I have a habit of making notes and highlighting text while reading. Well, the book "Start with Why" is an absolute must read. I wanted to highlight every single line in this book!
Simon Sinek coined the concept of "Golden Circle" and has its roots in how our human brain works! His famous TED talk is one of the most viewed TED talks (Video) of all time.
Here are my top learnings from this book.
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If you want to inspire others, always communicate your why first.This is Simon’s key idea in a nutshell: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
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Starting with WHY is just the beginning. There is still work to be done before a person or an organisation earns the right or ability to inspire. For The Golden Circle to work, each of the pieces must be in balance and in the right order.
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Clarity of WHY – If a leader can’t clearly explain why the organisation does what it does, how can anyone be inspired by this. The why must be clearly articulated.
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Discipline of HOW – Finding your why is the easy part. Holding yourself true to this and sticking to how you achieve your why is the hard part. It requires discipline.
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Consistency of WHAT – Why is just a belief. The how is how you achieve the belief and what you say and do is the proof of your belief. If you are consistent with what you say and do, you will become more authentic. This builds trust and loyalty. If you have no why, it’s almost impossible to build this authenticity, as you have no beliefs to prove.
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3. Inspire, don't manipulate.
4. Writing my own why: This was a big one. The amazing concept of Golden circle can be used in our personal life goal as well!
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I started applying this concept in my day to day work in product management. Head to the post I wrote about here.