The right question's to ask at work: Why? How? What?
A couple of months ago, while discussing with a friend how I could no longer find time for one of my favourite hobbies (reading books), I was introduced to an excellent app by Amazon called Audible. If you haven’t heard of Audible (no pun intended), it is an app by Amazon that lets you listen to your favourite books (I often use the app while commuting to work).
One of the first books that I listened to about 4 months ago ( I am on my 5th book now) is called “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek. In this book, he talks about the Golden Circle i.e. the importance of starting with the Why ( mission, vision, beliefs) and then working your way towards How ( value proposition, differentiator, process) and finally the What ( the actual product, thing, app, feature).
For example, the Why of Walt Disney is “to entertain, inform and inspire….”; the How is the “utilisation of the best creative minds and innovative technologies” and the What are their theme parks, animation movies, toys etc.
All this sounds great, but how can we apply this to our daily work? Well, ever since reading Simon’s book and studying more about his Golden Circle, I have used the following framework to better understand my organisations and my own roles & responsibilities (my right fit):
- What is the Why of the organisation that I work for?
- Are my roles & responsibilities more towards figuring out the Why, the How or the What?
- Do I enjoy working the most with the Why, the How, or the What of my organisation and is this aligned with my roles & responsibilities?
Thinking through the above questions has helped me add tremendous value to my organisation (which sets the stage for career growth) and has also made work more fulfilling for me and the team members that I am responsible for. And as we all know making work more meaningful and fulfilling at all levels of the organisation sets everyone on the path to success!
I hope thinking through and discovering the answer to these questions help’s you Shoot to the top!