True Leadership Means the Ability to Inspire People

Simon Sinek can explain in, Start with Why, that true leadership means having the ability to inspire people, to provide them with a purpose outside any other benefits or incentives giving people the ability to lead others with true meaning and purpose. Leaders who embrace an infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, and more inspiring organizations. How do we win a game that has no end? Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint they have a purpose.

Why are we doing this? Do others know why? That is what the book of Simon Sinek is telling us, why are important others know your why as a leader.

Leadership is a mix of the research area and practical skills encompassing the ability of an individual or an organization to lead or guide others.

Start with Why created waves of discussion and change around our environment also Sinek calls that the powerful idea of the Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired.

Sinek believes that when we communicate the what and how of what we do, people understand these things intellectually, but it usually does not change their behavior.

However, people like Martin Luther King Jr, Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.

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In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn, inspire their colleagues and customers and that is how it is, inspire others, by the way, to gain their confidence of them and make yourself and them successful.

You as a leader, as an example to follow need to tell others your purpose so you can develop. Many companies and people are successful because they teach from inside to outside. In other words, they explain why first. The leaders create their success as companies do. You build what you want with the people you want. Everyone needs to have a purpose, but it must important you have to let them know why. All businesses, organizations, and careers can operate on three levels: WHAT we do, HOW we do it, and finally WHY we do it. We’re all acquainted with WHAT we do—the products we sell, the services we offer, the jobs we do, you want. When you give your contribution and then should provide the impact. WHY A few of us know HOW we do it—the things we think differentiate us or make us unique compared to the rest of the crowd, or our competition, our mindset, our goal. But only a few of your team maybe know your WHY we do what we do. In other words the purpose of you as a leader, as a manager, supervisor, and a superior.

As Simon Sinek says ‘People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.’ An example of this is Apple that at first communicates from the ‘Why.’ Apple’s ‘Why’ is to challenge the status quo and empower the individual by doing things differently. Starting with why is make people believe what you believe. It tells us that telling or dealing with our why is connected with our feelings. Is connected with a part of our brain that sparks that interest. That makes us interested, believe, or be loyal to someone or something.

We can talk about other examples like the Wright brothers. They were in the race of who gets manpower flight and they had a lot of competition in that area. Also, the competition that we’re more sponsors than them, not in the image that they present but also more financial. We can mention that Samuel Langley was one of them. Was sponsored by the department of war. They provide Langley with 50,000 dollars, the confidence because of his studies and connections. He searches for every help that he can with that money, they were trusting in them. But the Wright brother was the opposite of Langley. They didn’t have anything that maybe others like Langley had, no special people for the project, no money, and any type of sponsorship. The only thing that they had was a belief in a purpose. That was that if they can figure out how to make a flying machine powered by a man the world was going to take another direction. But the competition they want just the outcome of all of that, that was money and being recognized. However, Langley didn’t achieve the goal but the Wright brothers did it. Here is when we can see the attraction of the people based on the WHY because once Langley knew he was the first one to quit and do not provide support to them. They obtained what they believe and people start following them.

We can say that this is almost a direct representation of our Army Leadership Requirements Model. As a leader, if we can harness and embody character, presence, intellect, lead, develop, and achieves we can become good leaders. I feel like these characteristics of this model are our ‘how and what’ of Sinek’s hypothesis, and if we can achieve these to the best of our ability then the reason why we do what we do will fall into place without any hesitation. As leaders, we are expected to set the example and lead from the front, and if we can figure out our why then soldiers and employees will feel like their work is fulfilling and meaningful.

With that being said we can see that all the people that succeed and make an achievement start with the why. Start with the why as a leader make you successful because creates others believe in you and you in others. Simon Sinek said it best, ‘A star wants to see himself rise to the top. But a leader wants to see those around him rise to the top’. As leaders, we are expected to set the example and lead from the front, and if we can figure out our why then soldiers and employees will feel like their work is fulfilling and meaningful. As future U.S. ARMY leaders we need to start

communicating our WHY to our soldiers if we want to succeed and see them succeed too. By doing that we can gain loyalty and respect. Communicating that way allowed us to inspire others as a leader, much of the people that don’t get great results as a leader we can say that they start communicating with the other parts of the golden circle. Maybe they start with the WHAT or HOW and that doesn’t inspire others.

However, As a leader, I need to build trust within my organization, employees, or platoon to obtain the best results of it. The only way that I can acquire that trust is by always being honest and showing them what it takes and why I am there for. This concept is important to achieve because your soldiers, employees, or whoever you have under your supervision come first and this is something that I have been learning during my time as a cadet. This career is a people business, as officers are our responsibility not to come up with all the great ideas, it is our job to create a working space for great ideas and great soldiers to form in other words develop others to succeed as Simon Sinek mention in his book. Without communication, beliefs, goals, and the trust of your subordinates, those types of ideas and soldiers will not be able to grow.

The impact Simon wants for each of us is to change the environment, in however way we can, for the better. Start with Why helps readers build upon their leadership skills. But to stand out you have to start with a purpose. Working from your values and beliefs will help set up the foundation or the base of your career and will get people that are going to be followers, also this is going to impact people without making your subordinates feel as if they are being manipulated. Manipulation or other negative treats will not help your soldier when bullets are flying and lives are on the line of danger. It is the job of the leaders to build the roots of what they believe in so that good soldiers will follow them regardless of the situation. As leaders, we are looking to give power to our subordinates to do great things with their lives and set them up with the success that they deserve in the civilian area as in their careers. In the future, I will look forward to providing the same sense of power and confidence to those working around me

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