Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

I have just finished re-reading Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. My motivation was to get back in touch with myself and revisit why I choose to do what I do. It is something that I recommend to anyone who has decided to chart their own course and meets the occasional bump in the road and is looking to recharge the motivational batteries.
From the lens of a coach committed to serving others and helping them to become everything they can be, here are my key Take-Aways’ from the book:

1. By and large and particularly at the beginning of a coaching assignment, I see Coachees present with ‘Whats’ and ‘Hows’. Our first over-riding aim should be to get them to explain their Whys’. Sinek makes an incredibly compelling case for the power of the why. The first phase of a coaching engagement is a critical time when we need to be appropriately assertive with our Coachees and not avoid awkward questions for the fear of upsetting the ‘mood music’ or ‘closing down’ our Coachee.

2. Separate the Coachee’s motivation from their inspiration. In the jumble of competing thoughts going on in the Coachee’s head, helping your Coachee to ‘separate the wood from the trees’ can be challenging and requires intense levels of Active Listening.

3. Make the Coachee appreciate the difference between Novelty and Innovation. As with point 2, these concepts can come across as quite similar unless you are able to break your questions down in a logical way and allow your Coachee to recognize the differences and appreciate the cause, effects, consequences/outcomes of their ideas dependent on whether it is novelty or innovation that is driving their course of action.

4. If you don’t ask your Coachee the right questions at the beginning of the assignment, whatever dialogue that follows will be of hugely diminished value. For me, asking the right questions starts with the ‘Three Ps’…PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION.

We (should!) charge good money for our services and this is where we earn our fees; by investing the time to gain a full picture of our Coachee, their context and their systems. I would always recommend the Coachee taking some form of behavioural assessment prior to the coaching engagement as it will give you a far greater understanding of your Coachee’s behavioural traits and allow you to prepare more penetrating, insightful and resourceful questions from the outset. My personal favourite from the plethora of assessments available is Harrison Assessments because its use of Paradox Theory produces an excellent overall picture of a Coachee’s likely behavioural preferences across 12 common dimensions. Particularly in corporate settings where you may be dealing with a third party sponsor, there can be resistance to making an additional investment in psychometric behavioural profiling. My counsel is for you to hold your ground and do what you can to encourage this additional investment. In my experience, it will lead to richer outcomes from the overall coaching engagement.

In addition to Simon’s books, he is a regular contributor to TED Talks and is a highly inspirational speaker.

Book reviewed by James McLeod