It feels a little arrogant, but allow me to open this response by citing, well, myself from the first paper—it was your first paper, too!—that I wrote for this class. In the Golden Circle Assignment: What Is Your Why? (2023), I explained, “Just a week into this program, I have discovered my why: “Make the people and situations I interact with better than when I first encounter them” (Digmann, p. 4). Nearly a year later, I’m so grateful I took the time then to really think about and analyze the core of what this means to me and how it continues to influence me today in my graduate studies, professional career, marriage, activism, freelance writing, volunteer work, and essentially everything else in my life.
This keeps me grounded and driven as I innovate and influence as a leader. It has given me the confidence to make more solid and immediate decisions because I’m not as quick to question myself and the direction I’m taking with the aforementioned activities. I have seen how such confidence in myself and openness to collaborating with others to realize my why helps to put others at ease and inspires their confidence in my vision to work with me and follow my lead. This includes my supervisors at Ruffalo Noel Levitz promoting me from a senior writer to a copywriting lead; fellow church council members calling on me to serve on the executive committee and eventually council president; and an adaptive shoe company connecting with my wife, Jennifer, and me to form a partnership promoting their shoes on our podcast and social media.
This collectively exemplifies how Simon Sinek connected leadership and influence to our why In his 2009 book Start with Why. He writes, “To lead requires those who willingly follow. It requires those who believe in something bigger than a single issue. To inspire starts with the clarity of WHY” (2009, p. 86). This is what I appreciate about my why: it offers me such clarity, is open-ended enough to apply to any situation, and isn’t focused on me as an individual.
It’s all about helping others.
References
Digmann, D. (2023). Golden Circle Assignment: What Is Your Why? LDR 505: Leadership of Mind, Body, Spirit.
Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Penguin Group.