In 2009, Simon Sinek published his New York Times bestselling book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” During that same year, he gave a TED Talk that was posted on YouTube under the same title, and it has since been viewed more than 32 million times.

I must confess, I haven’t read Sinek’s book, but I did watch the video a few years back. It wasn’t until I attended my nephew’s high school graduation and heard one of the valedictorians mention Sinek’s Golden Circle concept in his address to his fellow classmates that I made the connection to the power of why. 

The young graduate stood boldly and spoke with absolute confidence, encouraging his fellow classmates to seek to find their WHY rather than pursuing a career or employment simply for material or financial reasons. Fame and fortune are achievable, but satisfaction and success are the rewards of finding your why, he emphasized. He then described Sinek’s concept of the Golden Circle, which he illustrates using the image of a bullseye, with the outer most ring representing the what (what we do), the next most inner ring representing the how (how we do what we do) and the bullseye itself representing the why (why we do what we do). 

As I travel around the country visiting with firefighters in fire stations, at local conferences and fire-related events, one of the most common conversations that surfaces from station to station and coast to coast is the issue of recruitment and retention of good firefighters. The most common complaints I hear: They’re lazy; they don’t have pride for the job; and they lack the tactile skills required to be a “good” firefighter. While I don’t agree with stereotyping any group or generation, to be fair, I speak from experience and with absolute confidence when I say that, in some cases, these are indeed legitimate issues, but in many others, if we stepped back and looked at what we did to recruit these individuals, we might uncover the root cause of our problem. 

I challenge each of you to step back and take a minute when evaluating your next recruit class, or promotional class for that matter, and ask yourself: Did we hire or promote people who believe what we believe? In Sinek’s words, “If you hire people just because they can do the job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood, sweat and tears. When we pursue the what, we work for the money or the end product. When we work for the why, we work with blood, sweat and tears.” 

Sinek’s emphasis on the why offers each of us a powerful life and career message. The what represents the end product, the service(s) we provide to our customers or citizens, and the how is how we deliver the service. But the why is what motivates us to do what we do. It's the why that ignites the spark within us to get out of bed and work out so we are physically fit for duty. It's the why that inspires us to take pride in our equipment and to seek additional training and education so we can better serve our communities. It’s the why that motivates us to go above and beyond the call of duty, to do the unexpected, to selflessly serve and perform without the expectation of reward. 

So when we recruit, hire and/or promote based on the how and what, we should not be surprised, frustrated or annoyed when those individuals we’ve chosen come up short or veer off course. As firefighters, fire officers and leaders, we should not expect or demand that others accept or buy into our why. It’s those who choose freely, who become motivated and inspired by the power of the why, who will ultimately achieve satisfaction and success while serving their role in the fire service. 

We’ve long said that this profession is not for everyone, yet the lights, sirens and adrenaline rush that accompany every response will continue to attract the masses. It’s up to us to establish the process(es) that allow us to sort through the masses and find those who truly have a heartfelt understanding of the power of WHY.