Simon Sinek - Leaders Summit 2016 Day 2 – 23 June Marriott Marquis

now you're all in business most of you and you want new markets and you want sustainable growth but you also want to embrace new thinking we talked about that mindset shift yesterday and today so let's introduce a new speaker a very deep thinker a very energetic thinker an author a thought leader whose ideas on leadership that inspires action have captivated people all over the world he is and I'm delighted to say this because I am too an unshakable optimism alieve the glass is half-full how many of you believe the glass is half-full if you do say I if you don't say nay I think the eyes have it the eyes have it I should be a speaker the house seemed I hear or don't stop order order okay and after you hear him we know you'll be lining up for his book this be a book signing promptly at the end of the program especially once you hear that the first 99 zero people in line will receive a free copy and I can see you all getting ready please welcome to the stage mr. simon Sinek Simon please come over here fantastic so a few years ago The Economist ran one of their special sections you know one of their big session special sections they have in the middle of the magazine that made the case for the decline of innovation in the world and it made a very compelling case for this decline of innovation amongst other factors they counted the number of patents that have been filed and the ones that have been filed are not as impactful as old ones used to be etcetera etc and then they attempted to explain why there's been this decline in Evatt of a ssin in the world and they touched on multiple factors including things like the internet and globalization and I was amazed that not a single word mentioned human beings as my question is who's coming up with all the ideas and so we talk about things like innovation we talk about things like sustainability as if they're going to happen by themselves my interest is the people component which is how do we actually get people how do we actually inspire people to act towards the thing we need to get done the thing that we know that needs to get done well we're social animals Homo Sapien human beings are social animals and we respond to the environment we're in you can take a good person put them in a bad environment and they're capable of doing bad things likewise you can take a person who may have performed bad acts may be is considered untrustworthy by the group and if you put them in a good environment they're capable of turning their lives around and becoming remarkable and productive members of society in other words it's not just about telling people what we need to get done it's about creating an environment in which trust and cooperation can thrive the problem is the concepts of trust and cooperation are feelings they are not instructions I cannot order you to trust me doesn't work I know I cannot tell two people that they have to cooperate it doesn't work that way cooperation is a feeling it's that feeling that I can give somebody something to do and trust that they will work to the best of their capability and I don't have to double check their work and it's also the feeling that I can turn my back and trust that someone won't stab me these feelings are born directly out of the environment in which we're in is that popping just Mayor's at everybody I don't know what it is cool I'm sure someone's going to run out here in a moment give me a microphone anyway the point is is we respond to the environment where and Trust in cooperation are born directly out of that environment now why is trust and cooperation important as social animals we depend on each other if you go back to the dawn of man fifty thousand years ago the Paleolithic era we lived in tribes and we had to rely on each other to stay safe thrive and survive in the world by trusting each other it meant that I can fall asleep at night and trust that someone else will watch for danger if I don't trust you it means I can't fall asleep at night bad system now the problem is is as I said trust and cooperation or feelings and those feelings are born out of the environment if you get the environment right trust and cooperation or the result if you get the environment wrong cynicism paranoia mistrust and self-interest thrive thank you very much we're good see we can rely on each other so that things go better I'm just hoping that my chain of thought doesn't break so you can just imagine what life must have been like in these Paleolithic times it was a world filled with dangers a world filled of all of these forces that were working very very hard to kill us nothing personal it's just the way it was whether it was lack of resources whether it was bad weather whether it was a wild animal whatever it was and so we evolved into these animals where we lived and worked amongst others around whom we felt safe and when we felt safe amongst our own the natural human reaction is trust in cooperation when we do not feel safe amongst our own the natural human reaction is cynicism paranoia mistrust and self-interest nothing has changed in our modern day and age the world is still filled with unpredictable dangers sometimes it's the threat of violence sometimes it's the uncertainty of an economy the unpredictability of a stock market sometimes it's competitive forces that are trying to put you out of business or steal your business or sometimes they just don't care about your priorities and they're doing their own thing we have no control over any of these factors the only variable are the conditions inside an organization and that's why we have leaders because leaders set the conditions get the conditions right and people will come together to advance the common good get the conditions wrong and people will use their time and energy to protect themselves from their own organization let me give you an example of what I'm talking about I was witness to a scene that played out right in front of me in an airport where one of the passengers attempted to board the aircraft before their group number was called which everybody here knows is a crime right and that's exactly how the gate agent treated him step aside sir I haven't called your group please step aside and wait until I call your group is exactly how she talked to him and so I spoke up I said why do you have to talk to us that way why can't you talk to us like we're human beings and she looked me in the eye and said if I don't follow the rules I could get in trouble or lose my job all she revealed to me is that she does not feel safe in our own organization and she does not feel that her own leaders trust her to do the job that she's been trained to do and guess who suffers company and customer the reason we love flying Southwest Airlines for example is not because they have some magical formula to hire nice people it's because the people who