Effective leadership is one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Properly motivating your team is only one part of effective leadership. Thankfully, you have resources that you can use to be a better leader. Read on to learn about 15 inspiring leadership videos and what you can take away from them.
1. Supporting Your Team Is Part of Leadership
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP9jpxitfb4
This video by Simon Sinek discusses the Navy SEALs and who make it through the rigorous process to become a Navy SEAL. It also discusses who doesn't make it through this process. Sinek notes that a Navy SEAL instructor told him that the most important quality for a Navy SEAL is the willingness to help the person next to them. Navy SEALs are a team of elite soldiers and every soldier has to support each other.
From a leadership perspective, we can take away the lesson that part of leadership is supporting your team. You have to lead and guide them, but you also have to support them along the way. Doing so makes you a better leader and allows you to build a stronger team.
2. Leadership Happens Daily
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG69mNpafbo
Another essential characteristic for a leader to have is authenticity. Leaders have to be authentically committed to leading as well as they can each day. Part of that is understanding that leadership is a process. As this video states, leadership is not done in a day. It is important to recognize that leadership is done on a daily basis, born out of an authentic commitment to the responsibilities and opportunities of being a leader. This important lesson is why this video by VITAL WorkLife is one of the more inspiring videos about leaders.
3. Leaders Have to Make Difficult Choices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xca0RdAygWs
This video from Minute Motivation provides a number of insights about being a leader. One of my favorite insights from this video is pointing out that leaders have the courage to make difficult decisions. Leaders must make difficult choices from time to time and doing so is not easy. However, if a leader can make those difficult decisions, it inspires confidence and courage in the entire team.
Another insight about leadership from this video that I liked was that leaders provide their team members with hope. Leaders give their team members the hope that they can do more, be more, and become more, as the video says. If a team has hope that they can continue to improve and achieve more, then they will be even more effective than they would be otherwise. One hallmark of a good leader is the ability to inspire hope in the team that they lead.
4. A Leader Must Also Be a Caretaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSUJwmPQEyg
This is one of the more inspiring videos about leaders from Generate Insights featuring Simon Sinek because it clarifies that one role that a leader must perform is that of a caretaker. Leadership is about more than guidance or direction. A good leader takes care of those people who are on their team, as well. This means talking to each member of the team and making sure that their needs are met. It can also mean that you listen to their concerns and address them properly.
If team members feel that a leader cares about taking care of them well, then they will have a better relationship with the leader. As a result, the team can function efficiently without worrying about whether or not its leader really cares about the people on that team. That devotion to taking care of team members is part of what separates good leaders from leaders that are just adequate.
5. A Good Leader Knows How to Provide Constructive Feedback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqPWa6rvdmM
One skill that all good leaders have is the ability to provide constructive feedback, as this PBS video points out. Doing so can be challenging, but it is vital to maintain the morale and effectiveness of your team. A leader has to be able to provide constructive feedback so that team members know that the feedback is intended to help them. If team members understand this, then they are much more willing to accept that feedback and learn from it.
Leaders have to keep in mind that there are several perspectives on a single issue or topic. Good leaders provide feedback with this in mind, offering their own perspectives while acknowledging the validity of differing perspectives. As a result, team members feel that their perspective is valued and that the leader is not acting as if only one perspective can be correct or useful. Many inspring videos about leadership discuss the importance of the leader acknowledging the value of multiple perspectives, including the video linked above. That openness to multiple perspectives helps the leader build a stronger team.
6. Good Leaders Trust Their Team Members to Do Their Part
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg
You have probably worked for or with a leader who wants to micromanage the team. This leader wants to be involved in every part of the process and may not entirely trust team members to do their part. This is one of the signs of a leader who lacks confidence in the team members and feels that things will not get done without their involvement.
However, good leaders are able to trust their team members to do their part, as stated in the video by Ragni. Good leaders do not micromanage the team and instead only provide guidance and assistance when necessary. As a result, a team with a good leader will work under less stress and will be more productive because of a lack of interference from the leader.
