Summary: Leaders Eat Last

So goes the leader, so goes the culture – what the leader does always sets the tone for the culture and the organization.

Integrity matters – it is the essence of great leadership. If you have leaders that are willing to fess up when they make a mistake and always tell the truth come what may, you grow the Circle of Safety. People trust the leadership because they have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to be truthful. The more you tell the truth even when doing so will embarrass you, the more integrity you'll have and the wider your Circle of Safety becomes.
Choose your friends well – because they matter as well. When you spend time with people, not only do you get to know their genuine intentions better but you also build opportunities to cooperate wherever feasible. The simple fact is enemies fight but friends find ways to cooperate. A good illustration of this dynamic is the current generation of politicians. In the old days, those elected to Congress would move to Washington where they would rub shoulders with their counterparts socially. It was then easier for them to work out compromises. Today's generation of politicians fly to Washington on a Tuesday and then back to their districts on Thursday so they can get busy fund raising. They don't really get to know their counterparts anymore and the result has been the gridlock and partisan politics which marks politics today. Everyone is busy gearing up for reelection at the expense of making progress for the common good.
Remember the challenge is to lead the people, not the numbers – and this is why your values count. In the good old days, companies existed to serve their customers. That has since been replaced by the concept companies should instead maximize shareholder value.

For all the organizations that have suffered from Destructive Abundance, there is a clear pattern that provides lessons for the rest of us. In nearly all those organizations, the abundances weren't managed properly. There was almost always a leader who didn't take their responsibility as a leader to heart. Destructive Abundance almost always follows when challenge is replaced by temptation.”
- Simon Sinek

Leader ⇒ Culture ⇒ Organization
So goes the culture, so goes the company – meaning over the long haul, the results the organization achieves will always be a direct reflection of the culture which exists inside that organization. If you want to build something which is going to shine, you have to build an inclusive Circle of Safety. When people trust each other and share their successes, their failures and what they learn, the natural result is innovation.
So goes the leader, so goes the culture – what the leader does always sets the tone for the culture and the organization. There's no way around this dynamic. High quality leaders work to widen the Circle of Safety and make it more inclusive whereas poor leaders act like tyrants in an attempt to preserve their own personal wealth and power. A perfect illustration of this dynamic in action was the experience of U.S. Navy submarine captain David Marquet who took over command of the USS Santa Fe. He had trained to be assigned to another submarine and he realized he didn't know the Santa Fe half as well as the most junior sailor on board. Captain Marquet was therefore forced to give authority to those who were closest to the information rather than to try and issue commands everyone followed without questioning. What surprised about this approach, however, was as this new culture spread, the Santa Fe went from being the lowest-rated vessel in the U.S. submarine fleet to having the best-rated crew in Navy history. That's the power of a great culture.

Destructive abundance happens when everyone focuses on the score and forgets why the score is even being kept. In destructive abundance conditions, people become just another commodity to be managed like a utilities bill.

“When our leaders give us something noble to be a part of, offer us a compelling purpose or reason why we should come to work, something that will outlive us, it seems to give us the power to do the right thing when called upon, even if we have to make sacrifices to our comfort in the short term. And when a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader’s vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way.”

Great leaders provide cover from above for when breaking the rules is the right thing to do. They do this by:
Teaching people the rules so they know how things are supposed to work
Training everyone so they gain competency and necessary skills
Building their confidence by trusting them to use their best judgment
Stepping back a little and letting people make decisions and learn and grow
“In weak organizations, without oversight, too many people will break the rules for personal gain. That’s what makes the organizations weak. In strong organizations, people will break the rules because it is the right thing to do for others.”
- Simon Sinek

We don’t just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them. The rules are there for normal operations

It is better that we would all suffer a little so that none of us has to suffer a lot.”
- Bob Chapman

If you can create an organizational culture which aligns with the natural body chemistry of humans, the end result will be a group of people who are highly self-motivated rather than motivated by structures imposed from outside.