#HR #RRHH Making love and making personal #branding #leadership

The foundation of Sinek's work is his examination of the why, an exploration of who we are and what inspires or compels us to act. His early experience in advertising and his innate curiosity about the divide between successful and unsuccessful marketing campaigns led him to develop his own theory. This theory, which was developed out of his own struggle to comprehend his greater purpose, led him to the answer.

“I lost my passion for what I was doing,” he told me. “The reason I was in my malaise was because I knew what I did and how I did it, but I didn’t know why.” Human psychology is complex, and we are driven by competing, even contradictory, impulses of fear, desire, ambition, envy, and the need to connect. Why posits a clearing of the decks, a stripping down that sharpens our focus and helps us achieve a greater self-realization. “It was a tool that explained me,” he says.

Companies spend a lot of time and money trying to motivate their employees.

But when was the last time a mug with your company’s logo or a coffee shop gift card made you truly excited? Real motivation doesn’t come from external rewards--it comes from making some shifts in how you think about your situation, says San Diego, California-based personal empowerment expert Susan Fowler. 

“Give a whale a fish and it’ll jump as high as you want. Give a pigeon a pellet and it’ll turn 360 degrees. That whole animal behavior theory is what the workplace is built on. We’ve got to get away from that because we’re not pigeons and we’re not whales,” she says.

Corporate culture is not static; it grows and changes with the people in it. As a business owner, I like to think that the business has a lot to do with me, but I have realized it has just as much to do with the people who work with me and how they feel about the business.

We spend a lot of time before we hire getting to know prospective employees and making sure they fit the team. I also do employee surveys once a year to gauge where things are. I am far from being the perfect manager, so I am grateful to my employees who have taught me how to improve.

I ask employees what they like about their jobs, what they hate about their jobs, and what they think we should be doing differently. Many of my innovations come from employees' suggestions. But be careful not to ask a question that may yield an answer you will not be ready for.