Inspiring more women to reach the top of their professions and celebrating everyday positive leadership are the topics in our latest blog entry, which reviews the uplifting TED Talks series
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders
3,003,000 views
Of the 190 heads of state across the world today, nine are women. Of all the people in parliament in the world, 13% are women. In the not-for-profit sector, of those at the top, 20% are women. Although we appear to live in enlightened times, the old truths about women struggling to secure positions of leadership are once again raising their heads in new research.
It is clear we need more women leaders. A lot more. The world would be a better, safer place for it. One key barrier to women making real headway in positions of power is in the perceptions between male and female leaders. Success and likeableness are positively correlated for men and negatively for women. Hope for change of the leadership status quo lies to some extent in the awareness of this fundamental inequality. Plant the seeds of this awareness now and secure a greatly increased female leadership in the future. Then perhaps we can finally change the broken record of a male leader-dominated world.
Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership
1,094,000 views
The ‘lollipop moment’: an invitation to see how you can change someone’s life through simple actions and a catalyst for a new kind of leadership. Dudley is electric in his belief in our collective ability to change the world through the ordinary actions of ‘ordinary’ people. All too rarely do we tell each other when a seemingly mundane act changes the direction of our life. Beneath the often unattainable leadership of politicians, musicians, film-makers etc, there is another, no less powerful, everyday leadership we are all a part of and can all achieve.
As long as we keep making leadership about big actions changing the world in big ways, the world will never truly change. Start small, local, personal. Know that you have power beyond measure in your ordinary, everyday actions. For the lollipop moment: watch this inspiring talk.