Most of us communicate from the outside in, but author Simon Sinek believes true inspiration comes when we start with why. This brief introduction to The Golden Circle is a teaching tool used in class.

1. Start with the
Golden Circle
How Great Leaders Inspire Action

2. What did these four have in common?

3. All four
started with
the golden circle.

4. What is The
Golden Circle?

5. “It is a principle grounded in the
tenets of biology.” --Simon Sinek

6. Great
leaders

7. Think

8. Think
ACT

9. Think
ACT
Communicate

10. Why

11. Why How

12. Why How What from the inside out.

13. What
Neocortex
rational factual
logical detail-oriented
textual statistical

14. How & Why
Limbic Brain & Amygdala
purpose decision-making
context instinct
emotion no language

15. What’s Wrong
with What?

16. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley

17. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley
Focused on being “first”

18. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley
Focused on being “first”
Excellent market conditions

19. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley
Focused on being “first”
Excellent market conditions
Sufficient funding

20. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley
Focused on being “first”
Excellent market conditions
Sufficient funding
The best minds

21. “When we communicate from the outside in, people can
understand vast amounts of information, but it doesn’t drive
decision-making.”
-- Simon Sinek
Samuel Langley
(Gave Up Because he Wasn’t first)
Focused on being “first”
Excellent market conditions
Sufficient funding
The best minds

22. What’s right
about why?

23. The Wright Brothers

24. The Wright Brothers
No notoriety

25. The Wright Brothers
No notoriety The right people

26. The Wright Brothers
No notoriety The right people
No funding

27. The Wright Brothers
No notoriety The right people
No funding Belief in the promise of flight

28. The Wright Brothers
(Credited with the First Man-Powered Flight, December 17, 1903)
No notoriety The right people
No funding Belief in the promise of flight

29. Why does
Why work?

30. We follow those who lead, not
for them, but for ourselves. And
it's those who start with "why" that
have the ability to inspire those
around them or find others who
inspire them.
--Simon Sinek

31. One man,
one speech,
immeasurable impact.

32. Start with
the golden circle

33. Start with
Why

34. Sources:
Sinek, S. Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Portfolio
Hardcover: New York, 2009.
Sinek, S. (2010, May 1). Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com.
TED: Ideas worth spreading. Retrieved September 14, 2012, from http://
www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

35. Images:
Sun (slide 1): jenny downing via Flickr
Golden Lights (slides 3, 4, 15, 22, 29, 32-35), : EJM Photo via Flickr
Steve Jobs: acaben via Flickr
Orville and Wilbur Wright: Wikimedia Commons
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Library of Congress
Brain Scan (slide 5): Health Research Board via Flickr
O is for Occipital (slides 13-14): Illuminaut via Flickr
Samuel Pierpont Langley: Wikimedia Commons
March on Washington (slide 31): Wikimedia Commons