From business, to social groups – a great leader is essential for success, be it on a daily basis as a result of motivation to success in tasks or competitions. If you are a leader it is imperative that you strive to be great and embrace methods and tips from other leaders.
Ted Talks, regularly chaired by some of the greatest leaders in the business world, give incredible insights into their methods of leading and also look at research over time.
Here are some informative Ted Talks that will give you all of the education you need to become a better leader.
Roselinde Torres: What it takes to be a great leader
Torres quit her job to travel the world for 12 months in order to discover how it takes to make a great leader. Her research was cross- country, cross-culture, worldwide spanning companies from fortune 500’s to non-profits organisations.
She found the characteristics of thriving leaders in a 21st century could not be developed by relying on the traditional development processes most organisations have and they in fact, they will stunt grow and create a false positive sense of self.
According to Torres, ‘’great leaders see around corners, shaping the future not simply reacting to it.’’
Great leaders develop and embrace relationships with those that are very different from them, connecting and trusting each other through a shared goal or purpose. Great leaders know that a diverse network means they are challenged to think differently, enabling them to grow.
Torres feels it’s about daring to be different, taking risks while having the emotional stamina to withstand negative criticism and doubters.
Simon Sinek: Why good leaders make you feel safe
Simon Sinek believes, based on military ethic, that good leaders make you feel safe. Leaders set the tone, putting their people first, and as a bi product, their people put them first and when this is the method, remarkable things happen!
Employees, who don’t feel safe and trust their leaders, fear them and so behave with fear rather than confidence, which weakens the organisation.
“Leadership is a choice not a rank” – Simon Sinek
A leader is someone who chooses to look after the person to the left of them and the right of them, meaning their people feel safe and so morale goes up. As a result, the people will work together tirelessly to do the best for the organisation because they believe in their leader, making an organisation more productive and profitable.
Vishen Lakhiani: Creating the world's greatest workplace
Vishen Lakhiani created MindValley with the purpose of creating the World's Greatest Workplace. In 2021, he was invited to Ted Talks to discuss how he ade this idea become a reality. He admitted he took huge inspiration from a conversation he had with Richard Branson. As a leader in the entrepreneurial space, he asked Richard what is one thing that he would attribute to his success. In short, he told Vishen you must "make their (your employees) work a mission".
Vishen took this a ran with it, and now as a leader in the personal growth and development space, he found one of the keys to leading his company was to create a happy and enjoyable work culture. How he describes doing this was "when you blur the lines between work and play, people will come up with ways to make their work culture productive".
Leaders give their teams the freedom to create their own paths towards success. They provide the guidance and tools, but allow others to run with them.
Stanley Mc Chrystal: Listen, learn … then lead
Leaders can let you fail and not let you be a failure.
Coming from a military background, Stanley Mc Chrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades of experience and how leading people virtually has changed the way in which leaders must build trust and sense of shared purpose amongst their teams.
Often leaders are dealing with differences in ages, cultural language differences and virtual media differences and so they must establish the shared sense of purpose to be credible and lead.
Great leaders, listen, learn and then act, leading the way. According to Mc Chrystal, a leader isn’t good because they are right, they’re good because they are willing to learn. It isn’t easy being a leader… but if you really are a leader, the people you count on, will lift you up.”
Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership
“We have made leadership something bigger than us…as if it’s something that one day we are going to deserve”
Dudley believes that leadership is the small day to day acts we carry out improving each other’s lives. He feels leadership should be amount the moments we change each other’s lives, the “lollipop” moments. He feels leadership is not in fact about changing the world, there is no “world” but rather 6 billion understandings of it, then changing each other’s lives and understanding changes the world.
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
Under Sinek’s definition theory, the gold circle, the great leaders and businesses of time all think and act the same way. He believes that people do not buy what you do but why you do it and uses Apple’s marketing ideas as example.
The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe and that in fact, it comes down to biology. If you don’t know why it is you do what you do how will people ever vote for you, follow you or but from you, what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.
How can you think more like a leader?
We meet great leaders very often within the recruitment industry who each offer a variety of skills and abilities. Many allocate their skillset to how they have shaped their mindset around what they view as possible and lead from there. Next Generation has partnered with MindValley to connect people to online programmes that have helped thousands of people achieve this mindset.
One of the most valuable courses we've seen both employees and employers benefit from is "Be Extraordinary", run by the founder of MindValley, Vishen Lakhiani.
Vishen is considered one of the industry leaders in the personal development space having spent 15 years reimagining the human experience and exploring the science of helping people reach their fullest potential.
How can 'Be Extraorinary' help you become a leader?
This masterclass helps you discover how to access higher states of consciousness and make the impossible, possible. Knowing that over 1.2 million students have successfully enrolled, we're confident you can apply your learnings to become a leader in your own right.
MindValley is offering a FREE Masterclass if you are interested in learning more.
