Make Awesomeness

Leadership (n): a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc.

In the beginning of the TEDTalk Drew asks the audience who considers themselves a leader and only a select few people raise their hands. This is probably because the definition listed above (that was pulled from the Merriam-Webster dictionary) is out of date for society and doesn't relate to most people.

Our current class unit on the structure of organizations tends to lead back to examples of companies, but what about the leadership that isn't defined by the way your business is set up or by the tasks delegated by one person to the larger group?

Drew's talk was really compelling just because of how relatable it is to the average person. While I was listening to him tell his story I was blown away by how easy he made it seem to be a leader. Yes, I was involved in SGA (Student Government Association) in high school. And yes, I'm a mentor to prospective and new UMD students, but what about the other things I do just in my daily life?

Drew ignited a fire and changed the attitude of a stranger just through his actions unknowingly. I think realized from his talk is that leadership isn't just guiding a group or being able to delegate tasks, but that you can be a leader just from inspiring someone.

Yes, we talked about Inspiring a Shared Vision in our Kounz and Posner book, but I connect that more to how you run an organization and inspire people to work towards the mission, rather than just inspiring a single person to do something different.

The craziest part of his story is that he didn't even know that he was changing that girls life in that moment. Most leadership activities we all engage in and work towards are mission driven. Like we join clubs in high school so that we can put them on our extracurricular sheet for college applications. And we join one of the 500 clubs at UMD to put on our resume for job applications. And when you join a club, for example Habitat for Humanity, you know the goal of the group and you identify with that and want to support that goal. But how often do we take a moment to take pride in ourselves as people?

I think a lollipop moment can just be a time where something you did or said affected someone else's view of the world. The first thing that comes to mind for me was in a meeting with a faculty member last year just to talk about my interests and the future, she said "If you go in asking for a job, you'll come out with advice. And if you go in asking for advice, you're more likely to come out with a job." It's not a difficult concept or anything really taboo, but it really stuck with me and I find myself reflecting on it often. I never told her how her words have helped me move forward in life, but maybe I will have to.

The view I had of leadership was completely blown away by his story. I really think it will change every day actions for me. Maybe that one thing I said to someone will inspire them too? But I do feel challenged by his question about who has had a lollipop moment in their life. Like David Silvers identified, we tend to only see the world from our perspective and that comes with accepting things about ourselves. It's easy think that someone has inspired you, or to see leadership qualities in another person, but it's against human nature to analyze and praise ourselves for something good we may have done.

You also have to consider that Drew had no idea about this impact he made on the girl until she told him the story and he reflected on it.

Maybe if we all just told others what we appreciated about them more often then we would be more confident to lead in this world.