Simon Sinek — The Gateway Drug to Good Leadership
Simon Sinek, a man I hate to love. It’s absolutely nothing personal. It is more the way his work is popular (there might be some jealousy there, but let’s not worry about that). Everything he says is on the mark, so I can’t fault him for that. I’ve heard his work described as true, generalisable but not practical. His work could dive a bit deeper into the subject matter and that’s my point. Perhaps that simple global connection is frustrating because it sells well, but the idea of a hammer doesn’t knock in many nails.
Maybe “Why” is the drug? It gives the purpose but not What or How. Knowing why I need to get my head above water is reassuring, but doesn’t tell me any of the ways I might keep my head above water. At least I can fail feeling good.
Taking a leaf from that book and asking why does Simon Sinek’s work get treated by many people as the be-all and end-all of management thinking. This is where things fall flat. If we treated his work as a gateway drug to the more intoxicating riches of understanding how to lead people we’d be on to a winner. There is extensive research stepped in theory and evidence that delves deeper into all these subjects. There is a blend of psychology, organisational design, behavioural science, complexity science and systems thinking that can be woven together to achieve great things.
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As a peddler of that harder, deeper, gritter and more rewarding studies in leadership training I should be grateful that he can be a gateway to people’s learning. If only I could find a way to lure people off the simple, sweet, unchallenging fix they get from him and enter the haze of understanding leading people and the amazing improvement that can bring to your life, their life and you organisation’s bottom line.
So, with begrudging admiration I’ll encourage Simon Sinek to keep introducing people to these ideas. What I’d really like is to see people become curious and start to look deeper into the topics and ideas he discusses. Because once you’ve mastered the basics you can really get high.
If you want to learn more, connect with me on LinkedIn or drop me a line on ed@pandoraconsulting.co.uk or ed@bakerfish.com
No Sineks were harmed in the making of this post
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For those who wish to raise concern about the reference to drug use, it came about during a conversation in which there was repeated reference to Simon Sinek where people had first encountered topics when learning leadership skills. A comment was made in jest that he was the like the gateway drug to leadership. We are not condoning the use of drugs.
