Charlie Bailes

I like to inspire others to get get what they truly want.

My Top 5 Talks on Leadership

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My Top 5 YouTube Lectures on Leadership

The amount of free content on the internet is absolutely staggering. If one wanted to learn pretty much anything at whatever speed desired, it can happen. Pretty easily actually. All you have to do is ask any search engine for the best information, and boom, you get it. YouTube in particular is quite possibly the most amazing resource every invented.

I show these 5 talks below to the Leadership class I teach at Rollins, and it amazes me that semester after semester, these 19-22 year old’s have never heard of the amazing leaders mentioned below. Nor have they ever heard of the concepts taught in the talks. Baffles me. What exactly are kids learning in school? This is the reason I don’t use a textbook in my class and often tell the students about the free university called YouTube.

Here are 5 of my favorite TED Talks on Leadership:

  1. “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” by Simon Sinek.
    • Simon Sinek explores the concept of the “Golden Circle” and emphasizes the importance of leaders starting with “why” to inspire and motivate their teams. His talk focuses on creating a sense of purpose that drives action and commitment.
  2. University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address given by Admiral William H. McRaven
    • Admiral McRaven might be famous for his now well know rule #1 – “If you want to change the world, first make your bed.” I love this. To me it means that before you go focusing on changing the world, make sure you have your own world in line and invest in yourself. Set yourself up for success by winning the day by making your bed first thing. Then go conquer the world. He also has many more wonderful pieces of advice.
  3. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Lee Duckworth
    • Angela has figured out why some people succeed while other fail, and it is not that complicated actually. Said in one word – grit. Said differently, I define grit as the ability to not give up, to keep trying, to not accept failure or no, to do the the things that nobody else wants to do to, to keep moving forward.
  4. This Is Why You’re Not Happy by Matthew McConaughey
    • I have always had a man crush on McConaughey. After stumbling upon this video years ago, my crush went through the roof. Amazing advice in this talk!
  5. The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
    • This 20 minute TED talk is incredible and changed the way I look at leadership forever. I grew up in the generation where leaders were trained to be stoic, never showed emotion and always be faithfully strong. Kind of the hard ass mentality. Brene shatters this image and holy cow has it helped me become a much better leader. I would still describe myself as a hard ass per se, but a vulnerable, genuine hard ass how about ?

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