Why?

As children, we constantly asked the rather inquisitive question to our parents; 'but why mummy?'

We wanted to understand why things, situations or people were the way they were. It was a natural fundamental need to help us understand the ways of the world.

After a while my exasperated mummy would respond 'Because, I said so!'

..'oh, ok..hmmn..'

Whilst I may have learnt to just accept certain things, I still want to know why I do the things I do and of course I'm not alone. We all want to know why.

I watched the following talk on TED recently and it made me think about why people, leaders and organisations are successful and inspiring.

Why do people never get Sunday night blues or dread getting up to go to work in the morning?

Probably because they believe in what they are doing, because they know why they are doing it.

Simon Sinek, in what he says is the world's simplest idea, states that successful and inspiring leaders and companies are those, who not only explain the standard what they do and how they do it, they show more fundamentally, why the do it - they provide a purpose.

Apple is a company he cites as one, that at its core, promotes the why proposition beautifully. The why bit is all about challenging the status quo. The how bit is by designing lovely, aesthetically pleasing computers, phones etc The what they do, is make and sell technology devices.

Leaders and organisations who provide people with a purpose, as to why they are doing what they are doing, are those who inspire and attract employees who will work for more than just the pay cheque. They work with a passion because they believe in what they are doing.

Give me your employer brand, give me your values but tell me why we are we doing what we are doing?

I'm Irish, we naturally want to be part of some cause or other, but that trait aside, based on my own career experiences, being part of something for a reason and believing in why I do what I do and who I do it for, is where it's at and why I get up in the morning.

To be sure.

Comments

[Alex Hens]

Great post Sinead.

Now I appreciate there is always the danger of seeing something that sounds impressive or so positive and trying to bend reality in order to see or convey your business that way (hell - who wouldn't want to find any take possible to say "my business is quite like Apple's"), but there were, I felt, clear resonances with the approach we've taken in building our business proposition. And it has to be said, where the clients are open and not overly conservative (dare I say verging on the Luddite) our New Business success rate is not too shabby either.

For the "why" we do indeed challenge the status quo. When we started many people told us we were mad because the ATS market was surely already pretty flooded. Well there were a lot of companies offering ATS products for sure - but with experience of working with/around many of them we didn't find one that was actually as things should be. We wanted to do it differently. Better. And that's what drives us.

"How" - well again similarly we approached our execution considering "beautiful design" (well - usable design anyway). And we did this from both a candidates and a recruiter users perspective - delivering a web system that is as seamless and intuitive for users as you'd expect it to be. No one has to tell you how to use Amazon or Ebay do they?

And "what" we do is build online solutions to make processes more efficient, effective and that provide the highest integrity of management information.

So if, let's say in 2years time, HARBOUR is at the centre of an impressive number of organisations delivering significant ROI with great user feedback, then I'll try and remember to stop by and tell you that Simon Sinek is a genius and has nailed this with his "simple idea", of which we're proof.

Of course if the opposite is true then expect me to be telling anyone who'll listen that he's wrong and the Luddites win 80% of the time irrespective of anything else - but feel free to suggest that perhaps we just weren't focused enough on our "Why".

:)