February 2026 Chair’s Column: Start with Why

By: Jessi Fierro, Chair, CLA Board of Representatives

I review a LOT of leadership books. I want to be a better leader in my professional and volunteer roles, and I want to help others in these realms improve their leadership skills.

Ultimately, though, I do not truly like most of the leadership books I read!  Many of them are trite and obvious, or they overstretch a decent sentence of advice into a chapter or more. Some are unnecessarily and uncompellingly autobiographical. Some are wildly unrealistic or privileged. A few are surprisingly technical or scientific (I usually like that sort of thing, but not in leadership books, it seems).

I know I’m demanding when I’m seeking a balance of practical, insightful, and relatable without too much self-indulgence. I want books that help me better understand the good AND bad leaders I’ve encountered over the years, and books with advice I can implement and want to implement.  When we find books like this, we use it for a CLA Grow Your Leadership Book Club meeting, where we get to connect with other CLA members and volunteers over concepts that can improve our effectiveness as leaders.

Before I first reviewed Sinom Sinek’s Start with Way: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009) and the companion Find Your Why: A Practice Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team (2017, co-authored with David Mead and Peter Docker), I quickly saw why these are considered leadership classics. They (especially Find Your Why) are not only convincing in terms of the utility of a Why statement, but also provide straight-forward steps for drafting and refining your Why statement.

Why why? It can give us clarity. Sinek provides compelling examples where those with a good Why are more effective in their goals and decision making, and better able to inspire and build trust with those around them.

How? Your Why should be simple and clear, actionable, focused on the effect you’ll have on others,  expressed in affirmative language that resonates with you, and one sentence long. It is everlasting and relevant in both your personal and professional life. Sinek suggests that crafting a good Why probably takes more than six minutes and less than six hours. The book provides a process for finding your themes, digging deeper, refining, doing group work, and sharing.

You could stop there, if you’ve gotten what you needed, but I like how the book continues to discuss “nested whys,” where an organization can have an overall Why, then divisions or teams have their own Why, and then individuals have their own Why. Hopefully these Whys complement each other, but they certainly need not be identical. I’ve thought a lot about about how this pertains to groups I participate in here at CLA, in my legal office, and beyond.

All this is to say, I believe these books are worth a read for all of our CLA members and volunteers! If you only have time for one, I recommend Find Your Why. I’m told the audio books are good, too.  I hope you’ll consider joining us for our Grow Your Leadership Book Club discussion on March 17, 2026, at noon, even if you do not finish either book, as the contents can be a catalyst for conversation and connection. We’ll talk about drafting and refining our “Why statement,” which prompts in the book were most helpful or challenging, where we need Why (work? Volunteer efforts? Other areas?), and more.  See you there! Learn more and register today.

Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first and open a path for others to follow.

– Simon Sinek, Find Your Why, p. 32