Start with the Why is our number one For Impact Guiding Principle.
I came across a brilliant thinker, Simon Sinek, who has a great book, Start With Why, a powerful Ted Video, and an amazing story around the power of ‘WHY.’
The essence of his message:
He calls it the ‘Golden Circle’.
Mediocre organizations and leaders always sell ‘outside-in’: talking about WHAT, then HOW (features, benefits), and never even getting to the WHY.
Great leaders sell ‘inside-out’ – leading with the WHY.
Sinek’s Golden Circle is our ALTITUDE FRAMEWORK… with research!
Starting with Why has many implications in our For Impact world; here’s a few:
Selling happens at 30,000’. The number one question of every investor is, “Why do you exist?” If the person you are talking to doesn’t care about your WHY, it’s very hard to talk to her about the what and the how. Conversely, if your WHY is his number one priority, you can ask on the proverbial ‘first date.’
There are 1.5M nonprofits in the U.S. You must be able to talk about your raison d’etre (reason for existence); otherwise, you just ‘exist to exist.’
