If you’ve read even a few of my writings (books, blogs, newsletters) you know I’m really big on storytelling. The truth is, our brains are wired for stories. Science is now proving what life experience has always shown: we feel before we think. It’s stories that attract us, stories that help us learn the most, stories that get us to buy, or click, or act.
Meet Nimisha Ladva.
I’d like you meet Master Shredder Emma. Emma is a 21 year old woman in Australia who has Down Syndrome, autism, and hearing loss, and can neither read nor write. And yet, with some guidance from her mother, she has a very satisfying career and is interacting happily with members of the community. This has not only enriched her life, but theirs as well.
I stumbled across this keynote speech today. It was delivered by Kristen Pressner, VP, Head of HR Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin American for Roche Diagnostics. In this speech I am struck by her honest, educational, and inspiring stories that mirror the feelings and emotions of many women leaders that I have talked with.
This week I had fun listening to Nigel Marsh’s talk How to Make Work-life Balance Work. Nigel is an author of Fat, Forty, and Fired and Overworked and Underlaid. He talks about the cliche “work-life” balance and how we can actually make that happen.
This week I watched the talk by Dan Gilbert called The Surprising Science of Happiness. I learned that the happiness was not what people usually think it was. Dan explains that when people don’t get what they want, we make up our own “synthetic” kind of happiness.
This week I listened to the talk, Why work doesn’t happen at work by Jason Fried. This is my public speaking analysis focusing on how to make an argument stronger in speeches.
Jason discusses why people don’t seem to get work done at the office. Jason asserts that people tend to be able to work late at night or early in the morning or on the weekends…when they have uninterrupted time.
Although talking about death is generally considered taboo, this TED talk from Candy Chang, titled, Before I Die, I Want To… was an inspiration. She explained the powerful way that death clarifies life and through her art, she wanted to bring that same clarity to her local community.
I recently read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, so I went back to re-watch her 2010 TED talk called, Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders. In this talk she talks about why, despite our pride of the increased number of women leaders, we don’t have nearly enough females who are taking the lead in almost any field. She also offers some advice to remedy this situation.
This week, I watched the TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action by Simon Sinek. He is the author of Start With Why. The message of his talk aligns exactly with the title of his book. He asserts that successful companies not only understand why they do what they do, but also they successfully communicate that why to both customers and prospects.
Here’s a great example of how to use humor when a presentation disaster occurs. Notice he stays calm, cool, and continues on…
