Simon Sinek explains the Golden Circle: Why (your purpose), How (your process), and What (your product). Most organizations lead with what they do, but the most inspiring leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Steve Jobs start with why, which speaks directly to the limbic brain that drives loyalty and behavior.
Chapters
The Golden Circle is simply the summary of how the why works. It's based on the biology of human decision-making. Every single one of us knows what we do. I can go out into this audience and say, "What do you do?" And somebody will say, "I'm a builder, I'm an architect, I'm an investor," whatever they'll tell me, right? Everybody knows that. It's super easy. Some will know how they do it, which were the things that you think make you different or special, stand out from the crowd. It's the thing you say in your pitch when you go for a piece of business. But very, very few people in very, very few organizations can clearly articulate why they do what they do. And why, I don't mean to make money, I don't mean to build, those are results. I mean, what's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why was your organization founded in the first place? And the reason I say it's grounded in the biology of human decision-making, it's because those 3 levels match literally the evolution, the evolutionary growth of our brains. So when you talk about what you do, you're talking to the rational part of the brain that controls language, but it doesn't control behavior. And when you start with why, you're talking directly to the limbic brain, directly to the part of the brain that controls all of our feelings like trust and loyalty, but it also controls all behavior. And if you look at some of the most influential and inspiring leaders and organizations on the planet, everybody from Martin Luther King to Steve Jobs, you'll find that every single one of them thinks, acts, and communicates completely different to everybody else. They don't start with what, they all start with why.
