The Key to Impactful Leadership | Simon Sinek

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Leadership comes with responsibility. When you become a leader for the wrong reasons, it affects everyone you’re supposed to lead. Maybe we’ve been looking at leadership the wrong way. How can we gain an optimistic look at leadership by shifting our perspective on what it means to lead?

WELCOME TO THE DARIN OLIEN SHOW

Simon Sinek has an optimistic look when it comes to leadership. But what is leadership?

As an unshakable optimist, Simon is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. While he may be best known for his TED Talk on the concept of “Why”, Simon talks people through various subjects. His videos have millions of views for a reason– what he says strikes a chord. But Simon isn’t just all talk. He’s got the goods to back it up. Besides being a New York Times best-selling author, he’s also the founder of The Optimism Company, a leadership learning and development company. He also hosts his own podcast, A Bit of Optimism. 

What makes a good leader?

While Simon may be the king of optimism, our conversation centered around leadership. When it comes to what makes a good leader, he definitely doesn’t mince words. But I have to say– I haven’t heard anyone break down the concept of leadership quite as eloquently as Simon does. According to Simon, leadership does not mean status and hierarchy. Instead, leadership comes with the responsibility of allowing the ones you lead to rise. And leadership comes with sacrifice.

In this conversation, Simon breaks down the sacrifices necessary to be a good leader. And we discuss why all this recent chaos and division in the world can be traced back to a lack of real leadership. But at the end of the day, of course Simon is optimistic about the leaders that we may see in the future. And he gives a detailed way to approach leadership in your work or career. Whether you’re a leader, or a follower– and Simon explains why being a follower isn’t actually a bad thing!– you’ll get something out of this episode.