Happy Sunday Everyone:
A good friend of mine, Kevin Kennedy, gave me a book, which some of you may have read, “start with why” by Simon Sinek, the book has me spinning a bit. Such a simple concept of starting with “why” we do things vs. “what” we do. General concept is if people understand “why” you’re doing something they’re more inclined to care about “what” you’re doing. If people understand why I’m passionate about loans, they’re more inclined to want to work with me. I’m sure some of you are saying “passionate about loans?, really?”…no I’m not passionate about loans, I’m passionate about helping people get into homes and creating a service that takes me out of being a commodity. My “why” is I love helping people, I love helping people get better, My “why” is I love trying to figure out what makes us all tick, it just so happens that doing loans, coaching, etc….are outlets for my “why”. So that’s the deep side of “why”…the other part I have taken from the book so far (1/2 way through), is the simple concept of us asking “why” of ourselves, and of others. You quickly come to answers you need to know, you need to be aware of. It helps you focus on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
Questions like:
1. why do I work for my company? I need to know these answers. If those answers don’t exist, which they do in my case, you have problem. BTW-If you’re the owner of a company reading this (which there are a few), why do people work for you?
2. Why does my team follow me? They know I care about them, they believe I will positively impact their life, they believe they’re betting on the right horse, and they are. Might sound arrogant, but I don’t care. As a leader, we need to know “why” people follow us, you also need to know “why” people leave you. This, to me, is more important than anything. Life is so much better when you have the right people on the bus.
3. Why do my clients work with me? Why do I lose clients?
4. Why do my business partners work with me? Why do some not?
5. Why does my wife love me? Why do I piss her off?
Constantly asking “why” helps us understand why we are winning and losing, why we are having success, why we’re experiencing failure, why we are growing, why we are shrinking. Practically speaking, I can close a loan in 15 days, I just told you “what” I can do, but who cares??. I will greatly increase the odds of your offer on this house getting accepted compared to the 10 people we’re competing against, I will do this by offering to close in 15 days…..that’s the why in front of the what. Simple but I think its lost on many of us. For me personally, I’ll be much more purposeful moving forward with focusing on the “why” in front of the “what”.
Fun Fact: Southwest cleans and turns a plane in 25 minutes, why? if it took 5 more minutes it would require 18 more planes to run the same routes at a cost of a billion dollars….