TEDxToronto - Drew Dudley "Leading with Lollipops"

Your largest positive impact on someone else can be a moment you don't remember because a small, forgettable action can meet a recipient's particular vulnerability and produce a lasting, outsized effect.

Treating leadership as the accumulation of small moments magnifies our ability to change the world because changing one person's understanding of themselves or how much others care about them alters that person's world, and many such shifts add up to large-scale change.

People often avoid telling others how much they've mattered because admitting another's impact forces them to face their own power and vulnerability, which feels frightening and so blocks expressions of gratitude.

A brief public gesture—a laugh or a moment of connection—can stop someone from quitting because that shared signal of acceptance reassures a vulnerable person and shifts their sense of belonging.

When society celebrates only extraordinary feats, it signals that everyday acts aren't worth praise, which causes people to devalue and not claim ordinary moments of leadership.

When leadership is framed as larger-than-life and tied to grand acts, people avoid calling themselves leaders because they feel they must 'deserve' the title and fear appearing arrogant.