Book SummaryBegin With WE, by Kyle McDowell

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Begin With WE

In Begin With WE (2022), leadership coach Kyle McDowell writes that America prizes individual achievement over collective success—a mindset that, in a workplace, erodes trust, pits colleagues against each other, and weakens an organization as a whole. To counter this instinct, McDowell offers a blueprint for leaders to nurture a “we” outlook that encourages collaboration, big-picture thinking, and mutual support.

McDowell is a former Fortune 10 executive who spent...

Begin With WE Summary Be a Leader, Not a Boss

McDowell argues that as children, Americans are taught a me-focused outlook that prioritizes personal achievement and individual performance. As adults, we continue to receive these messages through television, film, ads, and social media, all of which laud personal success and minimize the importance of collective effort. We then carry this attitude into our workplace, where it fosters insecurity, hinders creativity and innovation, and prevents a company from reaching its potential.

(Shortform note: Lessons absorbed from childhood and pop culture may not be the only reason people carry me-first attitudes into their workplaces. In Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek writes that this type of attitude comes from our evolution; we innately see the world through a lens of fear that drives us to be hypervigilant for threats and opportunities. This often conflicts with the dynamics of our modern work systems, where physical survival is no longer the immediate priority, and where it’s more beneficial to [work well in...

Begin With WE Summary Theme 1: Prioritize Values

McDowell writes that the most important principle is to commit to always doing the right thing. This means:

• Act with integrity: Make your business decisions according to your values and show others how to behave by setting a good example.
• Follow through on your promises: Be reliable so that others know they can depend on you when you give your word.

Act With Integrity

McDowell writes that this first principle underpins every other principle of “we” leadership. Taking shortcuts might lead to immediate, quick success, but sustained success comes from doing what’s right. When you consistently act in the best interests of your company, your employees, and the wider world, you’ll inspire your team to work harder and stay with you longer, and you’ll attract customers who’ll trust your products and will be enthusiastic about supporting you.

(Shortform note: In Let My People Go Surfing, the founder of outdoor gear company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, agrees that the key to lasting success is doing the right thing. For Chouinard, this means following [a set of...

Begin With WE Summary Theme 2: Support Each Other Emotionally

McDowell writes that to encourage productivity, you must cultivate a supportive work environment.

• Embrace mistakes: Accept them from others, analyze them to find core problems in your operations, and admit your own mistakes when they happen.
• Support each other in difficult times: These include times of poor performance as well as when someone is aiming for difficult goals.

Embrace Mistakes

Inevitably, both you and your employees will make mistakes. What matters isn’t that errors happen, but how they’re acknowledged, how they’re corrected, and whether they’re repeated. This is true both for mistakes by others and mistakes you make yourself. In the following sections, we’ll look at McDowell’s thoughts on dealing with other people’s mistakes, admitting to your own, and identifying the underlying problem that led to a mistake.

Accept Mistakes From Others

Mistakes are valuable; they let us know what doesn’t work so we can find what does. If people are afraid to make mistakes, they won’t try to innovate. Since progress only comes from trial and error, let your team know it’s OK for them to make mistakes—that you expect them, understand them, and sometimes even...

Begin With WE Summary Theme 3: Encourage a Healthy Work Ethic

Several of McDowell’s principles are aimed at helping you incorporate a “we” mindset into your business-related, operational tasks, not just interpersonal interactions. These include:

• Don’t be complacent: Act on ideas and jump on opportunities.
• Focus on results, not process: Avoid busy work.
• Be open to challenges to improve: Challenge others and prepare to be challenged.
• Pay attention to details.

Don’t Be Complacent

McDowell argues that idleness, or inaction, is a big problem in corporate culture. He defines idleness as “doing nothing”: failing to execute ideas, begin projects, question the status quo, or solve problems. He urges you to do something whenever possible so that you identify ways your organization can improve and then work to address those opportunities.

Inaction leads to a lack of progress and a failure to innovate. This, in turn, leads companies to become complacent, miss opportunities, and get overtaken by new competition. They lose their star employees and their customer base, and ultimately, fail to survive. McDowell cites Blockbuster as an example—they were the leader in home entertainment throughout the 1990s but went out of business...

Shortform Exercise: Find the Root Cause of a Mistake

McDowell emphasizes that it’s essential to investigate mistakes thoughtfully so they become opportunities for improvement rather than repeated errors. In this exercise, practice analyzing a mistake by focusing on the process that led to it and asking questions to uncover its root cause.

Think of a time when you or your team made a mistake that had noticeable consequences—big or small. Briefly describe what happened.