“It’s not what you do that matters, it’s why you do it.” That is a powerful message I heard when I watched the video of Simon Sinek, the author of ‘Start with Why’. Simon explains what leadership is and the reason why some people and organisations are great, while others make no impact.
Great individuals or corporations ‘Start with Why’
What do great individuals and great corporations have in common? After studying great companies like Apple, Harley-Davidson, Virgin Group, Simon mentioned that all these companies communicate in the same way.
Simon Sinek explained the formula simply with what he called ‘The Golden Circle’.
How does the Golden Circle work?
Great individuals and great corporations ask themselves ‘why’ they do something, which is the complete opposite of what most people or organisations do.
Great companies don’t start with ‘what’ or ‘how’. ‘What’ means the product and services they sell, for example, bags, computers, cleaning services. ‘How’ would be what these companies name as unique selling points (USPs), proprietary systems, what they think make them special or better than their competitors.
Let’s take the example of a company that manufactures television sets. The company knows ‘what’ product it has (television sets). Some of their employees might know ‘how’ their product is better (higher resolution screens, consume less power etc). But many of the employees, maybe even the management executives, are likely to have no idea of ‘why’ they manufacture television sets.
Simon made clear that ‘making money’ is not a ‘why’. Instead that is a result.
“By ‘why’, I mean what is your purpose, what is your cause, what is your belief. Why does your company exist? What did you get out of bed this morning? Why should anyone care?”
Think like Apple, by starting with ‘why’
Simon mentioned Apple as an example of a great company. Apple has a ‘why’ as encapsulated by its vision statement to ‘make great products, focusing on innovation, making things simple, striving for excellence’ (Here is the complete vision statement by CEO Tim Cook.)
Three things for ‘Start with why’ to work
Simon emphasised that for this idea to work, you need to have three things:
- You have to know ‘why’ you do what you do. If you don’t know why you do what you do, how would anyone else.
- You have to have discipline of ‘how’. You have to hold yourself and your people accountable to your values and your guiding principles.
- You have to have consistency of ‘what’. Everything you say, everything you do, everything must prove what you believe.
Simon emphasised that, “At the end of the day, ‘why’ is just a belief. ‘Hows’ are the actions we take to realise that belief and ‘What’ are the results of that action, the things we say, the things we do, the products, the marketing etc.”
“If what you say and what you do doesn’t show what you believe, then no one will know what you believe. This is the concept behind authenticity. What authenticity means is that the things you say and the things you do, you actually believe.”
Why is having a belief that important?
Simon explains that this originated from the Stone age, when cavemen lived in communities. “Our need to be around people who believe what we believe is essential, our survival depends on it. We cannot survive by ourselves out of the wilderness, it is our community that protect us and look after us. It is the reason that the human race succeed.”
I encourage all who are curious of this topic and want to know more to watch the video by Simon Sinek for more insights and inspiration. Simon Sinek is a charismatic speaker so you wouldn’t find the talk boring and lengthy at 35 minutes.
