Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

The Part of Onboarding You Can't Teach in 5 Minutes

16 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:51

In this excerpt from Cameron Herold’s YouTube talk, he expands on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle (Why‑How‑What) to argue that effective onboarding must go far beyond teaching new hires the tasks they’ll perform (the “what”). He stresses that companies need to indoctrinate employees in the “why” by immersing them in the organization’s history, core values, purpose, BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), vivid vision, and pivotal stories (first customer, first firing). This deep cultural immersion, he says, cannot be rushed into a five‑minute conversation. After establishing the “why,” Herold recommends a dedicated “Invest in Your Leaders” program to teach the “how” – practical leadership skills such as managing people, self‑leadership, project execution, and seeking coaching. The overall message is that sustainable onboarding requires time‑intensive cultural indoctrination followed by structured leadership development.

Chapters

Who here knows the Golden Circle, Simon Sinek's concepts? So you've got the why, you have the how, and then you have what. Most of you bring people into your company, you train them on what to do. You train them on the core job that they're actually going to be doing. That's fine. Simon trains people on the why. I think you have to actually indoctrinate people in your cult. The history of your company, your core values, your core purpose, your BHAG, your vivid vision, all the crazy shit that happened along the way, your first customer, the first person you had to fire. Like, literally indoctrinate them in why you exist. Make sure that they really know every leader and every director and every manager, and they can kind of breathe the ethos of your company. That takes time. That's not a 5-minute discussion. And then what I like to do is train people on how— that's the Invest in Your Leaders training. I train them on how to manage people and how to lead themselves and run projects and ask for coaching.