work there feel safe in their own organizations and their leaders trust them to do the job that they've been trained to do and guess who benefits customer and company in other words it's not the people it's the leaders just a few weeks ago I stayed at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas it's a wonderful hotel and the reason it's a wonderful hotel is not because of the comfy beds any hotel can buy comfy beds the reason it's a wonderful hotel is because of the people who work there and how they made me feel they have a little coffee stand in the foyer and so one afternoon I was buying myself a cup of coffee and the barista man by the name of Noah was helping me and I gotta tell you this guy was wonderful he was funny he was engaging he was curious about me he was wonderful I could I could have stood there all day and talked to him and it was because of him that I loved this hotel and how he made me feel when I was just buying a cup of coffee so I asked him do you like your job and he said to me I love my job and I said to me I said to him what what are the things that the Four Seasons is doing that you would say to me I love my job he said to me throughout the day managers will walk past me and ask me how are you doing is there anything I can get you to help you do your job he says I feel so taken care of I feel I can be myself here now he went on to say this was magical for me as somebody who studies the stuff he says I also work at Caesars Palace he says it's Caesars Palace the managers walk past and make sure I'm doing everything right and more yell at us if we do anything wrong he says there I just keep my head under the radar there I just want to get through the day and I don't want to get in trouble and I'm just working for a paycheck same person and yet the behavior is completely different not because of him but because of the leadership and the environment in which the leaders create get the environment right trust and cooperation and absolute devotion to the cause is what you get get the environment wrong cynicism paranoia mistrust and self-interest is the behavior you will get and a preoccupation with taking care of yourself and not the cause that you've been asked to advance if you work in an organization where it is standard practice for people to feel the need to send an email to everybody after any decision they make just in case that is a sign that is a sign that they feel the need to take time and energy out of their day away from advancing the cause in order to protect themselves from their own company that's what that is if you work in an organization where people feel the need to keep a folder of all the good things they've done in their careers just in case they need it nervous laughter that is a sign that people feel they need to take time and energy out of their day away from doing their jobs in order to protect themselves from their own leaders in other words what's going to help us advance this cause what's going to help us advance all of these things that we have pretty logos for on the stage isn't the simple articulation of the things that we need to get done it's the creation of corporate environments corporate cultures in which the people feel safe amongst their own in which they feel that their leaders have their backs so that they will commit all of their time and all of their energy to doing all of these things if we do not do those things no matter how wonderful these things are they will take time and energy out of their day simply to protect themselves from their organization because if you're not going to help them feel safe they have no choice but to make themselves feel safe we do not teach leadership leadership is a skill like any other when someone is junior in their career we give them lots and lots and lots of training on how to do their job some even go and get advanced degrees on how to do their jobs it with you're a doctor an engineer or a banker or an accountant whatever it is right and if you're really good at your job they'll promote you and eventually you get promoted to a position where you're now responsible for the people who do the job you used to do but nobody teaches us how to do that we have to go through this transition when we're very junior a basic responsibility is to take care of our jobs and then as we become more senior we have to go through this transition some make it slowly some make it quickly and some never make it at all where we are now no longer responsible for the job we're no longer responsible for the results we now become responsible for the people who are responsible for the results it's an entirely new skillset but because we don't teach it this is the reason we get managers instead of leaders it's as if we put somebody in front of a machine and demanded results but we never showed them how to work the machine and all it does is breed insecurity uncertainty fear and doesn't and the feelings even in our own leadership that they don't feel protected and they have to worry about themselves and so many leaders spend most of their time fighting lying hiding and faking that they actually have everything under control I love talking to CEOs and saying what's your priority they said to me my number-one priority is my customer I'm like really you haven't talked to a customer in 10 years your responsibility is the people who are responsible for the customer I love talking to leaders of organizations and they love to tell me how they're responsible for the results no you're not you're responsible for the people who are responsible for the results and when the people feel that their leaders have their interests in mind they will respond with blood and sweat and tears do anything and they will sacrifice to advance the common good if they feel that their leaders have their own interests in minds then they will do the things necessary to protect themselves from their leaders at the cost of the cause or the purpose or the vision Trust is a feeling born out of the environment in which we operate and that environment is set by the leaders now this is an anthropological construct this is not my definition you know I get a kick out of the fact that we don't really have a standard definition for leadership people talk about I want to be a good leader I want to I want to you know strive to become a leader and yet what does that even mean does it mean that you're in charge does that mean that you make all the decisions does it what's this concept of servant leadership we don't even agreeing on what the definition is there's actually an objective anthropological definition for 40,000 of the 50,000 years that we have lived on this planet we lived in populations that were rarely bigger than about a hundred and fifty people there was only 10,000 years ago when we started farming we'll be able to maintain enough resources to sustain larger populations but prior to that 