The Golden Circle Explained | Why You Do What You Do!
"Great leaders inspire people to do things that inspire them". Familiar with this powerful quote? Well, this reminds me of someone from 2009 whose 18-minute TED Talk sensationalized the internet when, for the first time, he introduced his novel, the 3-circled model, later known as the Golden Circle, that confidently answered the most fundamental question of all time— "Why some leaders inspire us from the core while some fail to do so?" or simply put, "Why you do what you do?"
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| Courtesy: Simon Sinek's Golden Circle model |
I am talking about SIMON SINEK, an unpopular leadership expert back then, whose discovery of the Golden Circle concept masterfully navigated millions of lives, institutions, and organizations to their WHY and helped them understand why they do what they do!
His leadership and communication model explains the natural order of the three most pivotal questions of human life and its endeavours: WHY, HOW, and WHAT. Further, it denounces the tradition of how we communicate [mostly wrong] using these questions and make decisions based on that. We often present ourselves with WHAT we do, even we sometimes know HOW we do WHAT we do, but when inquired about WHY, we are utterly clueless! And that is the missing spot here. Unless you have the clarity of your WHY, WHAT you do becomes uninteresting, and HOW you do turns meaningless.
If you have mastered your WHY before making a decision, selling a product, leading the masses, marketing a service, or even innovating something, you invariably create the ability to inspire people to do things that inspire them! Because people always trust/ follow/ connect with why you do and never with what you do, and this provides compelling evidence of how much more we can achieve if we start everything we do by first asking a simple question: “WHY?”
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| AI-Gemini generated image |
But before SIMON's model helps you answer this, let me familiarize you with the meanings and applications of WHAT, HOW, and WHY.
#Demystifying Golden Circle:
1. WHAT (The outer-most circle): Purely, it represents the results of your endeavour. For an individual, it may be a discovery, a movement, a job function or a desired outcome. For a company or an organisation, it may be a product, service, or simply the numbers. Every single person or organization on the planet exactly knows WHAT they do. Still, unfortunately, they start with WHAT instead of WHY, and fail to inspire people or achieve a loyal yet sustainable behavioural attitude in customers.
2. HOW (The middle circle): Typically, it represents the actions taken to bring the results of your endeavour. For an individual, it may be unending efforts, a speech, a rally, the work they do, even the kil**ngs [Remember Bhagat Singh?] or the process basically. For a company or organization, it may be a differentiating value proposition, USP, manufacturing marvel, the advertizing excellence, or receiving a grant or donation. But unlike WHAT, a very few know HOW they do WHAT they do! This is the question that brings your WHY or WHAT to life.
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| AI- Gemini generated image |
Think on this: Bhagat Singh's WHAT (Death) was morally inhumane, but his HOW (Assassination) was derived from his WHY (Independence) and not due to his WHAT, and that's why other revolutionaries got inspired to follow because they got connected with his idea of Independence rather than the Death!
3. WHY (Core or inner-most circle): Biologically, it represents the purpose, cause, or your belief, and never the profit or the money; it is a product. As per SIMON's model, to achieve a successful outcome, every endeavour or decision must begin with your core belief or the deep-seated purpose, and this will automatically influence your way of doing things, so that the results you anticipate will turn out to be authentic, trustworthy, and inspiring.
This thinking/ acting/ communicating is known as the inside-out approach (From WHY to WHAT via HOW)— the right approach, where HOW typically follows the virtues like discipline, quality, consistency, and excellence.
However, what we often do as an individual is the other way around— we proceed from WHAT to WHY via HOW (Outside-in approach), where HOW is largely influenced by virtues like manipulation, fear, comparison, conformity, or instant gratification. Keep this in your mind that people judge you with your HOW, even before they judge you with your WHY and WHAT.
So, ask yourself the question: How is your HOW? Is it coming from your WHY or WHAT?
Let's just simplify it further:
I would quote certain examples here, and would like you to think about each of them in context to WHY, HOW, and WHAT with both inside-out and outside-in approaches, and try to define them.
- Why do you go for shopping? [Because there is a sale!!]
- Why do you purchase a house? [Because you want to invest despite having a home!!]
- Why do you want to become an entrepreneur? [Because it has a higher monetary scope!!]
- Why do you want to read this blog? [Because its title was interesting!!]
- Why do you want to lead a movement? [Because you were elected to lead!!]
- Why do you want to innovate something? [Because you are a scientist!!]
- Why do you want to donate? [Because you have enough money]
- Why do you travel? [Because you want to post it!!]
- Why do you wake up from bed every morning? [Because it's a morning!!]
WHY inspires, while WHAT indulges
WHY is a vision, while WHAT is a mission
WHY is mindful, while WHAT is mindless
I guess that I have been able to simply put in Words this beautiful concept of SIMON SINEK, and could inspire you to ask yourselves about your WHY, because he inspired me to write this blog so that I can inspire you to do things that inspire you!
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| AI-Copilot generated image |
Final note: If you truly feel that I have inspired you to find your WHY, then please do comment in the comment section and let the world know what your WHY is. And do share this BLOG; not for the sake of my views but for the sake of people in the world to embrace this lovely concept and be inspired.
So now, whenever you start, always Start With Why...
Further Reading:
very mindful concept.. explained in simple way with relatable examples....i think if we are clear about WHY then and then only we will enjoy our HOW ( process) and WHAT ( outcome) ....
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