How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek
“…inspired leaders…think, act and communicate from the inside out [from WHY to HOW to WHAT].”
In a similar vein to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, albeit to a much greater order of magnitude, Start With Why suffers from being an idea that doesn’t need a book. That’s not to say that the idea isn’t a good one. It is. It works. And it’s not to say that the idea isn’t seasoned with other good ideas. It is. They work too. But it is to say that 10 good, clear pages would summarise the entirety of Start With Why.
So, what is the idea? It’s the title. Whenever you think about anything worth doing, begin by taking stock of why you want to do it, then, and only then, how to do it, and then, and only then, what to do to do it. After this, ensure that you communicate everything you do in this order and “leak” the why. Most of the rest of the book comprises illustrations, a rather dubious biological grounding, and more Steve Jobs references than Apple’s Wikipedia page. Other good ideas found here include hiring people who fit the attitude of your company rather than displaying the skillset (skills can simply be taught) and selling to people who believe what you believe and who will then naturally diffuse your vision to the rest of your target market.
How useful is the book to Christians? Well, one could make a case for Paul frequently “starting with why” in his epistles. Certainly when preaching or counselling with imperatives, giving the “why” of the gospel is essential. Personally, this book and others (John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life being one of these) prompted me to write my own “personal mission statement”, summarising our Biblical duties and applying them to my own limits and gifts to give me focus in how to spend my time. I’d certainly recommend that.
If my encouragement was to semi-skim The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, my advice for Start With Why is to switch to red-topped milk entirely. I’d particularly recommend the book to Christian leaders, but in all honesty the Bible-saturated reader will probably have already and intuitively ingrained the “starting with why” practice.
4/10