Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

In this part, Sinek offers five lessons in leadership framed by a concept he calls “Destructive Abundance”: “The more we have, the less we seem to value what we’ve got” (119). When an organization falls prey to greed, its culture becomes oppressive. In Lesson 1 (“So Goes the Culture, So Goes the Company”), Sinek uses Goldman Sachs as an example of a company whose identity suffered over time, eventually becoming so toxic that it lost all former allure.

In Lesson 2 (“So Goes the Leader, So Goes the Culture”), Sinek cautions against leaders focusing on their own power and wealth as it turns them into tyrants who fail to make valuable decisions for the whole.

In Lesson 3 (“Integrity Matters”), Sinek argues that “building trust requires nothing more than telling the truth” (192). When a leader is consistent in words and actions, their consistency begets integrity, and this integrity becomes a key operating force in the company. When a leader is hypocritical, their employees often follow suit.

In Lesson 4 (“Friends Matter”), Sinek illustrates the importance of friendship in the field of high-stakes leadership by telling the story of Republican congressman Bob Goodlatte and Democrat congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. Despite their differences in politics, they forged a friendship which yielded productive results for their House Agriculture Committee.