Start with why means knowing the reason behind what you do before you work on how you do it. Simon Sinek made the idea famous in his book Start With Why. For a leader, your why is the fuel. It begins with leading yourself, keeps you intentional, and shows your team what's possible.
- Your why is the reason you want to become a better leader. Get clear on it first.
- A strong why gets you out of bed excited and makes you protect your time.
- It starts with number one: understanding yourself, your goals and the legacy you want to leave.
- A why only matters when you act on it, one idea at a time.
What does start with why mean?
Start With Why is Simon Sinek's idea, shared in his book and his popular talk of the same name. Great leaders and organizations lead with their purpose, the why, and let the how and the what follow from it. Both are worth your time.
For your own leadership, the question is simple. Why do you want to become a better leader? Answer that before you pick up the next book or tactic, because the answer drives everything else.
Why does knowing your why matter for a leader?
A strong why changes how you show up. I wake up every day excited for life. Time is my most valuable asset, so I refuse to waste it. If I want to make the world a better place and do great things, I have to be charged and on fire for my life.
Your why also cuts through distraction. A clear reason gives you permission to say: if I want to be a better person, I have to be intentional about raising my knowledge, my skills and the action I take.
What does a leader's why look like?
My co-host Arturo Gomez has led teams for 25 years. When we launched Leadership DNA, we each named our reasons out loud. Here are four of them.
- Help people reach their goals Arturo has always found happiness in helping other people achieve their goals and dreams.
- Help a million people One of my life goals was to help one million people. Sometimes you help one person who then helps many others.
- Be the example I started at zero with no advantage. If I can do it, so can you.
- Keep learning I wanted to learn from people I admire, Arturo included, and let others listen in.
Why does your why start with leading yourself?
Leadership starts with number one.
Every great leader Arturo has studied has strong control over self. Start by understanding your capabilities, your deficiencies and what you want out of life. He means goals and the legacy you hope to leave, well beyond material things.
Once you understand who you are and what you're capable of, you can spread that energy around. You take care of number one, then number two, number three, all the way to number 100. That is the heart of self-leadership, and it is where every why takes root.
How do you find your why as a leader?
- Look at who you have always admired. Arturo was fascinated from a young age by coaches and family members who pushed and challenged people toward their goals.
- Study the people you want to become. When I left my corporate job and went all the way down to zero, I audited the success habits of the CEOs I aspired to be like. The world went from black and white to color.
- Name the legacy. Write down what you want to accomplish and what you want to leave behind.
- Make it bigger than you. Ask who else wins when you get better. A great leader helps someone who then helps a lot of other people.
Your why and your purpose are close cousins. Arturo's exercise for finding your purpose is on the grit page.
How do you turn your why into action?
Listening is a start. Leadership is built in what you do next. You can pick and choose which ideas resonate with you, and then the key is to live in action.
I take notes when I listen to podcasts and read books, then I go back and reread them. Think of riding a bike. You can't expect to be good at it the first time. It takes training, and personal development as a leader works the exact same way.
Give yourself room. Leadership has many touch points, and everyone has the capacity to develop along the way.
How does a leader's why inspire a team?
People follow an example. When I started growing for myself, I wanted to help others by being that example, because I was starting at zero, the same as anybody else.
Oftentimes, people just need an example of what's possible.
Rob Cressy, Episode 1
A why also opens doors. Arturo and I met when he came on my sports marketing podcast to talk about his success mindset. I reached out afterward, he let possibility happen, and that conversation became this show.
How does your why guide you in the AI era?
AI can take on more of the how and the what, so the why matters more. I lead human first and AI enabled. Your why decides which work you hand to the tools and which judgment you keep. Go first, learn the tools yourself, and tell your team why you are using them. Start with AI for leaders.
Do this today
- Write down your why. Answer one question on paper: why do you want to become a better leader?
- Pick one idea and act on it. Take notes on the next podcast or book you consume, choose the idea that resonates, and put it into action this week.
Listen to the episode
Start With Why
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Questions people ask
Who came up with Start With Why?
Simon Sinek. He shared the idea in his book Start With Why and in a widely viewed talk. Rob Cressy recommends both to leaders.
