Impact

One of the most difficult things in life is taking praise or criticism about oneself. Most would rather focus on others and choose to believe that their actions or words don’t have a significant impact on the people around them. Whether positive feedback or negative, it is important to take in the feelings of those around you because only you will leave this world knowing what you have felt but the millions of people you will cross in your lifetime will know how they feel about you. And millions of feelings are so much stronger than just one.

                I’m usually pretty honest with myself after an activity in which I had a positive or negative influence. I can tell when I've been overbearing, pouty, inspiring, or helpful. What I don’t usually hear, however, is feedback from others. It’s eye opening to know much that what you think about yourself, others are thinking too. After the “Who drinks water? Who owns a zebra?” activity, we had an open discussion about the positives and negatives in our group. Taylor mentioned that she realized I took over at the beginning and could visibly see me frustrated when the direction did not go my way. While I realized that my actions and feelings are visible to others, I never realized that in general, actions are made for the benefit of others seeing. Personally, we could be contained in our heads for the rest of our lives and be content with what we think we know. But actions and words are our pathway to others; they are literally for other people. While I didn't enjoy hearing that my greatest struggles are clear for others to see, it led me to a revelation about leadership. Without Taylor’s comment about my commitment to that activity, I never would have realized that everything I do should have the benefit of someone else in mind. My actions and words can no longer be just for me.

TedTalk speaker Drew Dudley talks about the chance encounters or small moments of leadership that happen every day that  cause unknown, and dramatic change in someone else’s life. I cannot do justice to his story telling skills so I've attached a hyperlink to the short clip: http://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership.

His speech highlights the impact that everything we do impacts another person. This is what leadership is all about; leadership is about empowering others to do great things based on the things you do and say every day. Take in the opinions of others and allow them to open your eyes on the power you have on a project, an idea, and most importantly, on someone’s life.