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Why we need introverted leaders | Angela Hucles | TEDxBend

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    I believe we all have the capacity
    to be great leaders.
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    What's important is the act
    of being a leader
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    and discovering
    our moments to lead in life.
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    Being prepared for leadership moments
    means making the choices
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    that will ultimately put you
    in a position to succeed
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    when given the opportunity.
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    Teams in sports, teams in business,
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    even family teams
    need to have strong leadership
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    to collectively reach desired outcomes.
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    Ninety-six percent of leadership positions
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    are filled with extroverted individuals
    with extroverted qualities.
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    Only 50% of the population
    actually identifies as being an extrovert.
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    That other half, the introverts,
    supply only 4% of our leaders.
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    As an introvert, who has held
    leadership positions
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    on teams that I've played for,
    as well as being
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    the President of the Women's
    Sports Foundation,
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    it seems to me that supplying
    the vast majority of our leaders
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    with only half of the population
    is a bit short-sighted.
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    Imagine a group made up
    of only extroverts.
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    (Laughter)
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    Now imagine a group
    made up of only introverts.
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    Isn't it the blend of the two
    that really creates the best space?
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    Energy, enthusiasm, excitement,
    combined with groundedness,
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    the ability to listen,
    and strength and calm.
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    Can introverts lead too?
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    Yes, we can.
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    Today, I want to tell you
    how we can create the conditions
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    to make that happen.
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    As an introvert,
    I definitely need my downtime,
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    especially after being
    around large groups.
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    I remember when I was seven years old
    and was working on a class assignment.
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    The school bell rang signaling for recess
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    which was one
    of my favorite times of the day.
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    I jumped up to go grab my coat.
    The teacher turned to me and said,
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    "Angela, you can't go outside yet,
    you haven't finished your assignment.
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    You can either finish it now
    or you stay inside the classroom."
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    Well, that's what she said.
    It wouldn't be until I was an adult
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    that I understood what she meant
    was to stay inside the classroom
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    until you finish your assignment.
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    I loved the feeling of running around
    the school playground and that freedom.
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    There was something quite peaceful
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    right after all of my classmates
    had left the room.
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    In that moment, I observed
    this peace, this quiet.
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    I remember there was sun
    streaming in from the window
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    and this feeling of energy
    flowing back to me.
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    This is my earliest memory
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    of enjoying and needing that quiet
    and recharging time as an introvert.
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    You can imagine my surprise
    when I turned to the teacher
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    and said I was just fine staying
    inside the classroom
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    to wait until recess was over,
    instead of doing my assignment.
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    She escorted me right
    down to the principal's office.
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    (Laughter)
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    I wasn't trying to be
    sassy or troublesome.
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    I was in that moment
    expressing what I actually needed,
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    and wound up getting in trouble for it.
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    Have you ever been misunderstood before?
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    Or felt dishonored
    like I did by my teacher?
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    Maybe you're an extrovert,
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    and someone told you
    to stop talking so much and be quiet.
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    Or maybe you're an introvert
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    and someone said
    to speak up more and participate.
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    That craving and desire of stillness
    was a sign of my introverted self.
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    It was an example of how,
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    even though at times
    introverts may be quieter than others,
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    less likely to dive head-on into conflict,
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    we can still maintain a very strong will.
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    There is still a passion residing
    in an introverted soul,
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    even if he or she may be
    more reserved most of the time.
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    It's the time of solitude when introverts
    can draw upon their strength to lead,
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    to find courage,
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    which can later be displayed
    once our teammates,
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    work colleagues, classmates
    return from that playground.
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    Have you ever needed a time
    just to regroup or recharge yourself?
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    Maybe you are at work
    and disappear to a bathroom stall,
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    or maybe you just needed
    to step outside for a walk alone.
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    It's during those times of solitude,
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    and really that strength
    and power within its quiet,
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    where we can draw upon
    our strength to lead, to find courage,
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    which can later be displayed
    once everyone gets back to the room.
