Learn how great leaders inspire action — Top 5 lessons from Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’
Leadership insights for you to inspire action
What is my ‘Why’ and can I inspire people to act if I know what it is? What is my organization’s ‘Why’? How is starting with ‘why’ relevant for leaders across the world? Do sustainable successful organisations have clarity on their ‘why’? Is it same as the popular words of ‘vision’, ‘mission’ and ‘goals’ or the recent oft-discussed topic of ‘purpose’?These were some of the questions running through the eager minds of the future leaders attending Simon Sinek’s enthralling session in Orlando as part of our firm’s annual milestone event.
Simon clarified our questions by walking us through how leaders and organisations can inspire action, work for the greater good and become great by starting with ‘why’ (also commonly known as purpose, cause, belief). According to him, ‘why’ is different from words, such as vision, mission and goals etc., in the sense that it is more powerful as it aligns every stakeholder (people we actually care about) to a common set of beliefs and inspires them to go above and beyond everyone else to become great. The point that resonated with me the most is that ‘why’ attains tremendous power when it has an underlying purpose of making the world a better place.
The session inspired me to research more on Simon’s proposed framework as I always wanted to learn the techniques used by leaders to inspire action. After all, who would not want to be a great leader and mentor. I needed to know how people start to believe in what great leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Hellen Keller, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, believe in.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world “— Mahatma Gandhi
I chanced upon Simon’s famous TED talk titled ‘How great leaders inspire action’ where he introduces the concepts of Golden Circle and provides examples of firms and leaders who have been able to inspire action.
I thought I should share top lessons learnt from his book ‘Start With Why’ to help you learn about his framework and start inspiring action.
Top 5 lessons from ‘Start With Why’:
1. Prioritise Clarity (of Why), Discipline (of How) and Consistency (of What)
If leaders do not know why they do what they do, how will anyone else?
“I want to put a ding in the universe.” — Steve Jobs
As a leader one has to be aware of oneself and what drives one to achieve greatness.
One should have the courage and know-how to successfully challenge conventional thinking — the status quo.
I believe self-introspection, mindfulness, strong awareness of what all would make this world even more beautiful, and a never-ending passion to learn will help in achieving a clear why.
The leaders and organisations which inspire action, and can sustain to do so for longer periods of time, are the ones which have a clarity of their ‘why’, discipline of ‘how’, and consistency of ‘what’.
2. Balance the Golden Circle
Golden circle (see diagram below) is an important tool for conveying beliefs to stakeholders. Simon encourages leaders to think inside out of this circle by beginning from ‘Why’, move next to ‘How’ and finally to ‘What’. If you have achieved a clarity of ‘why’, your ‘how’ and ‘what’ will now be aligned to it and be of significance.
Balancing the golden circle would help leaders lay a strong foundation to the culture of your organisation.
I believe every aspiring entrepreneur will be greatly benefited and can grow faster by using this tool when pitching to their self, their families, friends, future employees or investors. They need to focus on the purpose first and move gradually to the unique selling proposition then to the product or service portfolio. For e.g. Apple’s “1000 songs in your pocket” introduction for iPod focussed on conveying Why first and moved onto How and What subsequently. Simon’s examples related to the importance of thinking inside out take me back to Theodore Levitt’s Marketing Myopia, especially cases of railroad vs aviation and TiVo vs digital cable companies.
3. Develop real trust as it comes from the things you can’t see
Leaders need to provide circle of safety, a sense of trust, an invisible net, practical or emotional to all stakeholders. This is a great responsibility on the shoulders of the leaders. People associate with great leaders because they feel protected.
Great leaders become great because they do not sacrifice their people for numbers.
Simon points out that trust and cooperation are feelings and not instructions to follow.
Empathy is needed to develop this trust like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentions in his book ‘Hit Refresh’. He also mentions that culture eats strategy for breakfast.
“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” — Peter Drucker, author of Managing for the Future
A culture of trust and cooperation put in place for people would result in reciprocal behaviour where individuals would take personal risks in order to advance the culture or organisation as a whole.
4. Design tipping points by bringing in innovators and early adopters to your side
Leaders should design their tipping points and not wait for one to materialise on its own. This can happen if leaders take time and effort to network and find people (innovators and early adopters) who believe in what they believe and not simply sell the idea/product to the majority. This can be done by communicating your ‘why’ to a larger audience.through tools like Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media networking tools.
E.M.Rogers Diffusion of Innovations Theory explains how, over time, an idea/product gains momentum and how it spreads through a specific population. The result of this diffusion is that people, as part of a social system, adopt a new idea, behavior, or product. Rogers suggests that around 2.5% of people would be innovators and 13.5% would be early adopters.
Leaders should not ignore the diffusion theory.
Like Malcolm Gladwell suggested in his book ‘The Tipping Point’, it should be the connectors and influencers — the top 15%–18% (left side of Roger’s Diffusion Theory bell curve) that leaders need to focus on first in bringing them onto their side. These influencers would help leaders design a tipping point that lasts beyond the initial tip.
5. Find people who connect with your ‘Why’ and help you with ‘How’
Great leaders have the ability to find good fits to join their organisations. These people embody the cause of their leaders which makes it easier for the leaders to march on to greatness. For e.g. Steve Jobs had extremely brilliant people such as Steve Wozniak by his side without whom it would have been difficult for Apple to achieve what it could achieve.
People are either motivated or they are not. Unless leaders give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work towards, there is a high chance that people will quit and find a new job. Leaders will then be stuck with whoever is left which is not ideal.
Simon mentioned in his Orlando session that traditional thought process of organisations is to please the short term ‘share-renters’ (commonly known as shareholders) instead of focussing on their long term stakeholders — their customers, their employees and their families.
“I knew that to lead effectively I needed to get some things square in my own mind — and, ultimately, in the minds of everyone who works at Microsoft. Why does Microsoft exist? And why do I exist in this new role? These are questions everyone in every organization should ask themselves. I worried that failing to ask these questions, and truly answer them, risked perpetuating earlier mistakes and, worse, not being honest.”
― Satya Nadella, Hit Refresh
Impact of a clear ‘why’ on personal lives
I believe our personal lives will be positively impacted as well if we are clear on our ‘why’. We would become more mindful, have less stress and be more peaceful for our choices and actions will then be governed by a greater purpose. We would be able to attract people who believe in what we believe and lead a balanced life.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own and in no way affiliated to the organisation(s) I have been/am associated with.
