The video I share this time is a lecture gave by Simon Sinek, and he try to tell us how great leaders inspire us. Three and a half years ago, he made a discovery, and this discovery profoundly changed the way in which he operated. As it turns out , he found out that an inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, such as Apple, MLK and the Wright brother, they all think, act and communicate in the exact same way and it is the complete opposite to everyone else. For this finding, Mr. Sinek did codified it into the simplest idea he think, and it names “Golden Circle”.
The Golden Circle
Like the image I shows above, in the golden circle, it includes three simple words, “Why”,”How” and “What”. Mr. Sinek claims this little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others are not. In this golden circle, every single person and every single organization on the planet knows what they do, some know how they do it, but very very few people or organizations know why they do what they do, and the “why” in here does not mean profit, it means a result, a purpose, a cause and a belief. As a result, the normal way that we think, we act and we communicate is from the outside, we tend to go from the clearest thing to the funniest thing. However, the inspired leaders and inspired organizations all think back to communicate from the inside out.
Mr.Sinek gave out an example about Apple, he indicated if Apple were think like the other companies in the same industry: We make great computers (what), they are beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (how), and you may want to have one (why), it is uninspiring. But how Apple actually communicate is: everything we do, we believe in thinking differently (why), the way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (how), and we just happen to make great computers (what). By comparing these two different train of thoughts, it tells us that people don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it, and this explains why majority of people is perfectly comfortable buying a electronic products from Apple. The goal is not to do business with anybody with everyone who needs what you have, the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.
This video makes me think, to think about if the way we think, act, and communicate can decided whether you can become not only a leader, but also a inspired leader. In my opinion, to the best of my knowledge and belief, leaders are those people who hold a position of power or authority, but the kind of leader who can inspired me is able to make me willing to follow them not because I have to, is because I want to. I think this kind of leader is exactly someone who think, act and communicate from the inside out in the Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory.
CARPE DIEM 