If you’re striving for business and personal success, check out these ten must-watch TED Talks curated by our team. They’ll provide you with insights and strategies that can help you become a better professional – and a better human, too. If you’re in the mood for even more inspiration, check out these 10 Twitter accounts that will for sure make you smarter.
1. How Diversity Makes Teams More Innovative – Rocio Lorenzo
Is your team diverse enough to be innovative? Lorenzo turns to data to show how and why your team can produce more creative ideas by viewing diversity as a competitive advantage instead of a company-wide quota.
2. Programming Your Mind For Success – Carrie Green
Carrie Green, the founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association, realized she needed to push back her negative thoughts when going after a specific goal. Best way to do it: program your mind to it. in this talk packed with practical tips and inspiration, Carrie answers all the questions that entrepreneurs struggle with, and covers topics such as how to deal with self-doubt and move past frustrations and overwhelm; how to train your brain to focus on what you do want, and how to overcome the biggest hurdles that stand in people’s way of achieving their dreams.
3. The Danger of a Single Story – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
4. Why Do Ambitious Women Flat Heads? – Dame Stephanie Shirley (UK)
A hugely successful tech entrepreneur, Stephanie Shirley founded an all-women software company in the 1960s. It was ultimately valued at $3 billion, making her 70 team members into millionaires. In this inspiring and amusing talk, she explains how she upended gender expectations and shares her thoughts on identifying ambitious women.
5. Do Schools Kill Creativity? – Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence, creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
6. Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are – Amy Cuddy
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success.
7. Want to Help Someone? Shut Up and Listen! – Ernesto Sirolli
The title says it all. Sustainable economic development expert Ernesto Sirolli highlights an all-too-familiar situation: When you don’t realize there’s a problem because you never thought to ask. Sirolli explains how to listen to the people you’re trying to help — take this lesson and apply it the next time you’re on a sales call with a prospect.
8. The Big Lie of Small Business – Vusi Thembekwayo (South Africa)
A very inspiring speaker – if you can keep up with the speed that he talks! Thembekwayo is high energy, to say the least. He argues that small business models are a waste of time, you need to start thinking in a ‘big business’ frame of mind from the outset. This means developing a radically new form of thinking, and understanding the lifecycle and ecosystem of entrepreneurship in places like South Africa.
9. A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success – Alain de Botton
Psychologist and author Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.
10. Lead Like The Great Conductors – Itay Talgam (Israel)
As both a musical conductor and business consultant, Itay Talgam brings a unique perspective to the study of management and leadership. He refers to the different styles of 20th-century musical conductors, using their techniques to teach us lessons about team collaboration and leadership. He believes that creating a great company requires many of the same skills as conducting a beautiful symphony; like listening, reacting, and empowering others.
