Reflection on Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”

Simon Sinek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action, is a classical description of an

entrepreneurial thought process. The process is broken into three primary components: Why,

What and How. Sinek argues that although we respond to these questions every day, the order in

which we do it determines the quality of our outcomes. To be successful, he notes that our

decision and action process should be guided by the ‘golden circle’ of communication. The circle

visualizes the connection between purpose, our decisions and actions. Purpose is codified in the

‘why’ question and is placed at the centre of the circle. This is followed by ‘why’ with ‘what’

being on the outer most layer of the circle. The orator uses the golden circle to illustrate how

successful people prioritize understanding purpose over their decisions and actions. Sadly, he

argues that unsuccessful people prioritize either their actions (how) or decisions (what) over

understanding the need and purpose (why) of their actions. In such situations, he says failure is

inevitable.