This post is all about Leaders Eat Last Quotes.
Simon Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” is a phenomenal book leadership and its impact on teams. This was Simon Sinek’s second book, behind his first bestseller, “Start With Why“.
This book is filled with real-life stories of leaders who showed up (or didn’t) for their teams. There are many great examples of leaders who set the tone for thriving, successful teams. There are also stories of leaders who created toxic cultures.
It all comes down to leaders and whether they know the best ways to lead teams and their organizations. Are they in tune with the people they serve? Are they aiming to serve their people to begin with?
I was a little nervous to read this book at first – I thought it might be a little dry! But it ended up being very simple and straightforward, and the writing made the leadership lessons obvious. I really enjoyed it.
This post about Leaders Eat Last Quotes has all the the very best quotes and leadership lessons from Simon Sinek’s book Leaders Eat Last.
If you want to read Leaders Eat Last, you can find it on Amazon, here:
What is the lesson from Leaders Eat Last?
The lesson from Leaders Eat Last is that “leaders are the ones who are willing to give up something of their own for us.
Their time, their energy, their money, maybe even the food off their plate. When it matters, leaders choose to eat last.”
When leaders give, they gain their organization’s trust.
When they gain their organization’s trust, the people of the organization begin to trust and rely on each other which creates a positive environment for growth, innovation, and success.
What is the circle of safety?
The circle of safety in Simon Sinek’s book Leaders Eat Last is the idea that as long as the people look out for one another, they can protect each other from outside dangers.
If they fail to protect each other, however, and wander off on their own, the likelihood that danger swallows them up is high.
The benefits of the circle of safety are best described in this quote:
“The more we trust that the people to the left of us and the people to the right of us have our backs, the better equipped we are to face the constant threats from the outside together.”
You will find so much more wisdom in the following 100 Leaders Eat Last quotes, so let’s dive in!
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Quotes About The Best Leaders
What It Takes To Be A Leader Quotes
Quotes About Teams and Team Members
Culture Quotes
Quotes About Being An Employee
100 Best Leaders Eat Last Quotes
Quotes About The Best Leaders
Here are Leaders Eat Last quotes about the characteristics of great leaders.
1. “Exceptional organizations all have cultures in which the leaders provide cover from above and the people on the ground look out for each other.”
2. “During tense times, a little lightheartedness may go a long way to help relax those around us and reduce tensions so that we can focus on getting our jobs done.”
3. “What makes a good leader is that they eschew the spotlight in favor of spending time and energy to do what they need to do to support and protect their people.”
4. “The only thing our leaders ever need to do is remember whom they serve and it will be our honor and pleasure to serve them back.”
5. “We need to build more organizations that prioritize the care of human beings.”
6. “Treating people well in any economy is more cost effective than not.”
7. “Those who work hardest to help others succeed will be seen by the group as the leader or the “alpha” of the group.”
8. “Leadership is about integrity, honesty and accountability. All components of trust.”
9. “Leaders are the ones willing to look out for those to the left of them and those to the right of them.”
10. “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
11. “When a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems, and see to it that the leader’s vision comes to life the right way.”
12. “When a leader is able to personally know everyone in the group, the responsibility for their care becomes personal.”
13. “It is the leaders who decide what kind of environment they want to build.”
14. “The more attention leaders focus on their own wealth or power, they stop acting like leaders and start taking on more of the attributes of tyrants.”
15. “When our leaders reveal their gaps in knowledge and missteps, not only are we more willing to help, but we too are more willing to share when we make mistakes or when things go wrong.”
16. “The leaders of companies set the tone and direction for the people.”
17. “All leaders, in order to truly lead, need to walk the halls and spend time with the people they serve.”
18. “When a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader’s vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way.”
19. “All we need are leaders to give us a good reason to commit ourselves to each other.”
20. “We must all start today to do little things for the good of others…one day at a time.”
21. “When a leader has the humility to distribute power across the organization, the strength of the company becomes less dependent on one person and is thus more able to survive.”
What It Takes To Be A Leader Quotes
Here are quotes about what it takes to be a great leader.
1. “‘The cost of leadership’, explains Lieutenant General George Flynn of the United States Marine Corps, ‘is self-interest’.”
2. “The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own.”
3. “Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.”
4. “Every single employee is someone’s son or someone’s daughter. Like a parent, a leader of a company is responsible for their precious lives.”
5. “Without the protection of our leaders, everyone outside the inner circle is forced to work alone or in small tribes to protect and advance their own interests.”
6. “My favorite definition of love is giving someone the power to destroy us and trusting they won’t use it.”
7. “The more good things we do, the more good we want to do.”
8. “Those who aim to raise their own status simply so they can enjoy the perks themselves without fulfilling their responsibilities as leaders are, plain and simple, weak leaders.”
9. “Leadership, true leadership, is not the bastion of those who sit at the top. It is the responsibility of anyone who belongs to the group.”
10. “Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more.”
11. “It is all fine and good for a leader to expect the people to trust them, but if the leader doesn’t trust the people, the system will fail.”
12. “Good leadership is like exercise. We do not see any improvement to our bodies with day-to-day comparisons.”
13. “When big numbers start representing human beings, as Stalin told us, our ability to empathize starts to falter.
14. “All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren’t meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaces you. Because you only ever deserved a Styrofoam cup.”
15. “Profit isn’t a purpose, it’s a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.”
16. “The rank of office is not what makes someone a leader. Leadership is the choice to serve others with or without any formal rank.”
17. “It’s only when we compare pictures of ourselves over a period of weeks or months that we can see a stark difference. The impact of leadership is best judged over time.”
18. “It takes time to get to know someone and build the trust required to sustain a relationship, personal or professional.”
19. “Building trust requires nothing more than telling the truth.”
