Empowerment in Leadership: Wisdom & Stewardship 🌟

For aspiring and current leaders, I would say, I may have many, many thoughts, but if I have to sum up some of the key pieces, the first is that I see leadership actually as stewardship. Because when you are, if you're in a formal leadership position, you do have power. And a lot of people think that power is a dirty word. Power is actually neutral. It's neither good nor bad. It is neutral and it's how you use it. That makes it good or bad and produces positive or negative outcomes. And when you are in a formal leadership position, it doesn't matter even if you think, oh, but I don't have any power. But you do, because if you're in formal leadership, it means that you have people who are reporting to you or you're responsible for something and you have disproportionate impact on them. What do I mean by that? I mean that you may just be one person, as a leader. But if you are in a leadership position, you're having the, the impact of more than one person, right? And, you know, I mean, like, we can all think about it, you know, we can think about the time we've had a good boss and the difference in our lives that made, like, in our whole lives because we had a good boss. And we can also, I'm sure, also think about times we've had a bad boss and the negative impact that had in our whole lives, right? So think about it, that was just one person, but they had way more— they had an effect of way more than one person. And so when someone is an aspiring leader, or if you are in a leadership position, it is crucial to recognize that you are, you, you have stewardship of how you're using that power. And if you are using it well and wisely, and you're using it, you know, in a best effort to be responsible with it and to be ethical with it, that's great. But also remember that not making a decision or failing to make a decision is actually a decision. So what do I mean by that? If you think, oh no, it's fine, you know, whatever, I'm just going about my day, I'm just doing my thing, whatever, and you're not actually trying to be an ethical leader, you're actually making a decision that is negative. Because if you're not actively trying to be an ethical, high-quality leader, then you're actually going to be having a negative impact because it takes intention in order to be ethical, right? Given all the systems and all the other issues that we've talked about today, even if you are not trying to do anything negative, because we all work in organizations that have, you know, these unintentional structures and systems that unintentionally may be, you know, damaging people. If you're not actively trying to be ethical within that, all those things are going to negatively affect people and you're actually going to end up being unethical as a leader. So that's the other piece is be a really wise steward of whatever power you have, even if it only feels like a little bit. Because, you know, if you are intentionally doing that, that's great. But be very mindful of the fact that not making a decision or failing to make a decision is still a decision and you're still having influence and impact even if you're not trying to.

That's deep right there. That's heavy. So, Malamere, I appreciate you coming on the show today. I just got one more question for you and then we call it a wrap. Finally. What advice do you have for people who are facing a new disability or chronic illness?

Oh yeah, and as someone who has been dealing with a very recent, you know, the most recent of the issues I've been dealing with has been just over a year. And for context, I'm someone who previously I was, you know, I was passable as, you know, as able-bodied. In that, you know, you would look at me and I would look able-bodied. You know, I was running marathons and I was hiking up mountains and I was kayaking and canoeing and walking and doing yoga and heavy weightlifting. You know, I used to squat 255 and deadlift, you know, close to 300. And now I feel like I'm actually about to fall over. Like, as soon as we're done here, I'm going to have to go lie down for the rest of the day. And I can't walk for more than 60 seconds and I can't do it without a cane. And, and I have very severe dizziness. There are most days I can't read even. And, you know, it's, it's, you know, such a big difference. And so for people who are going through something new, just based on my own lived experience, the advice I would have is— and some of it may be painful, which is when you go through something new, After a little while, there will be loved ones and friends who you really thought that you had, you know, amazing relationships and friendships with