Leaders and people who lead.

In business, one question always seems to arise: Why do some companies succeed and others fail?

Well, companies, like countries need leaders to thrive. Simon Sinek has codified the basic elements and characteristics of the successful way. The way to succeed in business, yes, but you can take it and apply in any area of life. Not simple language but extremely interesting and valuable piece of knowledge everyone should definitely take in.

HERE you’ll find a transcript of this mindblowing lecture.

Before you play it to your students, however, you should know something about the brain. (Simon speaks about it in paragraph 7)

I found some great info at www.starchiefpress.com which I quote here:

Reptile brain

The most primitive of our brains, also called the brainstem. The reptile brain is the fundamental core of our nervous system. Forming the upper part of the spinal cord, it’s something we have in common with all other reptiles. The reptile brain is our action, or power brain, center of the will to power. While survival is its main focus, also generated here are aggression, the drive to establish and defend territory, fight-or-flight, deception…as well as basic life support functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and digestion. Visceral stimulus-response is brainstem language.

Mammalian brain

Also called the limbic system because it resembles canine hind limbs sprawled crookedly over the reptilian structures, the mammalian brain links our reptile brain with the more advanced structures. We share the limbic system with all other mammals. Opening a new horizon of humane conscious behavior, it gives us the power of feeling, as opposed to simply reacting. Complex care of young, and other behaviors not so purely instinctual flow from the limbic system; so do primal urges and powerful emotions that ensure self-preservation, such as terror, rage, sexual desire, hunger…and even more complex emotions such as love, compassion, empathy, envy, indignation and hope.

Human brain

The neocortex. The thinking brain, seat of perception, center of the “soul”. Voluntary movement begins here, and integration of all sensory inputs. We share the neocortex only with higher apes, ours being more advanced. By far the largest brain, completely encompassing the limbic system, the neocortex is our path to words and symbols, logic and time, abstract thought…and magic such as Tesla’s….