20. “With an eye on short-term results, executives can’t truly inspire workers.”
21. “Leadership takes work. It takes time and energy. The effects are not always easily measured and they are not always immediate.”
Quotes About Teams and Team Members
The people are the most important piece of the puzzle. This section of Leaders Eat Last quotes is all about what it takes for teams to work well together.
1. “The strength and endurance of a company does not come from products or services but from how well their people pull together.”
2. “The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.”
3. “Pointing fingers is not the solution, pulling together and doing something is.”
4. “Letting someone into an organization is like adopting a child.”
5. “No matter what place we occupy in the pecking order, every single one of us wants to feel like we are valued by the others in the group.”
6. “When we feel safe among the people with whom we work, the more likely we are to survive and thrive.”
7. “Every single human on the planet, regardless of culture, is naturally inclined to cooperate.”
8. “Nothing of real value on this earth was built by one person without the help of others.”
9. “A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.”
10. “It’s not how smart the people in the organization are; it’s how well they work together that is the true indicator of future success or the ability to manage through struggle.”
11. “We’re built to work together.”
12. “We want to feel that we and the work we do are valued by others, especially those in our group.”
13. “The trust we need to feel that our colleagues would watch our backs and help us grow, to really feel like we belong, takes time and energy.”
14. “It seems to stir controversy when I talk about the fact that no matter how great social media is, it is not as effective for building strong bonds of trust as real human contact is.”
15. “It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.”
16. “It is because of the advantages an alpha gets in a society that we are always trying to improve our own place in the pecking order.”
17. “If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection.”
18. “The problem is, for many of the overpaid leaders, we know that they took the money and perks and didn’t offer protection to their people.”
19. “Leaps of greatness require the combined problem-solving ability of people who trust each other.”
20. “All of the benefits of higher performing teams are direct results of feeling safe among their own and believing that their leaders have their well-being at heart.”
21. “Costco has succeeded because it recognizes employees are like family, not in spite of this fact.”
22. “All managers of metrics have an opportunity to become leaders of people.”
23. “It is not the work we remember with fondness, but the camaraderie, how the group came together to get things done.”
24. “Human beings have thrived for fifty thousand years not because we are driven to serve ourselves, but because we are inspired to serve others.”
Culture Quotes
A positive work culture is imperative for a successful organization. Here are the best Leaders Eat Last quotes about culture.
1. “A new culture of caring allowed the people and strategies to flourish.”
2. “Truly human leadership protects an organization from the internal rivalries that can shatter a culture.”
3. “When the people have to manage dangers from inside the organization, the organization itself becomes less able to face the dangers from outside.”
4. “Only 20% of Americans “love” their jobs.”
5. “Intimidation, humiliation, isolation, feeling dumb, feeling useless, and rejection are all stresses we try to avoid inside the organization.”
6. “Misery may love company, but it is the companies that love misery that suffer the most.”
7. “The best companies almost always make it through hard times because the people rally to make sure they do.”
8. “Cooperation and mutual aid work better than competition and rugged individualism.”
9. “The more familiar we are with each other, the stronger our bonds.”
10. “A corporate vision statement must be something we can see in our mind’s eye.”
11. “When the people feel that they have the control to do what’s right, even if it sometimes means breaking the rules, then they will more likely do the right thing.”
12. “If good people are asked to work in a bad culture, one in which leaders do not relinquish control, then the odds of something bad happening go up.”
13. “Trust is like lubrication. It reduces friction and creates conditions much more conducive to performance.”
14. “I admire leaders who believe in the value of culture. I respect leaders who put people first.”
15. “The people always have the power.”
16. “In organizations in which there is no safety provided, people are more likely to hide mistakes or problems out of self-preservation.”
17. “Too many of the environments in which we work today frustrate our natural inclinations to trust and cooperate.”
18. “In a weak culture, we veer away from doing “the right thing” in favor of doing “the thing that’s right for me.”
19. “The more energy is transferred from the top of the organization to those who are actually doing the job, those who know more about what’s going on on a daily basis, the more powerful the organization and the more powerful the leader.”
20. “Leadership comes from telling us not what we want to hear, but rather what we need to hear.”
21. “To be a true leader, to engender deep trust and loyalty, starts with telling the truth.”
22. “When we have to protect ourselves from each other, the whole organization suffers. But when trust and cooperation thrive internally, we pull together and the organization grows stronger as a result.”
23. “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”
24. “Nothing can replace face-to-face meetings for social animals like us.”
Quotes About Being An Employee
Being an employee can be tough. Here is some wisdom on how to make employee’s lives better.
1. “It is not the demands of the job that cause the most stress, but the degree of control workers feel they have throughout their day.”
2. “A study by two researchers at the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College found that a child’s sense of well-being is affected less by the long hours their parents put in at work and more by the mood their parents are in when they come home.”
3. “Children are better off having a parent who works into the night in a job they love than a parent who works shorter hours but comes home unhappy.”
4. “The lower someone’s rank in the organizational hierarchy, the greater their risk of stress-related health problems, not the other way around.”
5. “Simply earning more money or working our way up the ladder is not a prescription for stress reduction.”
6. “Our feelings of control, stress, and our ability to perform at our best are all directly tied to how safe we feel in our organizations.”
7. “It’s not very motivating or helpful to be told that we will receive a performance bonus if we achieve ‘more’. How much more?”
8. “Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right to which we are all entitled and not a modern luxury that only a few lucky ones are able to find.”
9. “Stress and anxiety at work have less to do with the work we do and more to do with weak management and leadership.”
10. “As social animals, it is imperative for us to see the actual, tangible impact of our time and effort for our work to have meaning and for us to be motivated to do it even better.”
This post was all about Leaders Eat Last Quotes.
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