Everyday Leadership

Everyone has the ability to be a leader, leadership is not about a title, a role, or a responsibility.  It is about the actions you take.   It is about the words you use.   It is about being true to yourself and others.   Most people do not realize the impact that they have on others with acts that may seem meaningless to them.    Drew Dudley talks about this as being "Everyday Leadership", and I cannot rave enough about his Tedx Toronto 2010 talk on the subject.  For me, its a message that succinctly epitomizes how the world should look at leadership.   The video is less than 7 minutes long, 1.3 million people have watched it so far, so if you haven't seen it already do yourself a favor take a few minutes and watch it here:  http://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership before you even read the rest of this blog.

During the video, Drew tells a story about how he impacted a young woman's life, without ever really knowing or meeting her.   I'm not going to give away the details, as I definitely want you to watch the video but he called his impact moment a Lollipop moment, and this is how he defined it:

"Lollipop Moment - A moment where someone said something or did something that you feel fundamentally made your life better"  

- Drew Dudley

Drew's contention is that we all treat leadership as something bigger than ourselves, and thus make it unreachable.  But he argued that a large number of us have had a "Lollipop Moment" and never told the individual that impacted our lives.   So the fact that we do not believe our words or actions on an everyday basis have an impact; we are wrong.   We are just one of those people that hasn't been told of that impact.

When I sit back and think about "Lollipop Moments" in my life, I am fortunate enough to think of multiple examples and as Drew indicated in a lot of those examples I haven't taken the time out to tell those individuals the impact they have had on me.   One of the first career related ones I remember was during my first job out of college, my boss at the time was great and treated our team well.   He had been freelancing at a dot com business on the side, and knew they had some openings coming up.   It wasn't the right place for him, but he thought that I would be a great fit there.   Here he was, my manager, at a fortune 500 organization and he was advising me to look at an employment opportunity outside of my corporation.   Definitely not the corporate line, but what I learned from him that day is you have to truly invest in your employees as people and not just employees.   What's best for them, may not always align with what's best for you.   I took his advice, interviewed for that job, and had a great run with that organization.   I met some great friends there that I continue to interact with regularly today.  I also got to participate in a variety of experiences that I likely would not have had if I had stayed at my original position.   Although he may not know it, his actions and words, have helped define one of my core principles on how I manage or treat my employees.   I'm always looking at ways to help them succeed, and working on giving them the skills that will help them in the future.  I hope that future is alongside me, but if it isn't I hope that I've prepared them enough to be a bigger success in their new endeavors.  

I do not live my life in a way that I go out and specifically execute actions to impact others.   I am conscious that I have the ability to impact others, so I live to the best of my ability being true and honest with my beliefs.

"Be the change you want to see in the world"  

- Mahatma Gandhi

Some of the greatest leaders I've worked with, I respect because of their actions and beliefs.  How they handle them in situations day in and day out.   I respect those who put others before themselves and understand the impact they even as a single individual in a sea over six billion people can have on a daily basis.

Leadership is not about making an impact or an impression on everyone you touch, its about making an impact or impression on at least one person.   Making their day better, Making them better.   We all have the ability to be great leaders and great people, we need to step up to that challenge and make it happen.

"I've learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them FEEL." 

- Maya Angelou

What is your "Lollipop Moment"?   Do you think you've influenced others?   What do you do to practice "Everyday Leadership"?  Let me know, I want to be inspired by you.