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    There was a very special time
    back in 2008.
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    It was the 2008 Summer Olympics,
    I was playing for the US soccer team,
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    and we won.
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    (Applause and cheering)
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    We placed first and earned gold
    at the Beijing Summer Olympics.
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    As a gold medalist in soccer,
    and every player in that roster
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    can then rock some gold bling
    around her neck,
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    I was also the Silver Boot winner.
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    Meaning I was the second
    leading goal scorer
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    in the entire Olympics for women's soccer.
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    (Applause)
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    Thank you.
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    Additionally, I was the US team's
    leading goal scorer
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    for that Olympics that year.
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    (Applause)
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    And that is the extroverted
    version of this story.
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    I still struggle expressing
    that version of the story to this day.
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    Does anyone else here
    get a little bit squeamish
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    when they have to talk about
    their own accomplishments?
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    The irony is that with the success
    my team and I shared at that Olympics,
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    it's a bittersweet memory for me.
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    Behind the success, there was stress.
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    There was anxiety
    and a really big fear to overcome.
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    The leading and driving force
    of our 2008 Olympic Team
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    was our forward, Abby Wambach.
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    She was the energy, she was the engine,
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    and that vocal extroverted
    leader of our team.
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    Leading up to the Olympics,
    before we even flew over to China,
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    we played a practice game,
    called a friendly match, versus Brazil.
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    During that match, our extroverted leader,
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    whose energy was really large enough
    to fill a 100,000-seated stadium,
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    Abby Wambach goes into
    the tackle and breaks her leg.
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    She would no longer be able to compete
    in the Olympics with us that year,
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    and we were devastated.
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    Not only were we incredibly upset
    to lose our fearless leader,
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    but we didn't really have
    a plan B without her.
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    And the time when we needed to be
    at our peak and the most focused,
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    we had feelings of nervousness
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    on top of what we were
    already naturally feeling
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    about competing in the Olympics.
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    Our first game in the Olympics,
    we faced Norway.
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    Fifty-nine seconds
    into the start of the game,
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    Norway scores a goal.
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    Three minutes later,
    Norway scores a second goal.
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    We would eventually get a goal later on
    in the match, but it wouldn't be enough,
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    and we lost our opening game
    at the Olympics: 2-1.
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    All those fears that we had,
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    all of the comments
    from doubting reporters
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    questioning our ability
    to not only defend our title,
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    but to make it out of group play,
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    really started to bubble up
    to the surface of our team.
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    What would you think in this situation
    if you were part of this team?
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    Can you think back to a time
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    whether in work, or family,
    or even a sports event,
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    when the stakes where extremely high
    and you faced this moment of truth?
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    What did you do?
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    Well, my team had to make a choice:
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    to step into the defeat
    that was staring us in the face,
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    or step into the opposite direction,
    towards that Olympic podium.
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    We had a defining moment.
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    Our focus and our mentality switched.
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    So, what did we do?
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    We let go of that first loss
    against Norway.
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    We put it behind us.
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    We decided to commit
    and trust in our abilities,
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    trust in our preparation.
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    We individually and collectively
    seized our moment to lead.
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    We understood that each of us
    had a larger responsibility to fulfill,
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    not to be relied upon
    just one extroverted leader.
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    So we stepped onto the field
    with an elevated sense of confidence,
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    an elevated responsibility,
    because we had to.
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    We needed to use our leadership qualities
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    in order to stand a chance
    of reaching our ultimate goal.
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    Throughout that Olympics, we were tasked
    to gain confidence in the media
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    and others that doubted our abilities.
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    But more importantly, we played in a way
    to give us confidence for ourselves.
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    The majority of my career and time
    with the US national team,
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    I was a reserve,
    a bench player coming into games.
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    Throughout my life, I had some coaches
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    encouraging me to act
    like other players at times
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    instead of myself.
