Not every human has the chance to become a leader. Many spend their lives as employees or submissive sons, wives, and parents. However, other people, for some reason, come to success, achieve their goals and inspire others to accomplish them as well. Notably, these people are not born like this, but they become leaders during their lives. Moreover, this does not depend on the material condition of the family or the person’s earnings, but on the internal attitude. Real leaders have clear goals and can motivate others to achieve them. The purpose of this paper is to discuss which leadership qualities are critical to inspiring others.
In the book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Sinek Simon discusses the crucial character traits and principles that successful leaders need. The main principle that follows from the title of the book is that people have a goal: the answer to the question of why. This alone gives people the strength to make their dreams come true because it highly motivates them. Another leadership quality is the ability to distinguish between motivation and manipulation. Actual leaders will never threaten the people with whom they are working on the same object, and they will not invent any ways to make people do something by force. People follow leaders voluntarily because leaders make them feel the same inspiration that they feel themselves.
Another critical factor in achieving or not achieving success is the very goal of the leader and how to make it. Ideally, this goal should not be self-serving (such as earnings), but useful and beneficial for society. To achieve its implementation, leaders should not resort to various tricks, such as influencing an audience with the help of advertising. Undoubtedly, such goals can also be achieved, and these tools also work, but the final result is short-lived and fragile. Consequently, leaders must clearly understand what, why, and how they are doing while remaining honest and noble. This will help them to establish contact with others so that people support their ideas and help with implementation.
Undoubtedly, the ideas described in the book are useful for private life. For example, their use within the family helps establish strong and warm relations: if the father acts as a leader, his relatives trust him and work on family ties together. The principles described by Sinek are fundamental to any managerial work as well. The bosses are not always the leaders of the team, and their responsibility is only to set tasks and check the results of their performance. However, applying the described principles, managers can develop companies, gathering a dedicated and inspired team around them.
Sinek gives several striking examples of the leaders’ activities, which allowed them to achieve outstanding success in various areas of life and work. It should be noted right away that each of these leaders had a clearly defined why. Thanks to this, they achieved all the goals they needed, were hugely inspired by it, and motivated the people surrounding them. Without this, they could not have become as powerful as they are now.
The first example is the Wright brothers, who managed to make the first flight on an airplane in history. They and the people who worked on the project with them had practically no means and possibilities of this. Sinek claims that “not a single person on the team had an advanced degree or even a college education” (Sinek 4). However, the brothers had something that their competitors did not have: a clear understanding of why and, therefore, a high level of motivation for the team.
Another example is Apple, which is now one of the most popular equipment manufacturers in the world. Their quality standards are exceptionally high, and the audience’s interest in their products keeps growing. However, their story began with two motivated people, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who wanted to make a big positive contribution to society (Sinek 5). They chose modern technology as a tool, and their motivation was so strong that it allowed them to join the list of the most successful businessmen in the world.
One of the strongest motivators in history is Martin Luther King Jr., who has inspired thousands of people. His essential idea was to protect civil rights; besides, he had the skill to motivate people. According to Sinek, his ability to “attract so many people from across the country, of all colors and races, to join together on the right day, at the right time, took something special” (7). In total, his compelling why and ability to inspire others had a substantial effect on the whole state.
Most influential leaders have a clear goal to go towards. The objectives of the most successful people are not mercantile or cruel but reflect universal values. Another essential quality of strong leaders is the ability to inspire and motivate people. They are incredibly passionate about their ideas; therefore, others are ready to follow them and do everything to achieve their goals. Everyone can become a real leader, but people have to understand why clearly. It is useful for any area of life: relationships, study, work, and other fields. The more people in the world inspire others with vital ideas, the more opportunities humanity has for development and prosperity.
Work Cited
Sinek, Simon. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Penguin UK, 2011.