Start With Why & Find Your Why by Simon Sinek: How to stop being boring and be more interesting

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About the Book

In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY — the third most popular TED video of all time.

Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Find Your Why picks up where Start With Why left off. It shows you how to apply Simon Sinek’s powerful insights so that you can find more inspiration at work — and in turn inspire those around you.

With detailed exercises, illustrations, and action steps for every stage of the process, Find Your Why can help you address many important concerns, including:

* What if my WHY sounds just like my competitor’s?

* Can I have more than one WHY?

* If my work doesn’t match my WHY, what should I do?

* What if my team can’t agree on our WHY?

Source: amazon.com 

About the Author

Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. With a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single day feeling inspired, feel safe at work, and feel fulfilled at the end of the day, Simon is leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.

Simon is the author of multiple best-selling books including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and Find Your Why and The Infinite Game.

Source: https://simonsinek.com/about/simon-sinek

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Buy the book from the Book Depository

Start with Why - https://www.bookdepository.com/Start-With-Why/9780241958223/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf

Find your Why - https://www.bookdepository.com/Find-Your-Why/9780143111726/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf

BIG IDEA 1 (7:39) – What you do is boring.

Whatever you do, whether it’s selling shoes, making clothes, preparing accounts, cooking food or defending tax evaders is boring.  (Unless you are an astronaut or epidemiologist). 

When we attempt to only differentiate ourselves based on what we do, we end up blending into the beigeness of that job title or industry. This is relevant to teams, companies, and individuals. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ are of course important because ‘why’ can be abstract and big. But your ‘what’ and ‘how’ become much more interesting when you start with ‘why’.

Using your ‘why’ is a great way to pique curiosity and encourage people to start asking more questions about what you do. 

BIG IDEA 2 (9:39) – More questions = more clarity. 

Finding your why and being able to articulate it is about making the intangible, tangible. For companies, it can help you define the problems that you solve and for whom, and the impact that you make. It can set the purpose for teams and describe how you can help bring the company’s purpose to life.

For individuals, it can help you make hard decisions around the type of work you want to do. It differentiates you and helps set your brand both internally and externally. Asking ourselves the questions that help find our why, will create that level of clarity. So you can understand and articulate who you’re serving, what impact you’re making, where you best operate and how you can make those kinds of decisions. 

BIG IDEA 3 (11:25) – It’s all in the stories. 

Finding your why is quite challenging, sometimes involving days or even months of reflection. When you get into finding your why as an organisation, team or individual, it all comes down to your stories. What are the big stories that define you? 

We’ve communicated and made sense of the world for millennia through stories. It is the way we connect, and stories trigger an emotional reaction in the old, less evolved part of our brains.

The story generation activities are all about finding the memorable stories – the legends of the organisation, things that define you, the ups and downs – these are where your why lives. Identifying your why is in the threads that run through all of your different stories.  The Find Your Why book sets out the facilitation instructions and questions for organisations, teams and individuals to do this important reflection work. 

Links:

Find out more about [ r e a d t r e a t ] events here: www.readtreat.space 

Infinite Game: Why playing to win will make you lose

Leaders Eat Last: Employees are people too

Simon’s TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

Music By: Do It for You – Instrumental Version Song by Guesthouse

Let’s Connect

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steph-clarke

Instagram: @stephsbizbookshelf

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