For my final event, I watched a Ted talk entitled “What it takes to be a great leader” by Roselinde Torres, a senior partner and managing director at “Big 3” consulting firm BCG. Torres first addresses the common “Big Man” theory of leadership, which – despite being outdated – still pervades in our society. In order to evaluate how effective current leadership development programs in major companies are today, Torres conducted a survey of 4,000 companies and asked them about the effectiveness of their leadership development programs. Of those 4,000 companies, 58% of them reported “significant talent gaps for critical leadership goals”. Despite all of the measures these companies have taken, they still have not updated their leadership programs effectively to meet the needs of modern companies. 

In order to understand the widening leadership gap despite enormous investment in leadership programs, Torres took time off of her job to travel around the world, meet leaders from all parts of the globe, and study this issue in depth. From these experiences, Torres believes she has found exactly what differentiates effective leaders from ineffective ones. She believes effective leadership in the 21st century is defined by three questions: Where are you looking to anticipate change?, What is the diversity of your network?, and Are you courageous enough to abandon the past? These three questions highlight the importance of being willing to adapt your thinking to your specific context, being able to expand your thinking to understand the perspectives of the people around you, and being able to anticipate challenges ahead instead of simply reacting to them. Being an effective modern leader requires us to push ourselves outside of the boundaries of past leadership ideals and be able to think flexibly and creatively.

https://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader/transcript?language=en