Whether you own a small business or run a multinational corporation, leadership is a talent that must be nurtured and developed. The vision and success of the business depend on strong leadership. To learn more about leadership, entrepreneurs and organizational leaders can learn from these five TED talks on leadership. Offered by experts in the field, they provide an innovative insight into what it takes to be a leader in the modern world.
1. What It Takes to Be a Great Leader
Roselinde Torres spent 25 years watching the best leaders in action. After years of experience, she has learned the exact questions that executives must ask in order for the business to thrive. In this TED talk, she discusses the three questions that leaders must ask if they plan on succeeding.
2. Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe
While researchers have studied what makes a great leader, there is an unknown factor of charisma and security that helps good leaders thrive. Simon Sinek is a management theorist who has studied the ways that employers can boost their leadership skills. He argues that the role of a leader is to create a circle of trust and make employees feel secure. Beginning with the question “why?”, leaders should focus on improving the trust and security felt by their employees. Throughout the TED talk, he uses examples like Apple and Martin Luther King Jr. to demonstrate his argument.
3. Listen, Learn . . . Then Lead
Stanley McChrystal is a four-star general, and he has worked under a variety of leaders throughout his career. As a leader in the military, his main goal is to foster a sense of shared purpose among his subordinates. McChrystal believes that the best way to create a shared goal is to listen and learn from others. With years of experience in the military, McChrystal’s TED talk is an interesting view on how diverse groups can be united around a common cause.
4. Everyday Leadership
Currently, Drew Dudley is the University of Toronto’s leadership development coordinator. In addition, he is the founder of Nuance Leadership Development Services. His TED talk focuses on the idea of “lollipop moments”. According to Dudley, a lollipop moment is a time when an individual makes someone else’s life better. As a leader, he believes that entrepreneurs and executives should strive for more of these feel-good moments.
5. Why It’s Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work
Over her career, Margaret Heffernan has been the CEO of five different companies. She has seen a tendency in the business world to focus on top performers and star players instead of every employee. Heffernan calls this type of thinking the “superchicken model”. Rather than place focus on just the star players, she advocates for employers to nurture and encourage every employee. Through an open, accepting workplace, leaders can encourage all of their employees to develop new ideas and concepts that help the business.
There are very few natural leaders. Most great leaders spent years working with the people around them, learning new skills and making mistakes before they became the leaders of large companies. Through these TED talks, individuals around the world can learn the skills of leadership and the latest research on the field.
