This is how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek

you know why do people do what they do learn your style of leadership and how to adjust your style of leadership to fit to the situation at hand etc etc that's not leadership that's management all leaders have one thing and one thing only followers that's it that's it if you're a leader it means you have followers it has nothing to do with rank it has nothing to do with intelligence it has nothing to do with seniority if people are willing to follow you you are a leader a leader is when someone says I to go

where you're going the question is why should anyone follow you there's only two ways to influence human behavior you can either manipulate people or you can inspire people examples of manipulation in the business world are things like dropping your price if you drop your price low enough people will buy from you there are all kinds of other manipulations fear wonderful manipulator and the best part is companies complain about now what's their biggest challenge how do we differentiate ourselves the problem is none of them breed loyalty the problem is none of them create trust you can

scare people into doing all all sorts of things aspirational messages we constantly being told you have to be aspirational give people something to Aspire to you know you can get people to join the gym with an aspirational message but to get them to work out 3 days a week that requires a little bit of inspiration it is stressful for us to make decisions today in a world in which manipulation is the norm where we are bombarded by manipulations from all sides from all people trying to get us to do any number of things whether it's

vote for them or buy from them or do something the question is how do we choose what's right for us it's called stress we literally have trouble choosing these days but it's stressful for the sellers as well in a marketplace where manipulation is the norm how do we stand out how do we get Hur how do we find people to follow us the alternative is inspiration and there are only a few people and a few organizations that tend to rely vastly more on inspiration than manipulation it's like Apple computers or Southwest Airlines or Martin Luther

King and you see them not only in organizations but great leaders as well like Martin Luther King or John F Kennedy or Nelson Mandela every single one of these leaders every single one of these organizations thinks acts and communicates the exact same way and it's the complete opposite to everyone else and it's probably the world's simplest idea the Golden Circle at its three concentric circles a bullseye in the middle is why the center ring is how and the outside ring is what why how what it's this little idea that distinguishes those with the capacity to

inspire versus everyone else every single organization on the planet knows what they do these are the productss you sell the services you offer everyone here knows what they do some know how they do it whether you call it your differentiating value proposition your USP your proprietary process these are the things that you think make you different or special or stand out from the competition from everyone else but very very few people very very few organizations can clearly articulate why they do what they do and by why I don't mean to make money that's a result

by why I mean what's your purpose what's your cause what's your belief why does your organization exist do we really need another company to do what you're doing do we really need another one why did you get out of bed this morning and why should anyone care as a result the way we think the way we act the way we communicate is from the outside in it's obvious we go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing we tell people what we do we tell them how we're different or how we're better or how we're

special and we expect some sort of behavior a vote a purchase a support whatever it is but not those Leaders with the capacity to inspire regardless of their size regardless of their industry every single one of them thinks acts and communicates from the inside out let me give you an example if Apple were like everyone else a piece of communication would sound like this we make great computers they're beautifully design simple to use and user friendly want to buy one me the that's normal here's our new car it's got you know great gas mileage leather

seats tinted windows here's our Law Firm we went uh to all the best schools we've got all the best lawyers we win all of our cases we work with all of the biggest firms that's normal here's how Apple actually communicates they start with why everything we do they say we believe in challenging the status quo we believe and thinking differently the way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed simp to use and user friendly we just happen to make great computers want to buy one it actually feels different all I

did was reverse the order of the information what it starts to show us is that it's not what you do that matters it's why you do it and what you do simply serves as the tangible proof of what you believe people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it this is the reason why every single person is perfectly comfortable with the idea that Apple sells computers we're also perfectly comfortable with the idea that Apple sells MP3 players and phones and DVRs apple is just a company that's all they are it's a corporate

structure every single one of their competitors has equal and open access to the same resources the same agencies the same Consultants the same Talent the same media it is a zero sum game the difference is all of their competitors have defined themselves by what they do we make computers Apple has defined themselves by why they exist everything they say and everything they do simply serves as proof it's not what you do that matters it's why you do it and people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it we have to have three

