Hello librarians.  Thank you for joining me. Today’s episode is short but essential.  It hits at the heart of what you do.

Today, I’m going to talk about the why of what you do and why that why matters.

You can find today’s show notes at masterfullibrarian.com/ep3.

When I ask why you become a librarian, I don’t mean how did you come to this profession. 

That may not be that relevant at all to why you are inspired to do the work you.

 For instance, I got my MLS only because I couldn’t find a good job with my Public Relations degree and the chance for a graduate stipend from the University of Alabama Graduate School of Library and Information Service (now SLIS) dropped in my lap.

My mother was a college library director and a graduate of the school.  The Dean happened to call her looking for graduate assistants while I was sitting in her office making a nuisance of myself. 

I applied and the rest is history. 

That’s how I got into the profession, but it certainly wasn’t why I stayed. 

When I talk about your why, I’m referring to the concept so beautifully articulated by Simon Sinek in his 2009 book “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action” and his subsequent TED talks with the same title.

If you’ve never read the book or listened to the talk, I highly recommend doing both.  You can check out his work and his message on his website at simonsinek.com.  The link is in the show notes.

One of the most powerful things Sinek says in this book is

 “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”.

He uses the example of Steve Job’s masterful marketing for Apple. Apple’s marketing strategy didn’t focus on their products, which of course were good; it focused on the company’s own why.

Sinek describes a Golden Circle needed to be successful in engaging others. 

This circle has Why a business does things at it’s core, How it does things as the next circle out from the core, and what it does or produces as the outer circle.

In his TEDx talk he describes Apple’s Golden Circle this way:

“The inner core, the Why- In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently; the next circle, the How – We make products that are beautifully designed and user friendly; and the outer circle, the What – We just happen to make great computers.  Wanna buy one? "

So when I ask about your why, I mean that thing that serves as the bedrock of your motivation and inspiration for your library work.  It’s the deep belief or beliefs that drive your ideas, decisions, programs and professional relationships.

And it’s an absolutely critical component to achieving greater relevance, meaning, and library impact. 

Your patrons, your users, will be drawn to your why much more so than your what.

In fact, I would say that librarians who struggle the most to gain support and be effective are the ones with the least compelling and service-oriented why’s. 

For complete show notes, go to  masterfullibrarian.com/ep3.