Pages

Friday, May 14, 2010

People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it - Simon Sinek

The sun is out and the skies are clear.  This means that I can walk to school and enjoy life. My favorite part of walking to school is listening to my iPod Touch as I travel. Lately I have been listening to the TED Talks presentations. I have arranged my Synching settings so that every time that I synch, it will place another set of 10 unheard TED Talk presentations on my iPod.

I will NEVER run out of TED Talks presentations this way!!!



Anywho, I had the pleasure of listening to Simon Sinek's Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action presentation. In this presentation, Simon explores his research into why some companies lead and some follow. He talks about his Golden Circle.

He uses the Golden Circle to describe how some organizations are able to lead while others are not. He states that the followers in a field move from the outside inward. They emphasize What they do and How they do it. Leaders in the field begin with Why they do it, How they do it and What they do.

You MUST watch this 18-minute video. I have watched it about 5 times now and am finding that I am applying it to everything that I do.  I am working on a grant with top-notch team of experts. We are progressing along nicely, but I keep wondering if we are conveying WHY we are doing it. Would it make a difference to its appeal to the funding organization if we began with explaining WHY we are doing our proposed program and then explaining HOW we are going to do it?  Would it appeal more to principals in the schools if we shared WHY we are doing this program and then explaining HOW we will be doing it?  I don't know.

What do you think?

I found that Simon Sinek has a book. Not surprisingly, it is entitled Start with Why. I am going to order this from Amazon.

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action [Hardcover]


image: leadershipnow.com

2 comments:

  1. This reply was supplied by Maggie Mnayer but I accidentally deleted it. Here it is:
    =====
    Dr. Z,

    This video has made my day!

    I have said for years that my students learn from me because I tell them why it matters. I explain that they aren't learning to write well to please me, but because they are going to have to write well and articulate their thoughts for the rest of their lives! I bring them copies of college freshmen syllibi and show them how much they must read and write when they get to college and that my job (as a high school English teacher) is to prepare them for that challenge.

    I do not want them to write for me; I am no one in the big picture. I want them to write for themselves.

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Maggie.

    I appreciate that people follow passion, not direction.

    Z

    ReplyDelete

Please share your ideas on this topic.