Image Credits: TED

We can all work to become better leaders, even if we aren’t currently CEOs and presidents of major corporations. Whether you’re student council president, leading a campus club, the leader of your household, or on a career path that involves leadership opportunities, you can benefit from thinking critically about leadership–how to do it well, how to learn from what you don’t do well, and how to build new leaders.

I love learning from Ted Talks because they’re short, visual AND aural, and they cover such a range of topics you can always find something that fits your interests. Luckily, there are a LOT of Ted Talks on leadership because good leaders are good presenters and love talking about leadership with others.

Here are five Ted Talks on leadership I highly recommend.

How to break bad management habits before they reach the next generation of leaders 

So you want to climb the ladder? This talk by a leadership expert talks about breaking rules to rise and giving lower-level leaders the opportunity to rise and become great leaders. It’s pretty short, just twelve minutes, but packs a punch. Be ready to take notes!

What I learned from giving up everything I knew as a leader 

Giving up power is terrifying, right? What about getting rid of all the rules you’ve ever known? This Ted Talk focuses on a career shift that really shook a CEO and taught him a lot about leadership he didn’t even know he needed to learn.

How to turn a group of strangers into a team 

As someone with a strong personality, I’ve always been wary of teams. It’s hard to coalesce a group of people into a functioning team, especially when you’re not the one compiling them. Set against the backdrop of the Chilean miner rescue, this is a fascinating Ted Talk on leadership in and out of the office.

How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, love hard 

Leadership isn’t all about board rooms and powerpoint presentations. This Ted Talk by a school principle is enlightening. It’s about passion, and seeing the need and the way to fix a problem. This Ted Talk is seventeen minutes of pure fire that will get you fired up to make a difference.

Why we have too few women leaders 

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg’s classic Ted Talk made her a talking point in the career world, but she makes some great points about how females have been conditioned to act in business settings and gives insight into what we can do to have more female leaders.

Aryssa D
FFL Cabinet Member