Selfish and Selfless Chemicals

In Leaders Eat Last, Sinek uses brain chemistry as a way to explain why some workplaces drain people and others build belonging. Endorphins help us push through effort, and dopamine is the satisfaction of reaching a goal, which is why he calls them selfish. Serotonin, in his telling, is the pride of recognition and of seeing someone we helped succeed, and oxytocin is the warmth of trust built through time and generosity, which is why he calls them selfless. Cortisol, the stress signal, stays high where people do not feel safe. His practical point is that organisations are good at producing dopamine through targets, rankings and bonuses, and poor at rewarding help, mentoring and trust, so a team paid only for individual results slowly stops cooperating. The science deserves caution. The picture is popular science and far simpler than the research: dopamine is tied more to anticipation and learning than to pleasure, and the claim that oxytocin raises trust in humans rests on early studies that a 2015 critical review by Nave, Camerer and McCullough found weak. The labels work best as a memorable metaphor for two kinds of reward, and as a prompt to check what a team is actually rewarded for.