TED Talk Thursday: Simon Sinek on the Power of Why

It all comes down to why.

Management theorist Simon Sinek, in a TED Talk in 2009, asks his listeners why some people have the magic touch. Why does Apple do it so much better than everyone else? Why was Martin Luther King a giant in the civil rights movement? How did the Wright brothers figure out flight? After all, others exist who provided similar products or were working toward the same goals, were inspiring, inventive and hard-working.

What was different with these people/companies?

Sinek says he made an important discovery a few years previously. All the great and inspiring leaders think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does.

He boils it down to the golden circle. “Why” is in the center surrounded by “What” and “How.” Few understand the why in the center, while the what and how often are understood and communicated effectively.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” he emphasizes several times.

Why does your organization exist? he asks. That is the pertinent question.

“Inspired leaders all think from the inside out,” he says. “It’s those who start with why who have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.”

Click here to watch the full video.