Last

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't by Simon Sinek
Portfolio/Penguin, January 7, 2014

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In Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, Simon Sinek turns on its head the definition of a thriving organization. Imagine the audacity of offering lifetime employment in spite of performance reviews or financial and economic downturns. How could an organization, such as an independent school, possibly sustain itself while committing to employees in that way?  Well it happened, and it worked. Sinek analyzes Next Jump, a tech company that has been around for twenty years with lifetime employment in place. Through such examples, Sinek shows patterns among some of the most successful organizations; leadership driven by empathy, cooperation, and trust helps such organizations outperform peer institutions on key measures. Sinek’s charge to “lead the people, not the numbers” stands as a counterclaim to the kinds of supremely quantitative and data-driven policies currently saturating discussions of tuition, curriculum, and hiring for independent schools. Teachers, leaders, and policy makers need to know the importance of “making people feel safe” and the measured benefits such practice offers. The implications for student achievement and diversity initiatives are multifarious for independent schools, making Sinek’s book essential to today’s dialogue about education.