DISCONTINUED: Council of Science Editors Book Club discussion

Welcome to our first read of 2019! I’ll be honest: I'm a little jaded when it comes to management and leadership books. The strategies often seem to involve Koosh balls or talking sticks or other gimmicky tactics for dynamically synergizing teams of 60+. I know you're likely still reading Leaders, but what are your experiences with management and leadership resources? Is this your first book on the subject or are you a connoisseur?

I just started the book today. I have read quite a few management/leadership books, and my reaction to them varies greatly. Some have really informed my work as a manager, and others just strike me as complete hooey. I’m looking forward to this one. As a side note, I just finished the book Endurance about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s failed Antarctic expedition, and it talks about what a natural leader he was, which was demonstrated time and again throughout their ordeal. I think it was a good precursor to this book and discussion.

OK. I just got to the part where he compares being a leader to being a parent, and I admit that paternalistic viewpoint rankled. I don't need to be anyone's mom, and I certainly don't need anyone acting like my parent. I already have parents. My direct reports are my peers, not my children. Just curious what others thought of that part.

This comparison continues throughout the book, and it's irritating me more each time. He keeps saying, "Would you fire your children?" Well, I can't say since I don't have kids, but I do want to fire my pets on a regular basis...

The extended comparison to the parent/child relationship is rather off-putting. I do think leaders have a responsibility to guide and support their team members and to help them grow professionally and as part of the team. Which is not the same as parenting.

I like Sinek's emphasis on caring and having empathy towards others, and not just managing, but being responsible for creating an environment that stimulates growth and creativity as a component of leadership.

What do you think?
How far have you read? Have you come across any strategies you intend to incorporate into your approach?

I'm reading (well, actually, listening) and am just past halfway through. As a parent, I cannot stand this parent/child analogy. I don't think my family relationships, particularly with my kids, could be any more different from my professional relationships. According to the book, I think this makes me a terrible leader. Or a terrible parent. Maybe both.

In any case, there are two parts that I've really appreciated:

1. The case study about the air traffic controller who facilitates an emergency landing was a good reminder that leaders should empower their people to rely on their knowledge and experience to make the right, sometimes difficult decisions. Guidelines are good, but constantly falling back on rules and bureaucracy in lieu of logic and empathy is toxic.

2. The discussion about the value of seeing in person the impact of one's work as compared to being told by a manager that one's work is important has me thinking about ways to incorporate this for staff who don't have as much interaction with our editors and authors.

I do like the emphasis on empathy. I gave a shout-out to that point in my slide on "What makes a good manager?" for the management portion of the upcoming short course. In the last manager academy I took, we focused a great deal on emotional intelligence, and of course empathy is a big part of that.

I agree that the parent/child analogy is not a good choice. As you mention, it all comes down to a caring attitude. Good leaders should feel a professional responsibility for their reports.

Reading the first chapters of this book, I cannot help but think of the 2017 movie The Circle. The company in the movie drives the idea of converting professional work relations into family-like relations to an extreme. With that image in mind, Sinek's opening of the book is a hard pill to swallow.

Leaders Eat Last
Although I realize authors are taught to repeat their ideas to reinforce the message to readers, I found Sinek’s writing style to be a bit too repetitive. Nonetheless, I appreciated his well-researched neurochemical explanation for some current US cultural phenomena that have perplexed me over recent years. As a Managing Editor of pharmacological publications, I am impressed with how well Sinek conveys complex physiological concepts in reasonably simple terms. I endorse his recommendation that we, in general, and leaders, in particular, treat one another as individuals rather than statistics or a budget expense but I readily acknowledge it will take another generation or two to re-integrate this basic value into our business practices. Let’s hope “Leaders Eat Last” helps generate a grass-roots effort to restore humanity to the American workplace.