5 Best Simon Sinek Quotes and How You Can Apply Them

Simon Sinek.

We’re guessing you already heard of him, follow his work, or have even read some of his books.

When we are speaking about leadership, his name is one of the tops that pop into our heads. He is known for being a visionary thinker in this field. For years, he has focused his curiosity on exploring how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust, and change.

In this article, we will share 5 of the most important Simon Sinek quotes and how you can put them into practice so positive change may follow.

“When we know why we do what we do, everything falls into place. When we don’t, we have to push things into place.”

Great leaders are the ones who can inspire action. And not the ones that dictate action.

Throughout his career, Simon Sinek noticed there was a pattern underlying leaders’ behaviour when they successfully inspired their teams into action: Great leaders clearly explain to their teams WHY they are doing what they are doing.

The problem is leaders often overlook the power of purpose and belief and focus deeply on the tangible and logical aspects of their company’s value proposition. Simon Sinek entitled this approach The Golden Circle.

Sinek’s framework can be visually represented by three circles inside one another. At the centre (the smaller circle) you have the WHY, in the middle you find the HOW, and the larger circle represents the WHAT.

• The WHAT: every leader knows what their company does. They can describe their products, services, or job functions. WHATs are easy to identify and important to have but are less impactful than the WHY.

• The HOW: typically leaders also have no trouble communicating how they do what they do. They are often used to explain what sets a company apart from its competitors. The HOWs is you bringing your WHY to life. The combination of your WHY and HOWs is like your organisation’s fingerprint.

• The WHY: very few leaders can communicate WHY they do what they do. WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care about the work you do?

Most leaders communicate from the outside in – from WHAT to WHY. But when they do so people are not moved into action. It is in our biology. We only act and decide based on emotions – even though we like to see ourselves as highly rational beings.

If your goal is to generate positive change when leading your employees, you need to communicate from the inside out – from WHY to WHAT. Here are a few best practices to help you:

1. Clearly define your WHY. If you do not have a clear vision of your company’s purpose, how can you communicate it? Grab a paper and pen and write down your why statement as simply and concisely as possible.

2. Use expressions like “We believe…”. Purpose is related to belief. When communicating your WHY clearly state “we believe…”. When you phrase things this way you are connecting to your employee’s emotions.

3. Always communicate from WHY to What. The logic that you communicate your company purpose – WHY you do what you do, what are your beliefs, then because of those beliefs you do things a certain way – communicate your HOW, only then do you state WHAT you do, as it is a result of the combination of WHY and HOWs.

4. Be consistent in building a new habit. Start communicating inside out consistently and intentionally so that after some time you form a new habit of communicating.

“A weak leader likes to tell us how many people work for them. A great leader is humbled to tell us how many people they work for.”

According to Simon Sinek, great leaders put the safety and lives of the people they lead first. They do not look to lead from authority, they lead from trust and compassion.

Sinek first observed this in a life-and-death situation: the marine, but then he realised it also happens in the business sphere. When leaders put the safety and well-being of their employees first, sacrificing their comfort and tangible results, the people feel safe and a sense of belonging. Consequently, their work, motivation, engagement, and productivity increase.

Simon Sinek usually uses two real-life examples to illustrate the power of creating safe work environments and promoting cooperation:

• Charlie Kim, founder and co-CEO of Next Jump, implemented a lifelong employment policy at his company. This policy meant that no one could get fired for performance issues. When employees were underperforming, they would get coached.

• Bob Chapman, chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, sacrificed the numbers to save the people, instead of deciding to sacrifice the people to hit the numbers. In 2008, their sales plummeted. Chapman could choose to follow a path managers often choose: to lay people off. However, he refused to do so and created a 4-week paid vacation plan for every employee. When he communicated it to the whole company, Chapman said “It’s better if we all suffer a little than any of us should have to suffer it all”. In his message, he showed he cared deeply for his people. Thus, morale went up, and sales results quickly recovered and even surpassed previous highs.

Here is what you can do to promote safety and cooperation in your team:

• Look to coach and not to punish. If you allow for mistakes and use them as growth opportunities, your employees will feel safer in their job. And if they feel safe, their motivation increases and the work they deliver will improve over time.

• Do regular check-ins. Genuinely care about your employees. This has remarkable results especially when people are underperforming, as it allows you to clearly assess where they stand and how you can better support them.

• When navigating difficult times, keep your team’s best interest in mind. Avoid selfish behaviour and always choose your employees’ well-being over hitting results at all costs. Otherwise, you promote an unhealthy and unsafe environment – and this can have devastating outcomes for your company’s results and your employees.

“If we want people to speak to us honestly, we must be willing to honestly listen.”

Leaders must master the art of listening. Many mistake this for the act of listening.

