Simon Sinek tells us in his book to "Start With WHY". Children must be born with a natural tendency to ask why...persistently. I don't know about the rest of you parents but my daughter would not do anything without knowing why she was told to do something, or more often than not, why she was told not to do something.
I've been asked what the Chamber does. That's easy. I can give you a bullet point list of all things we do in a day. We can all do that, and we can probably give a step-by-step map of how we do it. What happens when we're asked why we do what we do. "For the money" is not why; it's a result of the work. WHY? is what inspires us to get out of the bed and do the what and the how. It's our passion or our belief or our vision for making things better.
Let's look at Sinek's Golden Circle.
Most companies start from the outside in. They talk about what they do, and some may even talk about how they do it. Sinek points to Apple and how they talk about WHY they do what they do; that's what puts them ahead of the rest in a very competitive field of software giants. Apple puts their beliefs in "challenging the status quo and thinking differently" ahead of what they sell and how they make their products.
Why is a leading question. Answering your WHY? in marketing your company or product leads to higher returns because you answer the question that every consumer or investor is really asking, and you create a loyal following. Now, if we turn to leadership, we see that those who know WHY they do what they do, and who get that message out to others, also create a loyal following, which can become a movement and transform a community. Do you see how WHY? is a leading question? It's where we, as leaders of our communities / our businesses / our families / ourselves should start.
Cindy Rivers McGraw Executive Director of the Chattooga Chamber BECAUSE I believe this community can do great things and rise above the issues that plague it, and I want to do my part and more.