150 was about the max this still has some inherent challenges these are austere conditions were hungry somebody brings food back to the tribe dumps it on the ground we all rush in to eat if you're lucky enough to be built like a rugby player you can shove your way to the front of the line if you're the artist of the family you get an elbow in the face bad system because the odds are that if you punched me in the face this afternoon probably not going to wake you and alert you to danger tonight bad system and so we evolved into hierarchical animals we're constantly assessing and judging each other who's more senior in the social hierarchy and when we assess that someone is alpha to us that they're more senior in the social hierarchy we voluntarily step back and allow our alphas to eat first so alphas get first choice of meat and first choice of mate and though I may not get to eat first I'm guaranteed food and I don't get an elbow in the face good system nothing has changed in our modern day and age we are still constantly assessing and judging each other trying to determine who's more senior who's above us in the social hierarchy sometimes that system is formal inside organizations we tend to have formal hierarchies we know that an executive vice president is moist moist senior than a vice president we know that I'm entry-level and I have nothing right and so we adjust our behavior accordingly we show excessive amounts of deference to people who are more senior we call them sir and ma'am we hold doors open for them we get them tea and coffee without even asking they get bigger offices it's wonderful that's why no one's ever turned down a promotion because you get more stuff right not a single person in this room has a moral disposition or is offended by the fact that somebody more senior than you gets preferential treatment I can prove it not a single person in this room is morally offended by the idea that somebody more senior than you in the organization makes a higher salary you may think they're completely ineffective in their job but the fact that they are more senior to get a higher salary bothers no one we're comfortable giving preferential treatment to our alphas and the preferential treatment can sometimes be quite ridiculous if your senior and you left your jacket in the in the other room someone will go get your jacket for you if you're junior and you left your jacket on the other room you go get your own jacket it's good to be the king right however the group is not stupid we do not give all of these advantages and all of these preferences and all of these perks to our alphas for nothing there is an underlying deep-seated social contract you see the group expects that when danger threatens the tribe that it's the person who's actually stronger actually smarter actually better fed actually has more self-confidence who will rush towards the danger to protect us that's why we gave you first choice of mate because you might die and we want to keep your genes in the gene pool we're not stupid this is the moral responsibility of a leader leaders by the very definition of the ones who are willing to sacrifice their interests to save the lives of the people in their tribe great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers great leaders sacrifice the numbers to save the people this is why we are so viscerally offended by some of the banking CEOs their disproportionate salaries and bonus structures it has nothing to do with the amount of money they take we're perfectly comfortable with our alphas being paid more and being given vast amounts of preferential treatment the reason we're offended is because they have violated the definition of what it means to be a leader we know that they allowed their people to be sacrificed so they could keep their bonuses and salaries or worse they chose to sacrifice their people so they could keep their bonuses and salaries and this is what's so viscerally and morally offends us it's not the money what if I told you were going to give a hundred and fifty million dollar bonus to Nelson Mandela does anyone have a problem with that no how about a two hundred million dollar bonus to mother Teresa got an issue with that no it's not the money it's the absolute confidence that we know that those people would easily sacrifice their interest to take care of those around them and they would never sacrifice those around them to take care of themselves and this is why we are not only proud that they get those perks but we will offer our own blood sweat and tears to advance their vision if we suspect for a moment however that our leaders would sacrifice us to protect themselves make them look good advance their own careers line their pockets whatever it is we will work excessively hard to build very high walls and protect ourselves far up from our own leaders do that no matter how noble the organization's stated cause or purpose nothing will get done nothing will get done innovation requires experimentation and experimentation requires failure and if I do not feel that I can fail safely that if I trip over that someone will look at me and say try again I'm not going to try if you're a trapeze artist why would you ever try a new trick without a safety net you'll do the minimum you'll do the basics and this is the problem just enough to get by like my friend Noah working at for season at the Caesar's Palace he does just enough to get by just enough not to get in trouble just enough that no one can really complain about his performance but he never goes above and beyond and as he said in his own words to me I can never be myself if you're gonna hire idealists to advance an ideal cause you better take care of them you better commit yourself to taking care of the people inside of the organization so the people inside the organization can take care of the cause we're trying to advance and if we ask them why are you giving such blood and sweat and tears why why would you bother sacrificing for that person or this cause they will look you in the eye and say because you would do it for me that's what it's all about get the people thing right and we will change the world get the people thing wrong and will continue to have conferences talking about the importance of these things and yet advance very little the power is ours be the leader you wish you had thank you very much Simon Street fantastic right that's right yeah come on man simon Sinek come on keep it going that's great great stuff nice and Simon Simon that's for you come out I take the ball take about I was great man lucky thank you that's pretty sweet

Channel: United Nations Global Compact

Views: 24,093

Rating: 4.93994 out of 5

Keywords: SDGs, Leaders Summit, UNGC, 2016 Leaders Summit, UN Global Compact, United Nations Global Compact, LS2016

Id: kaRds4ZHEkg

Length: 22min 34sec (1354 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 19 2016