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Sinek: Businesses wrongly evaluate leaders by immediate outcomes, unlike the military

Simon Sinek · Why Simon Sinek (still) wants you to find your why | Masters of Scale · Jun 5, 2025 · at 11:06

Simon Sinek recounts visiting Quantico Marine Base and contrasts how the military assesses leadership versus how businesses promote people.

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“Nowhere on the grading sheet does it say if they made it to the other side or not. He goes, we measure the characteristics of good leaders. And he said, we understand that sometimes good leaders suffer a mission failure and sometimes bad leaders enjoy mission success. So the success or failure that they have in the mission doesn't tell us if they're a good leader or not. But we know that if we select the people who have the qualities of good leadership, that over time they will enjoy mission success more often than not. In business, we do the exact opposite.”

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