Response to Timothy deHaan’s Follow The Leader Post

This is my response to Timothy deHaan’s Follow The Leader post on Simon Sinek.

Timothy, thank you for introducing Simon Sinek’s work to us! It is always interesting to study and learn about inspiring leaders and the common traits that made them successful.

To me, it seems that Sinek’s ideas can be linked back to servant leadership. You mentioned that his first idea was that good leaders make their followers feel safe. This aligns with the servant leadership characteristics “commitment to the growth of people” and “building community” (Northouse, 2016, p. 228-229). Both of these principles help leaders build trust with followers because the leaders are actively and consciously putting the followers first. Sinek’s second idea of identifying the reasons behind a leader’s actions reminds me of Hughes, Colarelli Beatty, and Dinwoodie’s book Becoming A Strategic Leader and their ideas on strategic leadership. Hughes et al. define strategic leadership creating “the direction, alignment, and commitment needed to achieve the enduring performance potential of the organization” (p. 11).

It is fascinating when different authors and experts come to the same conclusions independently. This speaks to how true certain principles are – no matter what the case studies or situations are, many of the basic concepts remain the same.

References:

Hughes, R. L., Colarelli Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.