things one you have to know why you do what you do if you don't know why you do what you do how will anyone else you have to have Clarity of why two you have to have the discipline of how you have to hold yourself and your people accountable to your own guiding principles and your own values and thirdly you have to have consistency of what everything you say and everything you do has to prove prove what you believe this is the concept behind authenticity people are always telling us you have to be authentic people

prefer to buy from the authentic brand they prefer to vote for the authentic candidate what does that mean how do you implement authenticity what authenticity means is the things you say and the things you do you actually believe this is caveman stuff the reason the human race is so successful is not because we're the strongest it's not even because we're the smartest it's because we're social animals it's because we have the the ability to form communities and cultures what's a community what's a culture it's a group of people with a common set of values and

beliefs what's a country it's a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs what's a company it should be a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs when we're surrounded by people who believe what we believe something remarkable happens trust emerges make no mistake of it trust is a feeling trust is a human experience simply doing everything you say you're going to do does not mean people will trust you it just means you're reliable trust is a feeling born out of a common set of values and beliefs that

our very survival depends on our ability to find those people so that we can form trust when we trust them and they trust us we're more willing we're more likely to take risk to explore to experiment which requires failure by the way all with the confidence that if we turn our backs or fall over or make a mistake that someone from within our community will come to our Aid or watch our back or help us up absent trust we still have the will to survive the difference is it's every man for himself absent trust you

know we all try and push each other out of the way cuz we got to win we got to we got to compete we got to live we got to survive the difference is in great organizations in great cultures and in great communities when there is stress the organization comes together to solve the problem absent trust we back back off and the thing collapses the most basic human desire on the planet is to feel like we belong again we are social animals and we all have the innate ability to do this if I ask you

to go up the street and find all the people who believe what you believe you know exactly what to do you're going to strike up a conversation with someone you'll either have good chemistry with them or you won't you'll either get along with them quickly or it'll take some time the point is you know how to do it our survival depends on it it's called dating meting it's called making friends it's called networking we know how to do it the problem is it's not scalable but if you know the symbols to look for it becomes

much easier easy to spot because you know what to look for this is what we do when we look for certain symbols and certain we read things about each other every single decision we make in our lives as individuals or as organizations is a piece of communication it's our way of saying something about who we are and what we believe in an attempt to trct people so that they may form trust with us and we may form trust with them everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe the most basic

human desire on the planet is to feel like we belong and we have the innate ability to find those things and to sense that this is the reason why this could not be recreated over our computers it's because as human beings it's our biology that gives us this ability it's this ability to read each other nothing I'm telling you is my opinion it's actually grounded in the tenant of biology if you look at a cross-section of the human brain looking from the top down you see that the human brain evolved into three major areas that

corresponds precisely with this little idea the outside area is our neocortex our Homo Sapien brain responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language the middle two sections make up our limic brains and our lyic brains are responsible for all of our feelings like trusts and loyalty it's also responsible for all human behavior all decision-making and it has no capacity for language this is the reason you can't ask people why do you do business with us why do you like why do you like us they can't tell you the part of the brain

that controls Behavior doesn't control language and so they rationalize this is the reason why the question why do you love your husband or why do you love your wife is a difficult question why do you love your wife I don't know that's where most people start and then they start saying thing they start rationalizing she's fun I've known her forever uh she's always there for me when I need her it's sounds like the household pet and those aren't necessarily the qualities for marriage I itan is a human experience that we have trouble putting into words

and so we try we rationalize and then we say things that don't make sense what we're attempting to do is put into words the feelings we have towards another person or organization with the part of the brain that doesn't control language and so we rationalize or make things up we do the exact same thing at work we talk about people who get it and that guy no matter how much data I show him no matter how how much information I give him he just doesn't get it what's it what how do we find people who

get it before we do business with them to realize they don't get it what we're attempting to do is put into words the feelings we have towards other people this common set of values and beliefs with the part of the brain that doesn't control language this sense of of belonging and the sense of community is so powerful [Music] [Music]