Leadership is an Everyday Thing
It would be an understatement to say that leadership is a widely debated concept in our society. With that clear, it shouldn’t hurt for me to chime in on the subject too. Everyone differs on how they define effective versions of leadership, but all agree that good leadership contributes to successful outcomes. Leadership is the difference between winning and losing, success and failure, or if you’re talking politics, it’s the difference between destroying our country and leading it to greatness. Exaggerations aside, leadership matters. But the frequency and gravity at which leadership is discussed across academia, business, sports, and politics contributes to it taking on a lofty aura.
I argue that such gravity around capital-L “Leadership” makes it feel remote. It makes it seem like leadership is something that mostly Presidents, CEOs, or military generals can employ. Believing in the power of individuals to take the reins of their own lives through self-awareness and focused work, I find that inaccessibility of leadership problematic. Not everyone can inhabit the role of “leader” in a traditional hierarchical sense, and it is true that sometimes decision-making should be vesting in a single person. However, I insist that everyone has a capacity to be leaders by positively influencing the direction of groups through our actions and thoughts. Others, like Drew Dudley, seem to agree that “leadership” is something all of us can, and should, practice routinely.
In his 2012 TED talk about “lollipop leadership,” Drew described the ways that we change the lives of others, and the ways that others change our lives without realizing it. He uses that story to accentuate the simple, routine ways we can positively influence the lives of those around us. Simply by handing someone a lollipop and engaging with them at the right time, he explains, we can give inspiration and create positive connections – we can be everyday leaders.
I like this notion of leadership. For one, “lollipop leadership” emphasizes how small actions, by themselves or in aggregation, can inspire and cultivate greatness in those around us. Good leaders aren’t just people facing crushing responsibility or climatic decisions. They are all of us, being aware of how we interact with subordinates, peers, and superiors. I think it is important for leadership discourse to recognize that effective leadership is ordinary and everyday.
The other point Drew makes is that due to our exalted notion of leadership, we often fail to recognize those small, unsexy moments of good leadership. He describes “lollipop moments” as instances where someone said or did something that fundamentally made your life better. He points out that we often “make people who’ve made our lives better walk around without knowing it.” That is an eloquent reminder about the importance of everyday leadership and the importance of recognizing it. If we make leadership something that is bigger than us, rather than something we see on daily basis, then we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it from ourselves and those around us.
I strongly agree with Drew’s ideas on this. If we make “leadership” something so remote, then it removes accountability to practice it or recognize it in our daily lives. This reminds of me of how I feel whenever faced by a complex or nebulous problem. I am eager to solve it, but make no progress if I try to solve it all at once. I have to plan and execute on the tiny specific tasks that, as they add up, will help me get past the hurdle. I think leadership is the same way. We need to imagine leadership less as a grand practice to solve massive world problems, and more as a sequence of daily interactions that add up to great results. By recognizing small and kind acts of leadership, we also encourage others to do the same. In that way, I think a more grounded notion of leadership is one that empowers people to positively influence the lives of those around them in simple ways on a daily basis.