7. Leaders Do Not Fear Failure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI
Another characteristic that competent leaders have is that they do not fear failure. Naturally, with any sort of venture, there is a risk of failure. However, competent leaders accept that risk and move forward anyway. This lesson is what makes this video one of the most inspirational leadership videos you can find.
You cannot succeed in anything if you do not try, as Jobs states in this video from the Silicon Valley Historical Society. A good leader understands that well. Of course, a good leader will try to decrease the risk of failure as much as possible by acting sensibly. However, a competent leader will not let the fear of failure prevent them from attempting to accomplish something.
8. Introverts Can Be Competent Leaders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozSjZ6iRKSA
You might associate leadership with being extroverted. Quite a lot of people do exactly that. However, introverts can be excellent leaders, as well. It is important to understand that being socially awkward doesn't make you an introvert. The main difference between an extrovert and an introvert, as the Simon Sinek video states, is that social interaction energizes extroverts but drains introverts.
Introverts have a certain amount of energy they can devote to social interaction each day, but extroverts gain energy from social interaction. In terms of leadership, introverts can be great leaders as long as they spend their energy on the most important and productive social interactions each day. Being extroverted is not a requirement for being a leader.
9. Servant Leadership Is Part of Competent Leadership
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZHSa4Qhd4
Good leaders practice servant leadership on a daily basis. Simply put, servant leadership means that you help guide and lead your team from a position of compassion. You praise team members when they're doing well and you help them get back on track when they are struggling. It is essential to make sure that team members know you want to help them and not punish them when they struggle. This is the main lesson you can take from this London Business Forum video, which is one of the best inspring videos about leadership.
10. Good Leaders Act Without Ego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQrPVmcgJJk
One of the biggest obstacles to effective and compassionate leadership is the ego, as this TEDx Talks video makes clear. If you act based on your ego, you cannot be a good leader. You have to put your ego aside and put your team members first ahead of yourself in order to be a good leader. Being selfless allows you to be more decisive and effective since you can evaluate situations clearly without the influence of your ego.
11. Excellent Leaders Inspire Their Team Members to Action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
Good leaders also have to be able to inspire their team members to action. According to the TEDx Talks video, good leaders do this by using the golden circle. The golden circle contains three rings that include the words why, how, and what. The word why is in the innermost ring because it is the most important part of the process. Good leaders inspire others to action by explaining why that action is necessary and beneficial.
12. Effective Leaders Are Confident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HYZv6HzAs
As previously discussed, good leaders lead without ego. However, ego and confidence are not the same. Ego means that you are overly confident and self-focused. Confidence means that you trust in your abilities and you focus on the needs of others. This is what we learn from this TEDx Talks video. Good leaders are confident about what they can do, which motivates their team members to be confident and act decisively, as well.
13. Top-Notch Leaders Don't Take Things Personally
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnJwH_PZXnM
The best leaders also understand that it is best not to take things personally. In this video from TEDx Talks, Frederik Imbo comments that he became a soccer referee in order to learn how not to take things personally. Leaders have to do the same. A leader must understand the motivation behind a person's words or actions and interpret them appropriately. A leader must also show compassion and openness when responding to these words or actions, so everyone knows it is safe to express themselves around this leader.
14. Leaders Accept that Life is Unfair Sometimes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t01org0fOf4
We would all prefer it if life was always fair, but the simple fact is that it isn't, as this TEDx Talks video, like many other inspiring leadership videos, points out. A good leader accepts life's unfairness and moves forward to achieve their goals and ambitions. You can find inspiration in accepting this unfairness because doing so means you can live with much less resentment and anger. A good leader pushes past life's unfairness in order to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
15. Leaders Know When to Let Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirKw3mWB3I
A great leader also knows when it is best to let go. Letting go of resentment and grudges can allow you to focus on your goals, work more effectively, and treasure your relationships. A great leader lets go of any sort of negativity that can hold them back and keeps moving forward. As a result of this, team members can learn from this example and start letting go of negativity themselves. Team members will enjoy the same benefits of doing so as leaders and may even find that they can improve who they are as a person by doing so. This video from TEDx Talks discusses letting go of a relationship, but the lessons in it can be applied to letting go of negativity in a leadership position as well.
