To operate based on conviction and belief requires an acceptance that your actions could get you fired. This is different from pig-headed bravado, and it is different from putting the company at risk.
Simon SinekRead
For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It's not "integrity," it's "always do the right thing." It's not "innovation," it's "look at the problem from a different angle." Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea - we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Values should be actionable and expressed as verbs to guide behavior effectively.
In this quote, Simon Sinek emphasizes that simply stating values like 'integrity' or 'innovation' is insufficient for them to have a meaningful impact. Instead, he suggests that these values should be articulated as actions or guiding principles that dictate how individuals should behave in specific situations, thereby providing clarity and direction for decision-making.
Themes
ValuesActionPrinciplesGuidanceBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a leadership seminar to emphasize the importance of values in action.
More from Simon Sinek
All quotes →The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important.
Simon SinekRead
Every company knows what they do _x000D_ Some know how they do it _x000D_ Very few know why
Simon SinekRead
Leaders don’t complain about what’s not working. Leaders celebrate what is working and work to amplify it.
Simon SinekRead
We can rationalize anything and easily quit on ourselves. Leadership is refusing to quit on others.
Simon SinekRead
The trick to balance is to not make sacrificing important things become the norm.
Simon SinekRead
Similar quotes
People sometimes imagine that just because they have access to so many newspapers, radio and TV channels, they will get an infinity of different opinions. Then they discover that things are just the opposite: the power of these loudspeakers only amplifies the opinion prevalent at a certain time, to the point where it covers any other opinion.
Amin MaaloufRead
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. For such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees ever more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss, fume, worry, and grieve. He remains poised, steadfast, serene.
James AllenRead
In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.
Langston HughesRead
Every book I've written has been a different attempt to understand something, and the success or failure of the previous one is irrelevant. I write the book I want.
Yann MartelRead
Spend too much time alone with your own words, and your writing grows anemic, in dire need of a transfusion.
Celeste NgRead
When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.
Joe StrummerRead