone is
rushing toward it even if you are running
late to a meeting or refilling the coffee
maker at work when nobody is looking,
will help develop leadership traits that
will eventually become a natural habit
when bigger decisions are required at
work. But if leadership is difficult and
requires a lot of sacrifice, is it worth it to
strive to become a leader? “We persist to
become a leader for the unpredictable
glimmers, such as seeing your team
members solve a problem without your
help, or a staff member accomplish more
than he thinks he is capable of, or
seeing someone’s confidence grow at
work—these are the things that make all
the sacrifices worth it,” he says.
True leaders take
risks of trusting others
first.
Leadership is hard because there are risks
involved, especially in giving trust to
others. “At some point, a leader cannot
do the work, they have to trust their
people to do the work. A leader is not
responsible of the result, a leader is
responsible of the people responsible of
the result. Unfortunately, there are many
of those in top positions who don’t
make this transition,” Sinek says.
I’ve never heard of great leaders who
would say: “Prove to me why I should
trust you with more responsibility.”
What great leaders do, like a parent, is
they assess the skills of those in their
team and sometimes offer them more
responsibility even before that person
thinks he or she is ready for it. That’s
one of the risks of leadership—
sometimes you get it wrong. When they
fail, we sometimes had to go to them
and say, “I’m sorry, I put this all on you
too soon.” This is one of the reasons
why we call them leaders, because they
chose to go first. They chose to take the
risk. n
5.
November 2016
■
PULSE
39