The podcast and the sections we read from Impossible did a great job tying together the lessons we talked about at the beginning of the semester with Doing Good Better, and how that relates to us as Leadership Studies students. Society constantly pushes us to only pay attention to the single leaders: the ones who are written about in history books and make headlines in the news. But as we know, leadership comes in so many more forms. These figureheads are important, but as Professor Bezio said, they are just the tip of the iceberg.
The sections from Impossible remind us that we all have the power, and an obligation to use our power to do good. We don’t have to wait around for one leader to come in and make a change, we can start making little changes on our own. As I was reading the excerpts, I kept thinking about the lesson I learned in elementary school about spreading acts of kindness. There was a viral video we used to watch that started with one person doing something nice for someone else, and it set off a chain reaction for each person to do one good deed. It is such a simple message, but it really works: do one nice thing for someone else, and good things will follow. From the lessons of Impossible and Doing Good Better,we need to use whatever we have available to us and start there.
I appreciate you bring up the idea of everybody having power, and i think its one of those concepts that we really should explore more to better understand just exactly what it means to have power, to understand different types of power, and also explore the misunderstandings about power, both good and bad, because I think power can be a very confusing topic in how it actually exists for individuals compared to structures, systems, and frameworks.
I really like your example from elementary school. I think it is interesting that we are taught this from a young age, yet most people are still likely to stand by and wait for someone else to make the first move.
I think that it is so easy to go through life thinking that the world is out to get you and far more difficult to believe that there is kindness and good around you. But as you explained, kindness breeds more kindness, so as more people act kindly to others the process with become easier.
I think that being kind is one of the simplest things you can do to not only improve the lives of others but also your own. It can be simple or it can be a grand gesture, but it takes so little and gives so much. We need to view everyone on the same level — we are all just humans trying our best. If we can create a kinder, more compassionate world, I feel like we would all be much more prosperous.