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Author Simon Sinek On Why Leaders Eat Last

Flickr Photo/TED Conference (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Simon Sinek speaks at a TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada, last March.

"Well, that makes total sense!"

That’s what you might say after listening a while to our guest Simon Sinek this week on Speakers Forum.

It’s the little things he points out, like why checking your cell phone constantly during your kid’s baseball game (or your meeting with a colleague) is a bad idea. The little things add up, sometimes resulting in the makings of a leader.

Sinek has come to believe that all great leaders think, act, and communicate in the exact same way — the opposite of how most of us do.

His first book was "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Action." In it he explains his concept of "The Golden Circle," which centers on the question of why individuals and organizations do what they do:

Everybody knows ‘what’ they do 100 percent. Some know how they do it. But very few people or organizations know why they do it. And I don’t mean to make a profit, that’s the result. It’s the “why”, why do you do it, why do you get out of bed in the morning, and why should people care. Inspired organizations and people all think, act, and communicate from the inside out.

Sinek is an author, teacher, public speaker and corporate consultant.  His new book is "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t."

He describes himself as “an optimist who believes in a bright future, and our ability to build it together.” He achieved TEDx fame for his popular 2010 talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” It’s the third most popular talk on TED.com.

http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

Sinek spoke at Town Hall Seattle on April 3. If you wonder where his accent came from, Sinek was born in England, moved to South Africa, then settled in New Jersey. Go figure.

Thanks to Ayan Sheikh for this recording.

Year started with KUOW: 2006