How great leaders inspire action
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Simon Sinek |
TEDxPuget Sound
• September 2009
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers ...
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers ...
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPuget Sound, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
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Simon Sinek explores how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change. He's the author of the classic "Start With Why."
Viktor E. Frankl | Beacon Press, 2006 | Book
This is essential reading for anyone interested in the topic of purpose. Because Frankl’s personal experience was so extreme, the lessons are that much more stark. And, most importantly, his lessons are universally applicable to all our lives.
L. David Marquet | Portfolio Hardcover, 2013 | Book
So many leadership books are either theoretical (written by people who study it but don’t do it) or by people who look back and try to explain how they did it. Though both valuable, most leadership books are also very hard to implement as prescribed. That’s what makes Marquet’s book is so remarkable. A submarine commander, he used to obey traditional models of leadership … until they failed him. Unable to change any variables (people, technology or equipment), the only thing left for him to change in order to achieve success was how he acted as a leader. Based on real life events, Marquet presents his ideas in a superbly practical way — perfect for implementing.
Jared Diamond | W. W. Norton & Company, 2005 | Book
I’m a fan of books that challenge our assumptions, and Diamond offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world. Learning to challenge existing assumptions is core to effective leadership for it trains us to keep an open mind.
Gavin Menzies | William Morrow Paperbacks, 2008 | Book
This is another book that trains us to keep an open mind. It offers a theory of how the Chinese discovered America 70 years before Columbus. The practice of being open to new ways of seeing things makes a leader open to the ideas of others — an essential characteristic of great leadership.
Universal Pictures UK, 2011 | Watch
I cry every time I watch this documentary by Asif Kapadia. It is the most remarkable illustration of what it means to do something for the love of it. It draws a stark contrast between someone who does something for the passion versus someone who does something for the numbers.
Lorber Films, 2013 | Watch
Though not intended to be a documentary about leadership, Vikram Gandhi’s exploration as to why we look for gurus to follow is a perfect metaphor for true leadership. Namely, when those we choose to follow encourage us to find our own strength.
Susan Cain | Broadway Books, 2013 | Book
Leaders needn’t be the loudest. Leadership is not about theater. It’s not about dominance. It is about putting the lives of others before any other priority. In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead. Simply being ourselves is more important — and more effective.
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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPuget Sound, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.