ARE YOU AN ALPHA? - Simon Sinek - Why Leaders Eat Last

[Music] serotonin is the leadership chemical the reason I call it leadership chemical is a historical reason a very simple historical reason we had a very practical problem as our animal was developing as the Homo Sapien was developing we lived in communities of about a hundred and a hundred and fifty people and there's a very practical issue which is if we're hungry and somebody brings back food and drop a carcass on the floor we're all gonna rush in to eat and if you're lucky enough to be built like a linebacker you will elbow your way to the front and if you're the artistic one of the family you get the elbow in the face not a good system to keep the whole tribe alive and definitely not a good system for cooperation because remember the value of group living means that if I trust you and you trust me I can fall asleep at night and trust that you will alert me to danger if I don't trust you I can't go to sleep at night it's the same in our companies if we trust each other we will turn our backs we will take risks we will innovate we will do things that will change the course of our world if I don't trust you I can't do that I can't do that there's value in group living and group working and so if you got an elbow in the face that afternoon odds are very high that you're not gonna wake the guy who punched you if dangers there you're just not gonna do it bad system and so we evolved into hierarchical animals we're constantly assessing and judging each other constantly arranging ourselves who's the Alpha who's the dominant who's the one who sort of is the is that is the more dominant personality or dominant talent in the room in caveman times that might have been physical muscle in the creative industry it might be talent in you know the military might be courage there's no standard by which we judge alphas it's relative to the industries were in and it's relative to us as well if you've ever met someone and you were nervous while you were meeting them you're not the Alpha we've all had the experience where we're meeting somebody and we can sense that they're nervous meeting us you're the Alpha I'll tell you a little aside that's kind of funny you know when women all live together their menstrual cycles align right assuming they're not on the pill then it doesn't work right but if they're not on the pill that all the menstrual cycles go together on the same schedule it's not arbitrary they always align with the alpha females schedule and the reason is is because when a woman is in her menstrual cycle she can't bear children and so in evolutionary terms you want the alpha male male female to to do it so you can have alpha children right nice strong strapping kids are gonna survive but if she's off the market that produces competition so mother nature has in created a very clever way that when she's off the market everyone's off the market back to the talk so we're constantly judging and assessing each other who's alpha right and what we do is when we assess that someone else is the Alpha we voluntarily take a step back and allow them to eat first alphas get first choice of meat and first choice of mate good system good system the Alpha gets to eat first the rest of us may not get the best cut of meat but we will get to eat eventually and we won't get an elbow in the face good system will happily alert them to danger later good system this is why we're constantly trying to raise our status is because there are benefits to being the Alpha people will do things for us and step back and offer us favors right we're and we to this day we're perfectly comfortable giving special treatment to our alphas no one has a problem that your boss makes more money than you you might think he's an ass but you don't have a problem that he makes more money nobody has a problem that somebody out rank who outranks us at work has a bigger office than us doesn't offend us it is deeply ingrained in us we happily step aside and allow our alphas first choice of meat and first choice of mate it's good to be the king there are advantages that come with being the Alpha you get special treatment you get to eat first people show you love and respect it boosts the serotonin you walk around like this it boosts your confidence it's awesome but comes at a cost you see the group is not stupid we're not giving all of that stuff away for free leadership alpha comes at a cost you see we expect that when danger threatens us from the outside that the person who's actually stronger the person who's better fed and the person who is actually teeming with serotonin and actually has higher confidence of the rest of us we expect them to run towards the danger to protect us this is what it means to be a leader the cost of leadership is self-interest if you're not willing to give up your perks when it matters then you probably shouldn't get promoted you might be an authority but you will not be a leader leadership comes at a cost you don't get to do less work when you get more senior you have to do more work and the more work you have to do is put yourself at risk to look after others that is the anthropological definition of what a leader is this is why we're so offended by these banker boys who pay themselves astronomical salaries it has nothing to do with the number it has to do with the fact that they have violated a deep-seated social contract we know that they made all of that money and allowed their people to be sacrificed in fact they may have sacrificed their people for the money if I told you we're gonna give a hundred and fifty million dollars to Nelson Mandela would anyone have a problem with that nope two hundred and fifty million dollars to mother Teresa got an issue with it no it's not the number it's not the amount of money they make it's that we are deeply and viscerally offended that we know that we allowed them to have this alpha position and they did not fulfill their responsibility of the Alpha they're supposed to sacrifice themselves for us never sacrifice us for themselves this is why we're angry and offended and don't trust them they fail [Applause] for more interesting and insightful videos please subscribe to after-school [Music] [Music]

Channel: After Skool

Views: 1,892,867

Rating: 4.8311796 out of 5

Keywords: simon sinek, RSD, Real Social Dynamics, alpha, after skool, kram gallery, mark wooding, dominant, alpha male, menstrual cycle, caveman, leaders, authority, trust, ted talk, start with why, are you an alpha, tim ferris, motivation, manager, boss, alpha female

Id: WdQpLDm6c0w

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2017