Listening is not the art of hearing the words spoken. It is the art of understanding the meaning behind those words. Simon Sinek

If you want your employees to speak honestly to you, you need to build trust. One of the ways you can do that is by making people feel safe, seen, and heard when they speak to you. It is about talking less and listening more.

Here are Simon Sinek’s 3-step formula to honestly listen to your employees:

1. Replace judgement with curiosity. This is a challenging, yet powerful shift to have meaningful conversations. Start by being curious about the other person’s perspective. Even if they go against what you believe, be curious about the WHYs behind what they are saying.

2. Empty the bucket. You never have the opportunity for a conversation until one of you has the opportunity to say everything they have to say. Make sure you create this safe space for your employees.

3. Avoid interrupting or pointing out the flaws in their logic.

4. Use expressions like “Go on.” or “Tell me more.” – they invite the other person to continue sharing.

5. Start the conversation. Once they empty their bucket, you have the opportunity to constructively express your perspective. This is when the conversation begins. Make sure you continue nurturing a safe space for dialogue.

6. This phase can be key to helping you build common ground.

“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”

Simon Sinek said this, and he is not the only one to believe it. More leaders are tuning in to the idea that each person you hire will impact your teams’ dynamics and consequent results. And there is a more positive impact if the person you hire believes in what you believe in (your company’s purpose) than if they are solely motivated by money, for instance.

As a leader, it is on you to hire not only for skills but especially for attitude.

Simon Sinek identified one obstacle that may blur leaders’ vision when hiring: selfish hiring – only hiring people who have worked for renowned companies/competitors and have great skills on paper. The problem with selfish hiring is that often there is a mismatch between the person’s profile and your company culture.

This is how Sinek would go about hiring:

• Use the job application to share about your company’s culture. Usually, companies take the time to write who's profile they are looking for and what standards candidates should meet. The problem is that future candidates have little to no information about what it is like to work there. 

• Be brutally honest. When you hire you want to attract the talent that fits your culture. By describing what it is actually like to work in your company you are narrowing down the number of people who will apply.

• Make sure you revisit your values and mission frequently. Your goal is to easily communicate your company’s culture. Be concise and clear.

• Go and grab a coffee as part of the interview process. You want to get a sense of someone’s character and attitude towards work. Simon Sinek believes that if someone is doing well in an interview process, you should go out with them to grab a cup of coffee and talk about anything but work or what they have done in their careers.

• Ask yourself: Do I see myself trusting this person? Could I see myself working with this person?

• Do not eliminate potential candidates just because they do not tick all your boxes. Remember you can train them on hard skills.

“For an employee to take responsibility, they must first be given it.”

The success of a company always comes down to trust. 

Simon Sinek even uses a definition of love and applies it to business when trying to explain how great leaders create accountability and a sense of ownership in their teams: “giving someone the power to destroy you, and trust that they won’t”.

When working with multiple offices, he noticed that when leaders make themselves vulnerable to their business partners, colleagues, and employees – giving them the power to destroy the company and trusting that they won’t – they give people responsibility for the company’s outcomes.

Here are a few things you can start doing today:

• Be transparent. Share some worries or the accurate scenario of what your company is facing. Remember you do not have to know it all – it is ok to be figuring things out as they evolve.

• Delegate tasks and trust your employees will own them. Promote trust, be there to guide them and support them, but not to control their every move.

• Do not answer every question your employees might have. If they come up to you with uncertainty about what they should do about a certain situation, don’t give them a direct answer. Instead, you can try two things:

• Question them back “What should we do?”, once you listen to their answer you can say “OK, maybe give it a try”.

• Suggest another path “Have you considered X, Y, Z?”

• Simply say something like “Do what you think is best.”

This promotes self-reliability and accountability – which are critical for employee and company growth.

Key takeaways

Simon Sinek has defined what great leadership looks like. If we had to summarise it in a few words it comes down to building trust, a sense of belonging, and genuinely holding space for people to express themselves without the fear of being punished.

• "When we know why we do what we do, everything falls into place. When we don’t, we have to push things into place."

  Always communicate from the inside out (WHY -> HOW -> WHAT)

• "A weak leader likes to tell us how many people work for them. A great leader is humbled to tell us how many people they work for."

  Look to coach not to punish, put your employees first, and do regular check-ins.

• "If we want people to speak to us honestly, we must be willing to honestly listen."

  Replace judgement with curiosity and create a safe space for the other person to empty the bucket.

• "You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills."

  Share more about your company’s culture, have a social interview as part of your hiring process, and remember that you can always train hard skills.

• "For an employee to take responsibility, they must first be given it."

  Be transparent, give your employees tasks for them to own, and do not answer all of their questions.

You can start today improving yourself as a leader so you can be an even better support for your team.