Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership — starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?”
Key nuggets from Simon’s book
Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe.
A WHY is just a belief. That’s all it is.
HOWs are the actions you take to realize that belief.
And WHATs are the results of those actions.
WHY exists in the part of the brain that controls feelings and decision-making but not language. WHATs exist in the part of the brain that controls rational thought and language.
Vision statement — The vision is the public statement of the founder’s intent, WHY the company exists. It is literally the vision of the future that doesn’t yet exist.
Mission statement — is a description of the route, the guiding principles- how the company intends to create that future.
Value — Money is a perfectly legitimate measurement of goods sold or services rendered. But it is no calculation of value. Just because somebody makes a lot of money doesn’t mean that he necessarily provides a lot of value. Likewise, just because somebody makes a little money doesn’t necessarily mean he provides only a little value.
Simply by measuring the number of goods sold or the money brought in is no indication of value. Value is a feeling, not a calculation. It is perception. People perceive greater value from a brand name product and feel fine paying a premium for they feeling, even though non-brand item made in the same factory could have more value. But again, value is a perception, not a calculation, which is the reason companies make such a big deal about investing in their brand. But a strong brand, like all other intangible factors that contribute to the perception of value, starts with a clear sense of WHY.
Simon’s Ted Talk -
The new competition — Story of Ben Comen with cerebral palsy — when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. Olympic athletes don’t help each other. They are competitors. Ben starts every race with a clear sense of WHY he’s running. He’s not there to best anyone but himself. Ben never loses sight of that. He’s sense of WHY he’s running gives him the strength to keep going. To keep pushing. To keep getting up. To keep going. That’s the reason all other runners come back to help him finish after completing their own run. Now think about how we do business. We are always competing against someone else. We are always trying to better than someone else. Better quality. More features. Better service. We are always comparing ourselves to others. An no one wants to help us. What if we showed up to work everyday simply to do better than ourselves? What if the goal was to do better work this week than we did the week before? To make this month better than last month? For not other reason than because we want to leave the organization in a better state than we found it?
Leadership — Leadership is always about people. No one lads a company. A company is a legal structure. You can run a company, you can manage an on organization, but you can lead only people. All leaders must have two things: they must have a vision of the world that doesn’t exist and they must have the ability to communicate it. The question is, where does vision come from? And this is the power of WHY. Our visions are the world we imagine, the tangible results of what the world would look like if we spent everyday in pursuit of our WHY. Leaders don’t have all the great ideas; they provide support for those who want to contribute. Leaders achieve very little by themselves; they inspire people to come together for the good of the group. Leaders never start with what needs to be done. Leaders start with WHY we need to do things. “Leaders inspire action”.