What is an example of a leader's why?
Rob Cressy set a life goal to help one million people. Arturo Gomez finds his happiness in helping people achieve their goals and dreams.
How does knowing your why make you a better leader?
It gives you energy, protects your time from distraction, and keeps you intentional about the skills and actions that make you better.
Is your why only about business?
It reaches well beyond business. Your why starts with leading yourself, including your goals, your growth and the legacy you want to leave.
Full transcript
Episode 1: Start With Why
Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, why we are doing this podcast. And Arturo, I'm super excited to be doing this with you. So let's start with this. Let's start with why. Yeah, why? Well, you know, I know that you and I have been talking about this for, you know, over a year, probably closer to a year and a half. Both of us extremely passionate about leadership. And I think that, you know, the unique thing is that both of us, although we share very common beliefs, if not the same, we're still very different in the way that we've approached our, you know, our leadership goals and our leadership challenges and our own personal leadership development.
I think for me though, Rob, it's, you know, I've been passionate about this, the subject or the concept of helping people achieve, you know, their goals and their dreams. And that this is, this is something that's been a lifelong passion. I've always found happiness in helping other people. I think, you know, one of the other things is that I've just, you know, even from a young age, again, I've been fascinated with the concept of leadership and admired throughout my young age, whether there were coaches, whether there were family members, whether there were people that I had interacted with, that definitively stood out as leaders. I've always been fascinated by the concept of how they actually pushed and challenged people to create, you know, to create pathway to achieve their goals. And I think, you know, I think it's, you know, I just I just want people to understand that there is a lot of content that they're going to hear over the next couple episodes that really can be used in a lot of different ways. It's not, when we talk about leadership, it's not, it's not linear. It has, there's many different touch points to it.
And I think that, you know, my hope is that people get some really kind of chunky, sticky information from the stuff that we're going to be talking about and kind of challenging that helps them in some way, shape or form. And I agree with you 100%. And I agree with you 100%. For me, helping is at the core of this. One of the goals that I have in life is to help 1 million people. So when I think about a project like this is going to contribute to me helping 1 million people. And as a leader, sometimes it is my and our ability to help someone who then helps a lot of other people.
So we can be great leaders by leading by example. And that's something that when I look at my background and why I am remotely qualified to talk about some of these things is because I was someone who came from a corporate background. But then seven years ago, I left that to live my dreams of being creative and working in sports and building the world in my image. And it was upon that moment when I went all the way down to zero, no relationships, no one knew who I was in this industry, that I really had to work on my own personal development.
I audited the success habits of the most successful CEOs and people that I aspired to be like. And all of a sudden, I learned a growth mindset and I became self-aware. And all of a sudden, it was like the world went from black and white to color. And I became a student of the game of personal development. And I became hungry for this.
And as I started to grow for myself, I said, you know what, I want to help other people by being the example. Because if I can do it, so can you because remember, I was starting at zero with no advantage, no different than anybody else. And oftentimes, people just need an example of what's possible. So what we're going to do with this podcast is, we're going to break down the different elements of leadership, aka the DNA, because you're right. There are a variety of different things that go into leadership. But I think here's the important thing. When we share this information, it's not just good enough just to listen to it. If you want to be a great leader, you now need to take action. You can pick and choose which one of the things that we talk about resonates with you.
But the key is, live in action. So on my end, the way that I do this, I'm taking notes when I listen to podcasts and I read books. And then I go back and I reread them. It's just like riding a bike. You can't expect to be good at riding a bike the first time. It takes training and training. And your personal development specific to leadership is the exact same way.
I agree, Rob. And it's, you know, I think the biggest thing that I want people to understand is that they have the capacity to try and I might have already mentioned this, but they have the ability to actually engage in themselves and really develop themselves throughout this process. So leadership, again, it has so much depth to it, but there's some real things that they can enjoy and benefit from just by playing these things out internally.
Yeah. And with this, I think a great book and or video is Simon Sinek's Start With Why. And I think one of the reasons why you and I are so passionate about this is because of how strong our why is. I wake up every day excited for life. Time is my most valuable asset that I can't waste time. And if I want to make the world a better place and I want to do great things, boom, I've got to be charged on fire for my life.
