E0040 - The leadership game - creating cultures of leadership (S0002)

For better or for worse, the things that we are driven to do every day are the things that make us feel good.

For instance, I spent most of my life overweight because food made me feel good in a way that few other things did, and as such, I made sure that food was a big part of every day of my life.

If we can find a way to make the experience of leadership into something that brings people positive feelings, I think more people will make it a fundamental part of their everyday life.

It will become something they do without thinking – in other words, they’ll create a “culture of leadership” in their lives.

As people begin to change the culture of their personal lives, we’ll see a shift in the culture of our communities.

The challenge is, how do we do that? Most people see leadership as hard, intimidating work.

My approach was to turn the creation of leadership into a “game” that can be played every day. A game where each one of us makes our own rules, and a clear path to what it takes to “win” each day. And let’s face it: winning is fun!

My presentation aims to help people reimagine what leadership means, and layout a plan we can teach people of all ages to make sure they create and celebrate leadership on a daily basis.

Drew Dudley is the former National Chair of Canada’s largest fundraiser for postsecondary students, Shinerama: Students Fighting Cystic Fibrosis.

After serving as the Director of one of Canada’s largest university leadership development programs, he founded Nuance Leadership in 2010, and works with organizations around the world to empower people to develop their leadership capacity.

He has spoken to over 100,000 people on 5 continents and appeared on The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and the main page of TED.com.