How safe do you feel where you work?
During one of Simon Sinek trips with the Marines Corps, he recalls a particularly harrowing situation in Afghanistan. A pilot provided cover for troops under fire, exposing himself to life-threatening enemy fire from both sides of a valley in Afghanistan. According to Sinek, there was so much that the tracer fire—the streaks of light that follow the bullets—lit up the whole area. Shells and rockets all aimed at the middle, all aimed squarely at the Special Operations Forces pinned down below.
The pilot without hesitation, together with his wing-man, provided the cover needed for the Special Forces to come out of that battle with no casualties. Trapped in a dangerous spot, the pilot shows the true meaning of leadership and service. He acted bravely, giving to others without expectation of anything in return. When asked the question, why would anyone do such a thing? The pilot answered, “because they would’ve done it for me.
This is what it means to work in a place in which the leaders create a circle of safety for their team and, in return, their people giving everything they’ve got to protect and advance the well-being of one another, their leader and their organization.
In Simon Sinek book, Leaders Eat Last, Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't; Simon illustrates his point by using the term the circle of safety to describe businesses that thrive because everyone inside the circle looks out for each other. The Circle of Safety wraps around the entire company, not just a limited number who have a title of authority attached to their name. There is trust inside the Circle, and you don’t need to spend your day looking over your shoulder with the fear of being betrayed or the fear that someone else is going to steal or profit from your idea.
Leaders that build their companies with a culture that promotes this type of trust know that their leader “got their back and vice versa. When there is a high level of trust in any environment, loyalty is extremely high and as a result, the environment build people confidence and the company becomes very influential and very profitable. This is why strong leaders, extend the Circle of Safety to include every single person who works for the organization while weak leaders allow the culture of a business to shift to individuals seeking personal praise or only looking out for their best interests.
When this happens, the company becomes divided, and the shield of strength is diminished. With clear standards for entry into the Circle and competent layers of leadership that are able to extend the Circle’s perimeter, the stronger and better equipped the organization becomes. Self-preservation is unnecessary, and fiefdoms are less able to survive. According to Sinek, it is easy to know when we are in the Circle of Safety because we can feel it. We feel valued by our colleagues, and we feel cared for by our superiors.
We become absolutely confident that the leaders of the organization and all those with whom we work are there for us and will do what they can to help us succeed. We become members of the group. We feel like we belong. When we believe that those inside our group, those inside the Circle, will look out for us, it creates an environment for the free exchange of information and effective communication. This is fundamental to driving innovation, preventing problems from escalating and making organizations better equipped to defend themselves from the outside dangers and to seize the opportunities.
Simon Sinek imagines a world where the vast majority of us wake up inspired, feel safe at work and return home fulfill at the end of the day; I also believe that the fundamental tenet of each and everyone on this planet is to find your gift and serve it to the world. There is no excuse for any organization to create an environment where their employees do not feel safe, any.
If you happen to be in that type of environment, you need to explore your options because it is not good for your health. There are many opportunities and don’t allow anyone to tell you otherwise. As a leader, your responsibility is to create an environment where your team feels safe, feel inspired and most of all feel fulfilled. When you are working in that type of environment you can pour everything into your work and your company will come out on top as a result.
As Sinek states in his book, a leader who takes care of their people and stays focus on the well-being of the organization can never fail.