And it's a really important part of this because with your own personal development and learning and becoming a better leader, you need to understand why you want to become a better leader. And this just doesn't have to be business. It's more about leading yourself. And we're actually going to get into an entire episode about servant leadership. But can you talk a little bit more about this?
Yeah. I mean, I think, listen, everything that we are going to discuss, there is there is no there are no great leaders today that do not have a strong control over self. Right. And I think that the most important thing that we can all do as individuals is really begin to understand ourselves in terms of our capabilities, in terms of our deficiencies, in terms of the things that we aspire to have out of life.
Goals. I'm not talking about material things. I'm talking about the things that we want to accomplish, the legacy that we hope to leave in life. And so everything really boils down. It starts with with number one. And so once you have a very good control and understanding, emotional understanding of who you are and what you're capable of, that allows you to really start spreading that around.
It allows you to distribute that energy. It allows you to start taking care of not only number one, but taking care of number two, number three, number four, number 100, you know? And I want you to be aware and intentional about this, because this is something that the more intentional you are about the different facets of leadership and how you can become a better leader, the more that you're going to get out of it, because any time that I've actually given something by 100 percent, and so often we live in this world of distraction where there's always something fighting for our attention. But guess what? Give yourself the permission to say, listen, if I want to be a better person, I've got to be intentional about raising my knowledge and the skills and more importantly, the action you take to becoming a better leader.
I agree. I agree. So yeah, those are the main, those are kind of my main, my main focal points for why we're, why we're even doing this. You know, I think it's a, it's, it's the passion. It's the love of all the things that come from leadership and that, you know, all the concepts that revolve around it, but it's really primarily the ability to help other people in their pursuit for accomplishments.
I'm going to actually add on one more and I'm actually going to give some context in terms of how you and I even built a relationship. One of the other reasons why I'm doing this podcast with you, Arturo, is because I want to learn from you. I'm someone that I host a lot of different podcasts. And one of the dirty little secrets I like to say is I love to learn from the guests that I have on. I'm always talking to people I aspire to be like, who have done great things, who have great knowledge and great energy.
And you were on my sports marketing huddle podcast about a year and a half ago, talking about your success mindset. And that was the start of us building a relationship. And you were someone that I admired from the outside. And I very much have respected the things that you've done and the way that you've built your businesses, but also the way that you lead yourself. And I noticed that from that podcast. So when I thought about doing this podcast with you, I was like, you know what?
This is an opportunity for me to learn from Arturo and get better. And oh, by the way, we're just going to record this and let other people listen to this as well. Well, you know, I appreciate it. And, you know, it's you certainly you know, that that first podcast where we actually really connected was it was great. You know, it was great because of I think because of the way that you control that conversation and the questions that you asked. But yeah, it's that, you know, that was the first time that I think that you and I spoke.
We really kind of connected on the you know, you got a chance to see who I was and the things that I fundamentally believe in. But, you know, you know, we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't also if it wasn't for you in terms of, you know, you kind of pushing and prodding to to kind of get me to to do this. And so I'm super excited about it just because of the fact that we get to talk about something that I know that we're both super passionate about.
And I know I know that if people actually listen to the to the content, the stuff that we're going to discuss, that they're going to really, I think, find some some pieces of information that I think are going to be very helpful. I agree. Well, of course, I hope as well. And we're going to do the best that we can. And one thing that's really important that I want to set the foundation for is the engagement in communication.
We're going to talk a lot about a different a lot about different things that are part of both of our lives and our leadership DNA and the fundamentals and the action that we take and the stories that are around them. But we want to hear from you. Does something resonate with you? Is there a story that you have? Is there action that you took from this podcast? Because guess what? That really helps us and fuels us.
And there is something beautiful that happens when you recognize someone or you just start the engagement. And so often, if you think about it, Arturo didn't know who I was before we did the podcast together. But then I reached out and you let possibility happen. So let possibility happen by hitting us up and letting us know what you think about this and be very candid about it. And one thing that really helps us a ton is if you enjoy this show, jump on iTunes, give us a rating and review.
Give us what you think. Subscribe. And when you do, we will give you a shout out on the show because if you show us love, we want to show you love.
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