Here’s a simple yet astounding fact as to why the most successful companies like Apple always seem to reign supreme over their competitors, and win the hearts and minds of millions of loyal customers.
Because, they’re always in touch with their ‘WHY’!
Now it’s not me who’s saying this, but it’s our Influencer for this BLOGSpeak post, Simon Sinek, who swears by this principle and has moved millions of people around the globe with his bestselling book, ‘Start With Why’ and ‘Leaders Eat Last’, along with his numerous talks, including TED Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action, which became the second most viewed video of all time on TED.com.
Today we’ll be sharing with you the core philosophy that Simon advocates through his books and talks, with the passion and pursuit to - ‘create a world where everyone feels inspired to go to work’, ‘enable businesses to go beyond their products and connect on an emotional level, and ‘nurture great leaderships that foster trust and cooperation in the workplace to achieve remarkable results’.
The Golden Circle
Simon believes that most of the highly successful brands and leaders have one ‘distinctive’ common attribute. Whether it’s Apple, Martin Luther King, or the Wright brothers – they’re all primarily driven by a ‘core’ underlying motive of ‘WHY’ they do, what they do!
As depicted by Simon in the ‘golden circle’ above, every person, company, organisation or brand in the world can easily articulate ‘what they do?’ For instance, it may signify their job title, product or service they offer, their general function in the organisation, or the company’s specific role in the chosen industry, etc.
Some are also adept at explaining ‘how’ they go about doing ‘what’ they do; i.e. their processes and strategies on how things are done, a differentiated value proposition or a Unique Selling Point (USP) if you will. But as Simon says - very few can confidently say Why they do, What they do.
The answer to ‘why?’ is not as simple as: ‘to make profit’ – that’s more like a result of what you do. Here, the ‘Why’ directly relates to your ‘purpose’, ‘your cause’ or your ‘belief’. It’s the reason your organisation exists and the reason why you’d like to jump out of bed every morning. It’s what inspires you to keep going, no matter what.
The trick however, is to think through and communicate from the ‘inside-out’ and not from ‘outside-in’ – Start with the core; i.e. start with your ‘why’ and work your way outward towards ‘how’ and ‘what’. But the common mistake most people and organisations make is doing just the opposite, because it’s much easier to go from the clearest thing to the ‘fuzziest’ thing. Only the inspired leaders and organisations think, act and communicate from the ‘inside out’.
Apple, for instance, is a company that communicates from the inside out, but let’s assume for a minute, they crafted their marketing message from ‘outside in’; i.e. starting from ‘What’ – then as per Simon, it would sound as follows: We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, easy to use and user friendly, Want to buy one?"
Now how does that make you feel? Are you tempted to buy a computer? I highly doubt it because we’re not quite sold with the message, even though the facts may be correct. An actual marketing message from Apple starts with ‘why’ and this is how it sounds: Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed; simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?
Now this must have changed your perception towards the brand, and you’re more likely to buy the product. It was all because the second message started with the ‘why’. This proves that people don’t buy what you do, but people buy ‘why’ you do it.
The goal as Simon points out is not to do business with anybody who needs ‘what’ you have but the goal is to do business with people who ‘believe’ what you believe. That's the reason you are comfortable buying a computer, an iPad, iPhone, or any product from Apple, because you believe in what Apple believes, you identify with their ‘why’.
And it’s the same reason why hundreds of thousands gathered to listen to Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech – because they believed in what he believed, his ‘why’ was the same as theirs… they believed in his ‘dream’ and made it their own dream, a dream about a better America.
The same ‘why’ was in play to make the Wright Brothers successful in making the first manned flight. The people who worked with the Wright Brothers shared the same cause, the same passion and belief, thus gave their blood, sweat and tears to make the dream come true, even though they lacked support and were poorly funded!
Finally…
Simon Sinek’s message to the businesses, the leaders, to the people and the world in general, is a profound one. If only we can look more deeply into and start with our ‘whys’ and not just limit ourselves to ‘what’ we do, we can make a colossal shift in the way we run our businesses, find true purpose and meaning in our work, inspire leaders and employees in the workplace to strive and thrive with a common belief, and achieve remarkable results in both personal and professional work!
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
