Years ago, there lived a wise and noble king. The king lived a happy life with his beautiful wife. A few years after their marriage, his wife got sick and died soon after. Unfortunately, this tragedy occurred before having children, leaving the king to rule the kingdom alone.

While devastated by the loss of his wife, the king stayed true to his commitment to rule with honor and take care of the people in his kingdom.

What your do is never as important as why you’re doing it.

The love for his wife was so strong, the king couldn’t bear the thought of ever getting married again. As the years passed, having no children of his own, the king knew the time would come where he would have to find the right man who, upon his death, would take his place as king.

Since there was no bloodline and no son who could rightfully take the king’s place, he called upon the people of the kingdom to help him find a suitable heir to the throne. The king knew there would have to be a test of some sort that would help identify the most promising candidate.

One day, while the king was taking a stroll through the countryside, he came upon a massive sinkhole. It was so large that you could fit at least two soccer fields inside of it. “I’ve got it!” exclaimed the King. “I know the test that would help me identify the next king.” And with that, he quickly returned to the castle to share his idea with his advisors.

The very next day, the king issued a decree throughout the kingdom. “Come one, come all. In three weeks’ time, those who feel worthy enough to take my place will meet in the town square to demonstrate why they should be heir to the kingdom.”

The day finally arrived. It seemed as if thousands of people had traveled for miles from every corner of the kingdom to reach the town square, each carrying the dream of being chosen as the heir to the throne.

The king took these promising candidates out to the countryside to show them what he had found. “Here is the question that, if answered correctly, will earn you the rightful place as our next king.”

Pointing to the massive hole, he simply asked, “What should I do?”

After several days and hundreds of responses later, no one had yet to come up with the right answer. Repeatedly, the king would hear the same responses.

“Fill it with rocks and dirt.” “Fill it with water.” “Build a bridge across the sinkhole.” “Build a wall around it.” “Put warning signs around the sinkhole.” “Make it a graveyard.” “Leave it be.” “Camouflage the sinkhole to protect us from our enemies.”

While some of these may be interesting ideas, none of them were the answer the king was hoping for.

The king was getting discouraged, wondering if anyone was capable of thinking and acting like a successful king.

As the number of candidates dwindled to a remaining few, it was time for one young man to answer the king’s question; a poor farm boy from the countryside who was ridiculed by those older and wiser than he for even considering the possibility of becoming king.

“So,” the king began with a disheartened and skeptical tone. “What should I do?”

The young man hesitated for a moment and then responded with, “Why do anything?”

Suddenly, the king’s disposition changed. He looked at the young man and asked with hope, “Why? When everyone else advised me what I could do with the sinkhole, why are you the only one not to advise me at all, nor tell me what I should do? Why do you come to me with only a question?”

The young man respectfully answered. “Because I cannot answer your question, my king. I don’t know your why. Until I understand not only what you want to do, but also why you want to do anything and what your intentions are, only then can I advise you to create your desired outcome, even if the proper course of action is to do nothing.”

How insightful! Instead of telling the king what he would do, this young man simply asked the king with one question, a question so simple yet so powerful and often overlooked. Why?

After all, how could this young man align and collaborate effectively with the king if he didn’t understand the king’s motivations, intentions, and the why behind his beliefs, efforts, actions, opinions, decisions, behavior, goals, or values?

“Congratulations,” exclaimed the king. “You are the next heir to the throne of our kingdom.”

The town was shocked. The elders of the town questioned the king. “Why this boy?”

To which the king replied, “I never wanted to fix anything. That was not my intention. Everyone came to me with a solution to fix what they assumed was a problem that needed fixing.

They never took the time to uncover and understand my why or my desired intentions and point of view.

This young man was the only one who was insightful enough to seek out my intention—my point of view—and uncover my why,” the king concluded.

Create the Unified Why

The key to being a great leader is understanding what your people want and expect from you and why they want it. When leading your team to a shared goal and vision, they need to understand not only what they need to do but also why they are doing it and what’s in it for them, so they can see how they personally benefit.

To set and manage people’s expectations and create alignment in thinking and action requires understanding people’s why, who they are, their values, goals and their intentions, while ensuring they are aligned with the company’s why.

This is what it takes to transform the culture and environment of any organization. What would it mean to you and to your organization if you could achieve alignment in thinking and action?

These leadership principles apply in every area of our lives.

And when leading an organization or a team, when you can discover and articulate your collective why, only then can you use this as a cornerstone to develop your team and create a shared company vision and a healthy, top-performing culture.

What you do, what you sell, and what value you provide is a byproduct. The journey to cultural greatness begins with why. Why you do what you do is the essence of who you and your company are—your values, goals, and priorities as an individual and as a unified organization.

Which brings us to the first of many self-reflective questions I’ll be asking you.

Why Are You a Leader?

It’s one of the first questions I ask when working with a team of managers. On one end of the spectrum, managers tell me, “Keith, one day my boss came to me and asked if I wanted to be a manager. And poof! Just like that, I’m a manager.”

On the other end of the spectrum, regardless of what country or company I’m in, managers in every position report that they became a leader because the following priorities and core values are important to them.

• Making an impact by being a trusted advisor.
• Developing people to help them succeed and observing them advance in a career they love.
• Achieving team goals that are bigger than the one.
• Family, contribution, life balance, integrity, patience, living in the moment.

When asked what values they compromise most due to the pressure to perform and do their job well, they listed:

• Making an impact by being a trusted advisor.
• Developing people to help them succeed and observing them advance in a career they love.
• Achieving team goals that are bigger than the one.
• Family, contribution, life balance, integrity, patience, living in the moment.

There’s a big problem. Managers are super conflicted in their role between what’s asked of them and what’s expected, while honoring who they are and their values.

New systems, processes, or technology do not transform your organization, they help manage it. That’s why you must start by transforming your people.

To create collective alignment and a shared vision and direction, you need to understand, respect, and support everyone’s why. It is the impetus to a successful cultural transformation and to opening the door to your ideal kingdom.

Here’s to becoming the king of your domain. Well, maybe not king, but definitely a world-class leader.