Simon Sinek argues that leadership is an ongoing practice rather than a state of expertise. He emphasizes curiosity and lifelong learning, citing leaders such as Richard Branson and Howard Schultz as examples of insatiable curiosity. Sinek also candidly notes that his own organization makes the same mistakes as others but focuses on how those problems are addressed—favoring patience and empathy—and that practicing leadership daily is what matters.
Chapters
So leadership is a practice. I don't believe that anyone is an expert in leadership. We're all students, and some of us are more advanced students than others. But it's something that is ongoing. It is literally a practice. And you have to show up and try and be a better leader every single day. And so every leader that I admire, and some of them have achieved amazing things. I mean, you're hearing from some of them today, some of them have achieved amazing things. And they're all curious. And when I sit down with them, they all go like this. And I'm so enamored by that, that no matter how much they know and how much they've accomplished, they know that there's more to know. I just recently, you're never too old to learn. But I mean, I'm talking about.
Richard Branson, Howard Schultz, like, all of these guys that I've had the opportunity to meet, they're all insatiably curious. And they all know that whatever they've done, they know there's so much more they don't know. And the ones I'm suspicious of are the ones that go, I think I know what I'm doing. I think I know. So you don't know what you're doing? No, I'm learning as I'm going, as we all are. And I think the big mistake that people make about me is that my organization runs flawlessly. It doesn't. My organization has all the same problems as every other organization. We make mistakes, we make stupid decisions, we make short term decisions, we have employee things. The thing that I pride myself on is how we address those problems, that we err on the side of patience, we err on the side of empathy. And we work very, very hard to practice the things that I write about and speak about. But the problems are all the same. It's how we address those problems that I think is where the practice of leadership comes in.
