Lollipop Moments- A New Take on Leadership

As idealistic as this may sound, I want to change the world.This may sound cliché coming from an International Development student, but it is the aim of all 'indev' students in some shape or form. I started this program believing that changing the world meant eradicating poverty and that I would acquire the skills to create significant changes, that benefit the impoverished on a large scale. I hoped that I would one day be a great leader who would change the world. But after three years of university I've realized that I can't change the world as I had hoped because in our world, some level of poverty will always exist. Therefore my interpretation of becoming a great leader has changed. 
  
I recently watched a TEDx video by Drew Dudley entitled 'Leading with Lollipops' (click here to watch the video). Drew talks about what it means to be a leader. He says that we have made leadership into something bigger than us. We have made it about changing the world.We spend so much time celebrating things that are almost impossible for the average person to accomplish, that we are convinced that those are the only things worth celebrating, and we start to devalue the things that we can do everyday that truly makes us leaders. These everyday moments are what he calls lollipop moments- a moment when someone said something or did something that fundamentally made your life better. How many times have you experienced a moment like this? Even if you can only remember being on the receiving end of a lollipop moment, I am sure that we have all had a positive impact on someone's life. These moments are true leadership moments but as long as we continue to uphold leadership as something that is beyond us and about changing the world, we are making excuses not to expect it from ourselves in our personal and professional lives on a daily basis.

We have made leadership about changing the world, but the world is simply six billion different understandings, so as long as we can change one persons understanding of what they are capable of, how important they are, and how powerful an agent for change they can be, you have changed everything. Leadership is about valuing the impact that we can have on each other's lives that is greater than money, power, influences, and titles.

My goal is still to change the world and become a great leader but in a different way. My aim is to create as many lollipop moments as I can with the people that I will be interacting with on my upcoming field placement. I hope to inspire them to multiply this effect and create positive change.