Chapter 8: The Golden Circle Megaphone

Clarifying your WHY is well and good. But concretely, how do you achieve your WHY? It comes through building your HOW and your WHAT.

Without a strong HOW, inspirational WHY leaders have big ideas but struggle to execute them. An organization needs to be built to support and execute the WHY.

The Golden Circle Megaphone

By now, you know what The Golden Circle looks like: it’s a bullseye with WHY in the center, HOW in the second ring, and WHAT in the last ring.

But The Golden Circle does more than help you create your message, it amplifies it, too. That’s because The Golden Circle is actually a cone, just like a megaphone. Pretend you’re looking at the Golden Circle from above:

The cone represents the three levels of a company or organization:

1. WHY at the Top

At the top, or point, of the cone is the WHY. This is the smallest layer of the organization which contains the top-level leaders, like the CEO or COO. These leaders provide the vision of the organization by articulating and living out its WHY.

2. HOW in the Middle

The next level of the cone is the larger HOW section. The HOW is comprised of senior executives whose job it is to translate the WHY for other employees. They create systems, rules, and policies that support the company’s WHY. Without great people in the HOW level, a company with a strong WHY can still fail.

3. WHAT at the Bottom

The WHAT level is where the bulk of the company’s employees exist. They’re doing the practical, daily work to bring the company’s products and services to life. But more importantly, these are the people who interact with customers. If they can’t articulate the company’s WHY, then customers won’t understand it, either.

When you start your message at the top and pass it through your organization, it amplifies—just like it would if it passed through a megaphone. It affects people within your organization, and then the organization uses it to amplify the message to the outside world.

Combining a Charismatic WHY With a Hard-Working HOW

Strong, charismatic leadership that starts with WHY is critical. But most WHYs need a practical HOW to help translate their vision and passion to rest of the organization.

WHYs are big-idea optimists who believe all of their ideas are possible. HOWs live in reality and are better at building the processes that bring those bold ideas to life.

WHYs have the vision and imagination needed to change industries, but they often don’t know HOW to do it. HOWs have the ability to create change, but they don’t have the vision to know what changes to make.

WHY types live in the future, and HOWs live in the present. WHYs are dreamers, while HOWs are practical.

WHY types and HOW types are capable people who can run businesses without the other. But in order to build a world-changing movement or organization, both need to exist. Without a strong HOW, inspirational WHY leaders have big ideas but struggle to execute them.

Here are some famous examples of WHY and HOW partnerships that have changed the world:

• Disney: Walt Disney (WHY) and Roy Disney (HOW)
• Apple: Steve Jobs (WHY) and Steve Wozniak (HOW)
• Microsoft: Bill Gates (WHY) and Paul Allen (HOW)

Case Study: Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy

Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights movement exemplify the ways WHY and HOW people work together to achieve their common goals.

In this case, while Dr. King was the leader and the WHY behind the push for racial equality, he was supported by Ralph Abernathy, who handled the HOW. Abernathy’s job was to help individuals understand what steps they needed to take to be part of the movement. Then King’s followers--the people in the WHAT level--hit the pavement to create change.

Great leaders are great because they have a team of excellent HOW-type people. Leaders can keep their sights set on the path ahead while their HOW team figures out how to implement ideas and create an organization oriented around the leader’s vision.

And because great leaders are charismatic, they attract incredibly talented HOW types that also believe in their vision.

Don’t Confuse Amplification With Volume

Amplification happens when you successfully share your WHY using The Golden Circle. Unfortunately, it’s easy to confuse amplification with volume.

Volume comes from a combination of money and publicity stunts. With enough of both, you can create expensive advertising campaigns that keep your message front and center (and the volume cranked up to high). But volume alone doesn’t create loyalty.

Take, for example, a publicity stunt that happened on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 where Oprah gave a new car to every member of her studio audience. Everyone remembers the stunt, but no one remembers the type of car she gave away: the Pontiac G6.

In the end, Pontiac spent $7 million dollars to market their car through this publicity stunt, but it quickly faded from memory since the stunt didn’t reinforce the brand’s WHY. In contrast, people remember the event because it reinforced Oprah’s WHY, which was to be spontaneously generous to those around her.

Energy Versus Charisma

Similar to volume vs amplification is the idea of energy vs charisma. While energy can motivate people, charisma is what truly inspires them.

It’s easy to create energy within an organization through manipulations like bonuses or incentives. But charisma is what makes a leader or an organization great. Charisma has little to do with someone’s personality or physicality. Instead, charisma comes from clearly understanding your WHY and living it. This is magnetic - people are drawn to others who have a die-hard belief in a purpose greater than themselves.

In other words, energy is short-term excitement, whereas charisma comes from knowing your WHY and working toward a goal bigger than yourself. Charisma inspires people, which creates loyalty.

Energy Versus Charisma: Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates

To see the difference between energy and charisma, let’s compare two former CEOs of Microsoft: Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Steve Ballmer is known for being high energy. When he makes speeches, he’s enthusiastic--he often runs around the stage. (Shortform note: watch this video for some of Ballmer’s conference highlights.) And audiences respond to it! But energy alone isn’t enough to sustain a movement. It wears off.

Bill Gates, on the other hand, lacks Ballmer’s energy. He’s soft-spoken, but when he speaks, it’s with conviction. That’s because he knows his WHY and believes in it wholeheartedly. He saw a vision of a computer on every desk in every home, a WHY that resonated with his employees and customers. And today, with his work at the Gates Foundation, he has the admirable WHY of relieving as much human suffering as possible with the resources as his disposal.

So while Ballmer has energy, Gates has charisma. And that charisma comes from starting with WHY.

Case Study: Ron Bruder

Entrepreneur Ron Bruder has had repeated success because of his commitment to starting with his WHY: his belief that if you show someone an alternative possibility, it creates the possibility for that idea to be realized.

First, he start Greenwell, a travel company that was one of the first to fully computerize its operation. He grew Greenwell into a multi-million dollar business.

Next, he founded Brookhill, a real estate development company focused on building on brownfields, which are former oil and gas production sites that have long been considered too polluted to develop. While everyone thought brownfields were a lost cause, Bruder’s WHY meant that he wasn’t willing to accept that answer. Instead, he partnered with engineering firms to figure out how to clean the land through new, innovative techniques.

His latest endeavor is the Education for Employment Foundation. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, Bruder realized that terrorism wasn’t really a result of hatred. It was the consequence of a lack of opportunity for young men and women in the Middle East, Gaza, and the West Bank.

So while the country was using violence to end terrorism, Bruder saw a different path: education. The EFE Foundation’s goal is to teach these young people the hard and soft skills they need to access opportunities in their countries and abroad.

By sitting at the top of The Golden Circle and using it as a megaphone, Bruder is able to amplify his WHY while trusting those who align with his beliefs to keep the movement going. This is how Bruder is able to repeat his success over and over again across industries.