In his TED Talk, Leading with Lollipops, Drew Dudley, suggests that leadership be redefined in terms of lollipop moments – “a moment where someone said something or did something that you feel fundamentally made your life better.“
Dudley believes that leadership is sometimes perceived as “something bigger than us” – evidenced in events that are world-changing, having major impacts on societies, businesses and people. But there is so much more, he argues – in those precious moments when great leaders’ words, behaviors, attitudes and actions change another person’s life for the better forever.
“We need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments, how many of them we create, how many of them we acknowledge, how many of them we pay forward, and how many of them we say thank you for…. There’s only six billion understandings of it, and if you change one person’s understanding of it, one person’s understanding of what they’re capable of, one person’s understanding of how much people care about them, one person’s understanding of how powerful an agent for change they can be in this world, you’ve changed the whole thing.”
Create lollipop moments everyday of your life, and bring unforgettable and life-changing sweetness and joy to those whom you serve – a moment where you said something or did something that made someone feel and believe that their life had fundamentally been changed for the better. Care deeply; live passionately; love unconditionally. It is all in your own hands … in your choice to be more than you ever dreamed you could be … and more … so much more. Life is so very, very good.
Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!
Though I agree that leadership is often manifested “in precious [lollipop] moments when great leaders’ words, behaviors, attitudes and actions change another person’s life for the better forever;” I wonder to what degree they can be consciously created—or, I at least believe that in most cases they are not consciously created.
You and I are at the point in our lives where it is not uncommon for us to hear or give eulogies. One of the things I have noted over the years is that in most cases, the life changing impacts people have had on others, at least the ones to which others refer, are seldom big, or in any way, special events or conversations. Rather they are seemingly incidental comments or acts that spontaneously and very unconsciously occur as a result of who these people were as people and went about living their lives in the manner they ordinarily did and had become their habit.
Jack, I always love your insights. Those lollipop moment need not, and are probably not, those spectacular cosmic events, but simply that human touch of deep caring – in a word, action or gesture – that can change a world for someone. I read the word “eulogies” and realize that we, in everything we do and say, are writing our own. Thank you for you, my dear friend.