This week, I have been thinking a lot about the role of a manger and how complex it can be between driving a project or program forward, supporting our teams, helping our teams grow and develop, and strategizing about the future. Leadership.
At times, our own growth and development can get lost in the mix. For me, I have had a wonderfully fulfilling time focusing on my career. My development has certainly not made it to the top of my to-do list. So, today, in some ways, I am letting us all off the hook. There are many moments where we can seize the moment to be a good leader without planning or forethought. There are leadership moments at every turn.
Take a few minutes to watch this Everyday Leadership talk by Drew Dudley where he describes the everyday leadership as “lollipop moments”.
Big takeaway:
His call to action for us today is…”that we need to get over our fear of how extraordinarily powerful we can be in each other’s lives. We need to get over it so we can move beyond it, and our little brothers and sisters and one day our kids — or our kids right now — can watch and start to value the impact we can have on each other’s lives, more than money and power and titles and influence. We need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments –how many of them we create, how many we acknowledge, how many of them we pay forward and how many we say thank you for. Because we’ve made leadership about changing the world, and there is no world. There’s only six billion understandings of it.“
Let’s start our day by thinking about someone who has made an impact in our lives—who should you acknowledge and thank today? How are you going to pay forward the impact that person had on you? How can you make your team feel like they have an “everyday leadership” role on your team and in our work?
Enjoy the everyday leadership in your day!
Want to watch this with your team? Awesome!
Discussion questions:
Here are some discussion questions that might help to spark a conversation!
- What is a lollipop moment?
- What does Drew Dudley mean when he says, “As long as we make leadership something bigger than us, as long as we keep leadership something beyond us, as long as we make it about changing the world, we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it every day from ourselves and from each other”?
- How can lollipop moments can change our understanding of leadership?
- Who has shaped you are in a positive way? What specific things has that person done to help you?
- What are some big moments or milestones in your career? Who were important in making those moments happen?
- Who helped you reach those accomplishments?
- Who is someone you never thanked for something they did for you?
- How can we have more lollipop moments as a team?
Looking for more?
Here are some discussion questions for you and your team on what it takes to be a good leader.