I have been passionately promoting TED almost since it started. It is a fantastic initiation that completely re-shaped public speaking and informative presentations by creating a very entertaining and unique formula for sharing information. In today's accelerated world it offers us full engagement in any contemporary subject in maximum 20 minutes. Speakers are carefully selected and well-prepared to meet the high standards, therefore it is a real privilege to give a TED-talk. There are thousands of great speeches in basically any topic that you could imagine, so it is not easy to choose the best ones. Still, in this series I would like to share with you a few personal favourites.
Amy Cuddy is an awesome character. She is interested in nonverbal communication and her research has pointed out that our body language not only affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. In her talk she argues that "power posing" (standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident) can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success. Although her methods are widely criticised, I can confirm that they really work! I am teaching presentation skills and leadership communication and I have advised power posing to many of my coachees. And based on their feedback, it really worked. 😊
Do you have a favourite TED-talk? I would be interested to know. We can learn from each other... 😊 Stay tuned, soon I come back with another suggestion for you.
Previous parts of this series:
Simon Sinek on leadership
Ursus Wehrli on tidying up arts
Dan Ariely on the irrationality of our "rational" decisions
Julian Treasure on listening
Tim Urban on procrastination
Nicolas Christakis on social networks