TED Talks: Leaderships "Missing Manual"

Fields Wicker-Miurin is a social entrepreneur striving to improve the impact and quality of leadership worldwide. She believes that by finding unique leaders in their local setting, and connecting them with one another, we can improve the quality of lives on a global level. She is co-founder of a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and multi-generational organization called Leaders’ Quest. During her talk at the TEDSalon London 2009, she shared the stories of three unique leaders from around the world. She discusses the impact and the legacy of their actions, and how they serve as examples to build future leaders for the world.

 “They show what is possible when you change the way you look at the world; change the way you look at your place in the world. They looked outside and they changed what was on the inside…they have drive, passion, commitment. They’ve gone from something they did before to something they didn’t know. They’ve tried to connect worlds they didn’t know existed before. They have built bridges and walked across them. They have a sense of the great arc of time and their tiny place in it. They know people have come before them, and will come after them. They know that they are part of a whole. They depend on other people. It’s not about them, they know that, but it has to start with them.”

Leadership is not something we are born into. It is not a trait reserved for a select few. It is something we choose. It is a decision to use our talents, our passions and our dreams to better the world around us.  Simon Sinek states in a separate TED talk that the most effective leaders are not always the individuals with the most resources, but the ones who work “from the inside out; the ones who start with ‘why’”.  Individuals like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr, and the Wright Brothers started with their passion, their convictions, and from that they were able to inspire others to stand up and become leaders as well. So are we as nurses, or nursing students, using our passions to become a leader and start a change?