8 TED Talks Every Leader Must Watch — and 1 Critical Lesson From Each

On TikTok, #leadership has 1.8B views. Look at Instagram and find 18.8M #leadership posts. LinkedIn has 3.3M #leadership followers.

People clearly want help to become better leaders.

And all of those views, posts and followers prove there’s a desire for fast, pertinent and applicable leadership strategies — especially because managers have to lead differently today.

“The increase in hybrid working absolutely means that leaders have to rethink their leadership styles,” says Leo von Bülow-Quirk, Founder & Director at VBQ Speakers. “Leaders need to adapt accordingly.”

Enter TED Talks.

They’re one of the best sources for inspiration and strategies to adapt and move ahead. But with a library of 4,200 recorded talks — more than 250 just on “leadership” — how do you know what’s best when you need leadership advice?

Data Finds Best TED Talks

Here’s help: VBQ Speakers tallied the views under these tags: leadership, business, management and authority to find the most popular and helpful talks. And we here at ResourcefulManager pulled a gem out of each, giving you the critical lesson. (Although we still encourage you to watch each full TED Talk. They’re powerful leadership tools. Not to mention, No. 7 will have you belly laughing.)

The best thing about TED Talks: They’re only about 15 minutes, but pack a hard punch of valuable information and inspiration. You can get inspired to be a better leader, manager, parent, child, employee — or just a better person — in less time than it takes to blow dry your hair every day.

No. 1: Body Language Speaks Volumes

Critical lesson: Use the Power Pose to boost your confidence in stressful situations, credibility when you need to take charge and authority when you must persuade.

• “When you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely to be powerful.” {7:43}
• “Our bodies change our minds. And our minds change our behavior. And our behavior changes our outcomes.” {15:30}
• “Don’t fake ’til you make it. Fake it ’til you become it.” {19:18}

No. 2: Get People to Act

Critical lesson: Use the Golden Circle to get others to act: What. How. Why. Leaders usually tell employees what and how to do things, and then sometimes explain why. So you get a lackluster response. Reverse the order and tell employees why it’s important to do it before you explain what and how.

• “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” {4:20}
• “If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.” {10:44}
• “There are leaders and those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority. Those who lead inspire us. We follow those who lead not because we have to but because we want to.” {17:09}

No. 3: Speak So People Want to Listen

Critical lesson: Avoid The Seven Deadly Sins of Speaking — and you’ll be heard: Gossiping. Judging. Negativity. Complaining. Excuse-making. Exaggerating. Lying. Dogmatism. Instead, when you communicate follow the HAIL dialogue:

• Honesty. Be clear and straightforward
• Authenticity. Be yourself
• Integrity. Be true to your word, and
• Love. Wish others well.
• Try these fun, six vocal warm-up exercises. {7:39}

No. 4: Bring Out Your Best Self

Critical lesson: Limit group work. Introverts — who are creative and introspective — and extroverts need autonomy and time to work on their own to achieve Deep Thought.

• “When it comes to creativity and leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best.” {3:20}
• “Groups famously follow the opinions of the most dominant or charismatic person in the room, even though there’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” {10:18}
• “Stop the madness for constant group work. Just stop it!” {18:47}

No. 5: The 1 Thing That Determines Success

Critical lesson: Here’s the most critical factor to success: Grit. It’s the one thing the most successful students, salespeople, managers, athletes, teachers, and beyond, have in common. You can build grit with a “growth mindset” — believing failure isn’t a possibility.

• “In every study, my question in every study was, ‘Who is successful here and why?'” {1:50}
• “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out, not just for the week, not for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint. ” {2:52}
• “Talent doesn’t make you gritty … There are many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their commitments. In fact, in our data, grit is unrelated or inversely related to measures of talent.” {4:22}

No. 6: The Secret to Motivation

Critical lesson: Rewards are not always effective to motivate employees. If-Then Rewards — “If you do X, you will get Y” — work extremely well when there’s a simple set of tasks. But if the task involves thinking and creativity, rewards actually do harm to performance. The best rewards and motivators are based on giving autonomy in one’s job, mastery of the job and purpose for the work.

• “You’ve got an incentive designed to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity, and it does just the opposite. It dulls thinking and blocks creativity.” {4:12}
• “Rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus, concentrate our mind.” {6:28}
• “Autonomy, mastery and purpose: These are the building blocks to a new way of doing things.” {15:48}

No. 7: How to Create Happiness at Work

Critical lesson: Only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ. The other 75% can be predicted by your level of optimism, degree of social support and ability to see stress as a challenge, not a threat. Do any of these activities for just two minutes a day for 21 days to become more positive and effective at work: 1) Think of three things you’re thankful for. 2) Journal one positive experience. 3) Exercise. 4) Meditate. 5) Execute random acts of kindness. (Note: Achor tells one of the most delightful childhood stories you’ll ever hear!)

• “Instead of deleting you, I want to study you because maybe we can glean information of not just how to move people up to the average, but how we can move the entire average up in our companies and schools.” {5:04}
• “What we’re finding is that it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lenses to which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we change the lenses, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome there is.” {6:05}
• “By training our brains, just like we train our bodies, we found we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity — but create a real revolution.” {11:48}

No. 8: What Makes Original Thinkers

Critical lesson: Original thinkers have three things in common: 1) They’re late to the party. They actually procrastinate! 2) They’re full of doubts and fears. 3) They’re full of bad ideas. But that’s how they come to great original ideas.

• “Originals are non-conformists, people who not only have new ideas — but take action to champion them. They’re people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They’re the people you want to bet on — and they look nothing like I expected.” {1:08}
• “On the surface, a lot of original people look confident, but behind the scenes, they feel the same fear and doubt the rest of us do. They just manage it differently.” {8:50}
• “For most of us, if we want to be more original, we have to generate more ideas.” {14:02}