[Simon] Sinek mentions Captain William Swenson, who was awarded the congressional Medal of Honor in 2013. When his column came under ambush in Afghanistan, Swenson ran into live fire to rescue the wounded officers. Someone captured the entire experience on camera, including the moment when Swenson bent over to kiss a wounded soldier before putting him in a helicopter.
At first, Sinek thought altruistic people like Swenson were simply drawn to military service. Then he realized it works the other way around — the military environment can prompt anyone to act selflessly.
Unfortunately, this is hardly the current environment in most organizations.
“In the military, they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In business, we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain. We have it backwards,” he quips.
But moving ahead at the expense of others teaches your subordinates to do the same, to the detriment of the organization as a whole. That’s because employees spend time competing with and fearing each other instead of joining forces and protecting the company from external threats.
A truly effective leader knows to put her employees’ well-being before her own, so that her employees ultimately do the same for her and for the organization.
“When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen,” Sinek says.
"Why effective managers act like military leaders." Business Insider. 8/14/2015
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