Simon Sinek argues that leadership cannot be done alone and requires support—much like parenting—encouraging leaders to have a "leadership buddy". He shares a personal anecdote about a friend (Maria) to illustrate mutual responsibility to reach out, and describes a practical code: when someone messages "you have eight minutes," it signals an urgent need for brief support.
Chapters
Please recognize that leadership is a team sport, that none of us can lead by ourselves. It is just far too difficult. It is just far. Like being a parent is too difficult to do alone, which is why, preferably, we have a partner, but we rely on our own parents and our friends, and we're constantly asking and reading books. You just can't do it alone. You need support and advice, and leadership is exactly the same. I beg of each of you, if you don't already, which I'm sure many of you do, make sure you have a leadership buddy at work, somebody you can call and be like, I can't, I can't, I can't. You need someone to vent to. You need someone to vent to. You need someone to scream and yell and just get it out of your system. You need somebody who'd be like, how do I do this? And most importantly. And this, all of my friends know this. I have a very strong rule, a strict rule with all my friends, which is never cry alone. And when you are overwhelmed and you need to just let it out, you pick up the phone and I'll. And I'll tell you one quick story. I have a dear, dear friend who is going through a very hard time. My friend Maria.
And.
I went to her house for dinner, and she was better now, and we were catching up, and she was telling me about this awful time she went through. And I wanted to be sympathetic, but at the same time, I was really pissed off that she didn't call me. And I was like, what the hell?
Like, I'm here. I love you.
I support you.
Like, you're always there for me. Why wouldn't you let me be there for you?
Like, how selfish are you? Like, you wouldn't let me be there for you. She did.
She says to me, I did.
I reached out to you a number of times.
I said, no, you didn't.
And I look at my phone, like, the text, she goes, want to come over?
I'm like, how the hell do I know that that's a cry for help versus every other time you ask me over? Which sounds exactly the same.
And so she read an article that says that when somebody's struggling, all they need is eight minutes of help or support from a friend to get them back on track. And so we came up with a code, which Ennis is like, what are you doing? Want to come over for dinner? Blah, blah, blah, let's chat later. Fine. But when they. When we write to each other, do you. You have eight minutes. It means I need you love it. And anybody can step out of a meeting for eight minutes to be there for a friend.
