Start With Why

Organizations should have measurements to ensure that a WHY stays clear as well as they use very clear metrics to track the progress and growth of WHAT they do.

The company's founder’s WHY must be extracted and integrated into the culture of the company.

Many organizations are built on the force of a single personality that their departure can cause significant disruption.

When organizations are small, WHAT they do and WHY they do it are in close parallel.

Passion may need structure to survive, but for structure to grow, it needs passion.

Higher standards are hard to maintain.

When we don't know an organization's WHY, we don't know what to expect, so we expect the minimum—price, quality, service, and features.

Loyalty among employees is when they turn down more money or benefits to continue working at the same company.

Energy can excite. But only charisma can inspire.

The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can be fostered and achievements can be realized.

Having a sense of purpose changes the employees' entire view of their job, even their perspective of life itself.

Companies with a strong sense of WHY are able to inspire their employees.

Passion comes from feeling like you are a part of something that you believe in, something bigger than yourself.

Any organization must work actively to remind everyone WHY the company exists, WHY it was founded.

Trust comes from being a part of a culture or organization with a common set of values and beliefs.

The strong sense of culture creates a sense of belonging.

Trust allows us to rely on others.

The goal is not to hire people who simply have a skill set you need, the goal is to hire people who believe what you believe.

People who love going to work are more productive and more creative.

A company is not products or services that bind a company together, it's the culture that all share, from the CEO to the receptionist.

Leading means that others willingly follow you—not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.

WHY is just a belief, HOWs are the actions we take to realize that belief, and WHATs are the results of those actions.

Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain.

Trust is a feeling, not a rational decision.

Without WHY, the buyer is easily motivated by manipulations.

Authenticity means that your Golden Circle is in balance, that everything you say and do you actually believe.

It is better to articulate how we do things in verbs, not nouns.

HOWs are your values or principles that guide HOW to bring your cause to life.

When manipulations thrive, uncertainty increases for buyers, instability increases for sellers and stress increases for all.

Great leaders win hearts before minds. They are the ones who start with WHY.

Companies that fail to communicate a sense of WHY force us to make decisions with only empirical evidence.

When we communicate from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls decision-making.

The power of WHY is not opinion, it's biology.

We make decisions all day long, and many of them are emotionally driven.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe.

Our desire to feel like we belong is so powerful that we will do irrational things and often spend money to get that feeling.

When we feel like we belong we feel connected and safe.

WHY does not mean making money—that's a result. WHY means what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist in the first place?

HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better.

HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better.

It all starts from the inside out.

The Golden Circle provides compelling evidence of how much more we can achieve if we remind ourselves to start everything we do by first asking why.

There are few leaders who choose to inspire rather than manipulate in order to motivate people.

It is true that manipulative techniques work but none of them breeds loyalty.

Relying on manipulations creates stress for both buyer and seller.

When companies or organizations do not have a clear sense of why their customers are their customers, they resort to a variety of manipulations

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: either you manipulate it or you inspire it.

Most companies have no clue why their customers are their customers.

Assumptions, even when based on thorough research, can lead us astray.

A correction of a simple false assumption moved the human race forward.

We make assumptions about the world around us, sometimes based on incomplete or false information.

Great leaders are able to inspire people to act.

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.

Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply approves what you believe.