1) Elizabeth Gilbert – Your Elusive Creative Genius
Elizabeth Gilbert is an American writer, best known for her 2006 best-selling memoir, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. People associate creative works with mental health issues and a fear that their work won’t be good enough, or not as good as their past work. Indeed, a lot of writers in the 20th century have committed suicide or suffered depression. After the massive success of her book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, Elizabeth believed that her greatest work was now behind her, a very scary thought. She looked at how to construct barriers between her work and this anxiety about how it will be received.
2) How great leaders inspire action: Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.
3) Amy Cuddy: Body Language
There has been a lot of research into how others perceive our body language, and the importance of sending the right message. However, Amy Cuddy delves into how we are influenced by our own body language — and how a few strategic power poses can make a world of difference in our self-confidence and stress levels.
4) How to speak so that people want to listen: Julian Treasure
Have you ever felt like you’re talking, but nobody is listening? Here’s Julian Treasure to help you fix that. As the sound expert demonstrates some useful vocal exercises and shares tips on how to speak with empathy, he offers his vision for a sonorous world of listening and understanding.
5) Dan Gilbert: The Surprising Science of Happiness
When people talk about happiness, it’s often referred to as a search—a quest to find something so elusive and out of reach, that there are now a bottomless pit of ideas on how to acquire it. But shockingly, it could be our power to choose from thousands of great experiences in life that actually keeps us from being happy. In this TED Talk, psychologist Dan Gilbert breaks down happiness into its two most basic components—the happiness we stumble upon and the happiness we create—to reveal a shocking truth.
6) This is what happens when you reply to spam email: James Veitch
Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as writer and comedian James Veitch narrates a hilarious, months-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.
7) Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
Brené Brown is a shoot-from-the-hip Texan, who also happens to be a shame and vulnerability expert. Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathise, belong, love. In this poignant, funny talk that has been viewed over 6 million times, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity.
8) The Puzzle of motivation: Dan Pink
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.
9) Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness & Spaghetti Sauce
It just wouldn’t be an inspiring talks list without author Malcolm Gladwell on it. In this TED Talk, Gladwell explores the story of the man who refused to believe in a ‘perfect’ spaghetti sauce, and how his research impacts our broader understanding of choice and happiness. While the talk centres on the food industry, the larger discoveries about human behaviour are poignantly relevant for leaders who want to build workplaces where people are happy and fulfilled.
10) Sam Berns: Philosophy For A Happy Life
Here’s one of the most inspiring TED Talks you will ever have the pleasure to watch. It is the fascinating legacy of a boy who was one for the ages. Seventeen-year-old Sam became the spokesman for a genetic condition called Progeria, also known as the aptly named ‘aging disease’. Sam refused to allow his disease to define him and worked to overcome limitations others said he never would. He lived the life he chose to and didn’t focus on his illness and what made him different, but rather his dreams and what made him happy.
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