EQUALSHOT

My colleague in the strategic communications program at Columbia, Simon Sinek, has a new book out. “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” focuses on the key to how leaders think, act and communicate.

Those who inspire, Simon says, always start with the WHY.

But don’t I already do that, you ask yourself? If you do, hats off to you! But the vast majority of people don’t.

To uncover how you approach things, start listening to the way you describe your work. More likely than not, you start with the WHAT – what you do. Or even HOW you do it. This is outside-in communications.

Luckily for us – we can all learn to lead. And Simon suggests we begin by applying the simple “Celery Test” as we go about our lives.

The Celery Test

Say you are at a cocktail party, and someone comes up and says, “I know exactly what you need at your organization. M&Ms.”

And another person tells you, “”You need rice milk.”

Another says, “Oreos. We’ve made millions implementing Oreos at our organization.”

Yet another says, “You’ve got to have celery.”

So you go to the grocery store. And, being the open-minded person that you are, you buy M&Ms, rice milk, Oreos and celery.

But, if you started with the WHY – and your why was to only do things that are healthy – you would have cut your shopping list down to rice milk and celery. You would have spent less time at the supermarket. And you would have saved money.

But most importantly, Simon says, you would have caught the eye of the people walking by who say, “I can see you believe in looking after your health. I feel the same way. Let me get your advice on something.” Then, you may have just gained a customer, an employee, a partner or a referral.

So tell me, what is your WHY?