During my last semester of college, I landed an awesome internship in Knoxville. During that internship, I was able to assign myself as much or as little responsibility as I could handle on any given work day. I was extremely busy this past semester with all of my combined responsibilities, which really strengthened my time management skills and allowed me to learn how to prioritize my work.
If my boss gave me a project that I did not quite know how to tackle, I would look to the world’s most trustworthy source: The Internet. The internet can answer nearly any questions we may have in regards to nearly any subject known to mankind. There are some truly strange google searches – No worries, I checked & here are a few examples for your amusement.
Anyway, back to the topic I was originally talking about… Discovering useful information on the internet.
I have watched many, many TED (and TEDx) Talks. Some suck; some are actually very interesting and enriching, like the one I am going to talk about today.
It is Simon Sinek’s TEDx Talk about how to become a great leader.
Now, I realize most of you who have made it this far in this blog post more than likely did not watch that 18:02-minute long video and that is okay. Here are some of the notes and takeaways I got while watching it.
Sinek broke down the “Golden Circle” and defined what, how and why how inspiring leaders communicate.
- What → Every single person knows WHAT they do 100% of the time.
- How → Only some know HOW they do it.
- Why → However, very few people WHY they do what they do. WHY does this organization exist?
The inspired organizations all think and communicate from the INSIDE to the OUTSIDE. They do this because communicating from the OUTSIDE does not drive behavior.
Behavior does not come from telling WHAT you do and HOW you are different than others; it comes from INSPIRING people. People do not buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.
I am not a real believer in karma, but I do believe that positivity is rewarded in the world. Negativity is toxic, and it is much easier to perform as a leader when you are genuine, care for others and believe what you are doing is true. Ultimately, Sinek explained how the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.
The main way to be true and genuine to yourself and the ones you are leading is the be driven by a CAUSE. If you talk about what you believe and why you believe it, you will attract people who believe what you believe. What you do simply proves what you believe.
He used Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, “I Have A Dream” and explained how it was successful in motivating change since it was inspirational. It showed people WHY they needed to change, HOW they could accomplish that and WHAT needed to be changed. It started with a dream; it started with a WHY.
I am not an experienced leader, and I certainly do not know all there is to know about life; however, I am starting to realize that all success starts from within. All success starts when you decide that you want to be successful and that you believe in a cause and have a dream.
Think about that. Think about what you believe in, how you want to enact change and begin to – or continue to – inspire people today.
And to end this probably overly sappy blog post, I will share the three things I am grateful for today.
Today, I am Grateful For:
- Jazz music
- Bubble baths
- Sunlight beaming through the clouds
(And yes, I did choose three overly sappy things that I am grateful for, just to add to the theme.)
everything is connected 