As Jim Rohn once said, "A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better." Every day, each of us influences or leads others. Whether we recognize it or not, our activities affect or guide other people. For better or worse, the people around us are impacted by our actions. You are leading someone just by being you. Dudley describes leadership as a series of “lollipop moments.” Society frequently links leaders with people who hold lofty positions of authority, work out of large offices, and make significant choices. As a result, many people are reluctant to refer to themselves as leaders. However, genuine leadership is most immediately obvious in the day's little moments. It involves acting in a way that improves another person's life compared to how it was before you arrived. The wonderful aspect is that people do this constantly, occasionally without realizing its influence.
Leadership is the ability to inspire others. A "lollipop moment" is a remarkable moment when one person has a good impact on another person's life but may not be aware of it at the time. As Dudley mentioned, "We let people that have made our lives better walk around without even knowing it." Most of the time, we have all changed someone's life without even recognizing it. Dudley tells an incident from college in which he unintentionally used a lollipop to introduce two people in line at freshman orientation. The young woman claims that at that point, her life was completely changed. Unexpectedly, she was overwhelmed by the conviction that everything will turn out okay. Four years after that moment, the now-graduated woman informed Dudley how much of an influence that one incident made on her life. She is getting married to the man who gave her the lollipops, which adds to the sweetness of the story. The turning point is that Dudley has no memory of this day. Every time he searched his memories, he found nothing. For this young woman, this conversation changed her entire series of events. She decided to continue her college studies as a result of a moment that lasted less than a minute. Dudley was so impressed by this that he made it his life's work to share this story "lollipop moment" with others. Dudley had a huge, life-altering effect on someone but has no memory of it.
Encouraging the heart is like having a lollipop moment. However, among the worst practices for leaders, encouraging the heart consistently receives the lowest scores. We frequently don't express our gratitude or encouragement enough. But words have power. We require lollipop moments and must inform people when they take place. It's certainly enlightening and transformative to consider the possibility that we may have had the greatest influence on a person without even being aware of it. We've come to define ourselves as leaders only after we've accomplished something remarkable, but it's not intended to be that way. Simply doing the simple things we do every day and thinking about how we may return the favor can be considered leadership. These little actions add up over time. Because of this, others can consider us to be leaders.
Each of us has a daily impact on others. Whether we are aware of it or not, our actions have an impact on other people. The people nearby are impacted by those acts. Leaders aren't just those in charge of countries or businesses; they are regular people. Start by becoming aware of Lollipop Moments. We look for opportunities to help others every day, whether it is a smile, a kind word, some support, some love, or any other small way that you can create a chain of events of joy in someone else's life.
Last year, I was called up by a grade 2 teacher after school. She needed help with a grade 2 student. She wanted me to help explain a math concept, and I did so. When I first sat with the student, she seemed very confused and very scared about the test. The next day, the girl aced the exam and was very happy with her grade. This was a lollipop moment as I did something that made the student's life fundamentally better, without me realizing that this had an impact on her.
Comments
Post a Comment