Synopsis

How the Mighty Fall is a short book that questions why great companies fall and offers business leaders lessons for detecting and reversing collapse. With data collected from prior research studies consisting of more than six thousand years of combined corporate history, Collins explains what we learn by studying the contrast between success and failure.

Lessons

On learning…

Collins says, “The best leaders we’ve studied never presume that they’ve reached the ultimate understanding of all the factors that brought them success. For one thing, they retain a somewhat irrational fear that perhaps their success stems in large part from luck or fortuitous circumstance.”

He goes on to say, “Like inquisitive scientists, the best corporate leaders we’ve researched remain students of their work, relentlessly asking questions – why, why, why? – and have an incurable compulsion to vacuum the brains of people they meet.” I like the analogy of an “inquisitive scientist.”

On things taking time…

Collins says that great leaders understand building an organisation requires a series of intelligent, well-executed actions that add up one on top of another.

 Quotes

“We are not imprisoned by our circumstances, our setbacks, our history, our mistakes, or even staggering defeats along the way. We are freed by our choices.”

“Don’t try come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions.”

Something interesting

The first line of the novel Anna Karenina is, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Packard’s Law: if a great company consistently grows revenues faster than it ability to get enough of the right people to implement the growth, it will not simply stagnate; it will fall.

Winston Churchill attended Harrow, a private boys school in England.

Synopsis

Leaders Eat Last is a book about the true price of leadership. Sinek sets out to change the paradigm of leadership, insisting that organisational success is based on leadership excellence.

Lessons

On environment…

Sinek says organisations must create an environment that gets the best out of its people. He says, “The way to do that is by giving people a sense of belonging. By offering them a strong culture based on a clear set of human values and beliefs. By giving them the power to make decisions. By offering trust and empathy. By creating a Circle of Safety.” Sinek says unlike the forces outside the organisation, the ones inside are variable and are well within our control. When we feel safe among our own people, in our own tribes or organisation, we relax and are more open to trust and cooperation.

The Spartans…

Sinek tells the story of the Spartans, a warrior society in ancient Greece. He says the strength of the army came from their circle of safety – their ability to pull together.

“Like the Spartans, we will have to learn that our strength will come not from the sharpness of our spears but from the willingness to offer others the protection of our shields.”

On authority…

Sinek says it is the leader’s responsibility to give direction and protection to every member of the team so that they feel confident to perform their duties. “The goal of the leader is to give no orders.” Instead, he or she must distribute authority amongst the team so that through trust and cooperation the individual can take action to solve problems.

Measuring leadership…

Sinek says great companies and great leaders are ones who are able to succeed beyond any one leader or time frame. He suggests that we judge a leader “not on what they do when they are holding the torch but on what happens after they pass it on.”

Quotes

“The problem now is that we have produced an abundance of nearly everything we need or want. And we don’t do well with abundance. It can short-circuit our systems and actually do damage to us and to our organisation. Abundance can be destructive not because it is bad for us, per se. Abundance can be destructive because it abstracts the value of things. The more we have, the less we seem to value what we’ve got. And if the abstraction of stuff makes us value it less, imagine what it does to our relationships.”

“Perhaps the most valuable thing we can do if we are to truly serve our constituents is to know them personally. It would be impossible to know all of them, but to know the name and details of the life of someone… makes a huge difference.

“In a weak culture, we veer away from doing to “the right thing” in favour of doing “the thing that’s right for me.””

Something interesting

Our eyebrows were “designed” [through evolution] to help channel sweat away from our eyes when we were running toward prey – or running away to avoid becoming prey.

When you give a donation to charity: water they send you a photograph and GPS coordinates of the well your money paid for.

Roberto Goizueta, former CEO of Coca-Cola, was the first American executive to become a billionaire on the basis of stock holdings in a company he didn’t found or take public.