Have you ever stopped to think about the impact you are making on other people’s lives? You should.
We talk about leadership as something to learn and aspire to during our time here at Lake Forest College, and yet we fail to realize that we are already leaders, even in the smallest of ways.
Leadership by definition is “the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group; the ability to lead.” While this definition may be true, I don’t believe that one must lead an entire army in order to be considered a leader. Becoming a leader starts with just one action. Successful leadership today is measured as something we all hope to gain, and to call ourselves leaders now seems unsupported and fake.
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A few years ago, college leadership guru Drew Dudley gave a TED Talk about the little everyday moments that produce leadership. He talked about how we devalue those moments because we have an unreal set of expectations about true leadership. He goes on to share a story about a woman who he had a huge life impact on—and he didn’t even know it.
This woman was terrified of beginning college, but she still went to registration with her parents, and they told her that if she didn’t like it or had a bad feeling that they would leave. Picture it: they’re standing in line and at the exact same moment she decides to turn around and leave, Dudley comes out carrying a large container of lollipops and starts handing them out to people. When he gets to her, he stops and hands two lollipops to the man in front of her and asks the man to give one lollipop to the girl standing behind him. After the embarrassing lollipop exchange, Dudley cracks a joke to her parents about taking candy from a stranger, and the entire crowd bursts into laughter.
At that moment, the woman felt she was right where she was supposed to be and that everything was going to be okay. It’s the little things you do that are going to stick with people. You can be the receiver of a “lollipop moment” as much as a giver.
Taking the tiniest amount of time to make a fundamental change in someone’s life is enough to be considered a leader because you made a difference. If someone has done that for you, tell them.
This woman waited four years to tell Dudley about this event. Don’t wait that long. Don’t let people who have made your life better walk around without knowing it, and, hopefully, they will do the same for you.
Do not fear how extraordinary you can be. Leadership can be about changing the world and making a large impact, but it should also include the small lollipop moments we create.
