Written by Dave Rothacker on December 4, 2020
”I don’t know man, I want to make money and to help people. I guess that’s my WHY.”
The two core tenets of a successful WHY are to grow and to give. People matter more than money. Listen to Simon Sinek describe in this 2-minute video.
“Okay, I get the money thing. I still want to help people.”
Great! Because helping people is a natural extension of “to give”. If however, you are to engage a Simon Sinek guide, they will not let you off the hook with, “I want to help people.” They’ll encourage you to dig deeper.
Sinek and his team have put a huge amount of thought and effort into their method. Overall, it’s beyond the scope of this RadioBack transmission. The short answer is that by clarifying “help” one is able to draw more focus on the deployment of their strengths, effort and time.
One quick nugget about helping in relation to uncovering your WHY. It’s not so much about the act of helping as it’s about how the act made you feel. What emotions were expressed? What did you love about it? Once you identify these you can begin to draw that bead of focus on your strengths, effort and time.
Everyone has a WHY. It’s found in the sum total of our life experiences, lessons learned, people in our lives and those who’ve influenced us. It’s just a matter of uncovering it.
Here’s how Gus of Chill Air identifies his WHY. Gus and Chill Air are a figment of my imagination. I created this example to give you an idea of what one contractor’s WHY might look like. Sinek’s camp says there is no difference between our personal WHY and our business WHY. I agree. Here’s Gus’s:
What does it mean to flourish? According to Marty Seligman, considered the godfather of positive psychology, which is a critical area of study on board the Freedom:
“I now think that the topic of positive psychology is well-being, that the gold standard for measuring well-being is flourishing, and that the goal of positive psychology is to increase flourishing.”
To increase flourishing one has deeper, more engaged and more meaningful experiences more of the time.
Gus will only hire those he believes to have a passion to grow, to develop and give to others. It helps if there is a fire in their soul to make a positive difference in the world.
Gus, a servant leader, wants his people to be their true, authentic selves at work. He gives them the tools, resources and autonomy to do their job. His theory is that a well taken care of coworker takes care of the customer.
If a coworker buys into Gus’s WHY, it’s because they have similar passions. By providing them with the environment to exercise their passion, the coworker is first, exercising their own beliefs.
Take a quick minute to think about that. Gus believes in treating his customers with utmost respect. So do his coworkers. They believe in what he believes in. Although Gus has a written procedure to wear shoe covers in the house, his people don’t think twice about it. They wouldn’t think about NOT wearing them.
This is in stark contrast to companies that have to seemingly wrangle their techs into wearing shoe covers.
Gus wants his customers to flourish. Inefficient, unsafe and faulty HVAC systems are an obstacle to that. HVAC is Gus’s wheelhouse, he uses it as his excuse to get in the door.
Because Gus has a passion to inspire people to flourish, he looks for other ways to deploy his vast network of resources. Does his customer need:
Yes, not only does Gus have them covered, his coworkers have these resources available to recommend as well!
Gus’s WHY permeates Chill Air’s culture. It’s woven into every single meeting and internal communication. Coworker recognition is based on it. 80% of his customers can tell you what it is as well. Seriously!
If you still haven’t uncovered your purpose, use the default purpose of To Grow and To Give until you do.