Reflections on Start With Why

As I near the end of my collegiate academic career, I’ve begun to find ways to continue my learning post grad. One of my favorite forms of this lifelong learning endeavor is reading. I’ve loved getting to read nonfiction and specifically business development books. Over the course of the semester thus far, I was given the chance in my leadership development course to select a leadership book and use that as an aid to the in-class work we’ve completed. I selected ‘Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek.

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The book centers around the idea that leading with a strong sense of purpose in an organization is really the key to successful business that produces leaders who inspire action. I really enjoyed the message within the book, and it paired well with our coursework thus far by complementing and emphasizing the importance of purpose and drive. To give a brief summary, Sinek introduces the concept of the “golden circle”. This is comprised of three layers. The innermost circle represents the ‘why’, or otherwise described as the purpose or belief that drives action. The middle circle represents the ‘how’, the specific actions taken to fulfill that purpose. Finally, the outermost circle represents the ‘what’, which consists of the tangible products that are associated with and are derived from the why.

I really enjoyed this book and had a couple portions that really stood out to me. First, I connected well with the idea of purpose. Fortunately for me, most of my prior roles had a greater purpose that I felt I was able to contribute to, but that’s unfortunately not always the case in some roles. I resonated with the need for connection when looking at the relationship between one’s product or services and the purpose behind them. I began to reflect on my time at Sewell Automotive companies and Carl Sewell’s book titled ‘Customer for Life’. Both the company as well as the book highlight the core inner-workings of a sales relationship. The boiled down approach to business theory and strategy tends to be something I gravitate towards and enjoy. This led me to examine a lot of the roles available to recent graduates here in Northwest Arkansas.

With the home field advantage of having Walmart just a few miles down the road in Bentonville, Arkansas, there is a heavy presence surrounding consumer packaged goods companies in the area. We see Nestle, General Mills, Kimberly Clark, just to name a few, largely successful corporations with top of the line talent. Fortunately enough, in Donnie William’s supply chain management leadership course, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to hear from many leaders within some of these large corporations and their strategies when it comes to big business and life in the c-suite.

One of our speakers that I found resonated well with the message behind this book was Joe Metzger, an individual recently retired from Walmart’s executive team in the supply chain department. Joe had multiple anecdotes and stories about facing challenges in the supply chain industry while leading a large organization. A lot of his speech really connected well to the material covered in the book, specifically his emphasis on family and fulfilling a deeper sense of purpose.

While this book is mainly focused on business and the sense of purpose behind products and services, I found that this framework could be applied in any sense, even personal. This reminded me of another piece of literature I’ve read recently titled ‘How Will You Measure Your Life’ by Clayton Christensen. This was a rather deeply moving article that left me a bit dumbfounded after reading. This article was one of those things that you read once and find yourself thinking about months down the line, much like I’m doing right now. Essentially, Christensen describes how throughout his career he noticed that his most ethical and fulfilled colleagues were the ones that had strong morals and a dedicated sense of purpose. With that being said, I think the lessons and teachings throughout this book have been reverberated through my course work in Donnie William’s class as well as in my time at the University of Arkansas.

Finally, following the conclusion of my reading, I began to think about the application of Sinek’s framework. In my case, this framework is applicable in both my career and personal life. The essence of having purpose I believe is the key driver behind productivity and happiness. When applying this school of thought in a business leadership setting, I aspire to be a leader with a set of strong core values that people are eager to ask for help when needed. In order to become that type of leader, I’ve learned from our class discourse that I must first evaluate my current strengths and weaknesses. I’ve done so in our coursework and will continue to seek out feedback on how I can better improve on a consistent basis. Additionally, I will continue to meet my work with a life long learning approach in which my passion for my role is rooted in the purpose of the organization.