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    At this Olympics, it was
    a very special opportunity.
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    You see, the year before this Olympics
    was our World Cup year.
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    I was one of only two players to not play
    a single minute in that entire tournament.
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    However, this Olympics,
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    this introvert was being asked to start
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    and to play in place of the most
    extroverted leader of our team,
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    Abby Wambach.
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    During this leadership crisis,
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    no teammate, no coach
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    asked me to play, talk,
    or be like someone else.
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    They understood what I needed.
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    They allowed me to be me.
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    The space being created
    allowed me to play or recover
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    however made me feel the best.
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    And that allowed me to perform my best.
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    I started noticing the same things
    out of my other teammates as well,
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    whether a starter or reserve,
    typically vocal or typically quiet.
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    People were stepping into their roles
    and responsibilities freely,
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    and something magical began to happen.
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    People were starting
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    to step into their leadership roles
    and responsibilities.
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    The energy and cohesion of our team
    started to form in a new way,
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    at the perfect time.
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    What first felt like a devastating loss,
    from Abby's injury and that wake-up call
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    from the loss against Norway,
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    we transformed it
    into a collective victory.
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    By individually stepping into
    our own unique leadership positions
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    and each seizing the moment to lead,
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    we were able to have every single player
    on that US soccer team that year
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    stepping up onto the podium
    with a gold medal around her neck
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    after the final whistle blow.
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    The New York Times
    recently published an article
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    entitled: "What Google Learned
    From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team."
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    A common behavior
    the most successful team shared
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    had an equality in the distribution
    of conversational turn-taking.
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    The other finding was that teams
    had a high average social sensitivity.
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    In essence, individuals on teams
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    felt psychologically safe and secure
    to be themselves, to speak up,
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    and feelings of mutual trust and respect.
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    My 2008 Olympic journey
    was my first-hand experience
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    in showing me exactly
    what that research talks about.
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    It doesn't matter who you are.
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    It doesn't matter what position or title
    you might currently hold.
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    It doesn't even matter
    what personality you have.
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    Our greatest chance of success,
    of having a happy home life,
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    of reaching our quotas
    with our teams at work,
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    or making it to an Olympic podium,
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    comes from each of us
    having the opportunity
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    to contribute to the conversation.
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    I don't know the breakdown in percentage
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    of how many extroverts versus introverts
    there were in that Olympic team.
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    But what I do know is that
    there was a space that opened up,
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    one in which allowed
    an introvert like myself
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    an opportunity to display leadership.
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    At the beginning of this talk, I mentioned
    that 96% of leadership positions
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    are filled with extroverted individuals,
    with extroverted qualities,
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    and only 50% of the population
    identifies with being an extrovert.
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    If we continue to fill 96%
    of all our leadership positions
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    with only half of the population,
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    are we truly operating
    at our best potential?
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    We all have unique abilities.
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    How would things change
    if we open up the space for everyone
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    to feel psychologically safe
    and secure to be themselves?
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    No matter who you are,
    each and every one of us has the ability
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    to tap into our passion itself,
    into our strong wills,
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    and when the moment comes
    we'll be prepared.
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    Let's make sure that we focus
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    on creating and opening
    the space for one another,
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    no matter what type of "vert" we may be,
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    so that any one of us is ready
    for that moment to lead.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
Why we need introverted leaders | Angela Hucles | TEDxBend
Description:

Athletes train to be their best by tapping into their "inner-introvert" and finding moments to lead. Hucles, two-time Olympic gold medalist, reveals why the special qualities introverts contribute to teams is invaluable for success.

Hucles is President of the Women's Sports Foundation and regular speaker on topics of sports leadership, equality, inclusion and safe spaces, anti-bullying, and the power of sport and its impact on personal growth and development. She is a member of the Advisory Board for "You Can Play", a campaign dedicated to fighting homophobia in sports.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
14:54

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