2020 was a crazy year for most of us, but in the midst of the chaos were some pretty incredible stories of leadership and kindness I’d like to spotlight!

Tune in to the full episode here!

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2020 stories of leadership

One: First, in 2020, we saw the Corona Virus very quickly morph itself into a destroyer of jobs for some people, but in the wake of that devastation also came extreme generosity. I don’t necessarily think of generosity as a leadership trait, by any means. That’s just a “be a good person” character trait in my opinion, but we saw generosity become a means through which a lot of CEOs of large companies exemplified empathy, which is shared understanding and very much a leadership quality.

Honestly, this was a step taken by a ton of executives, so I’m not even going to give names here, but I love what a professor of finance from Wharton said that its “symbolic” because of course you take the chunk of salary forgone by a CEO, and divide it up among a ton of employees, and it ends up not being that much money for each employee at that point, but what this professor said: “I think for CEOs to come out and say, quote ‘ we are doing to give up our pay,’ it’s a signal that they are sharing the pain.”

Two: Dave Ramsey is a seven-time #1 national best-selling author in the field of financial advice and he is esteemed by many for his guidance in helping americans navigate their way out of debt through his show, the Dave Ramsey show, so this past year, he initiated his company – Ramsey Solutions – paying off the debts for 8,000 people totaling up to about $10 million.

Can you imagine getting that phone call and being told your financial debts are paid and covered?

Three: You see generosity happening through the leadership of a team when Pastor Michael Todd led his church, Transformation Church, to combine and put together all their efforts and buy every pair of shoes at a local shoe store to donate tennis shoes to kids that really needed them. 

Michael Todd was just one guy who happens to have the opportunity to lead a group of people who attend his church. In order to get his church members to see the value in donating to these in-need kids and, in order to lead them to rally behind a cause of giving, he probably had to communicate a lot. He had to communicate, he had to be brave and speak in front of them, he had to be generous himself most likely and contribute personally to the campaign, he had to make sure what they were giving to was a worthy cause and use good judgment and discernment, and probably a lot more.

Four: We also see initiative taken by a young cashier. In late Spring of 2020, so early on into news of covid and all that, an elderly gentleman named Layne was shopping at his local Fresh n’ Low grocery store. He hadn’t been venturing out often, but needed to stock up on things. He got everything he needed, and made his way to a checkout line where a very kind, 17 year old cashier named Elizabeth Taylor rang up all of his grocery items to a total of $173. Mr. Layne unfortunately realized he was $33 of being able to pay for all of that.

So, I don’t know about you, but if this was me? I would be so nervous! There was probably someone else behind him in line who was in a rush and likely getting impatient as the elderly man rummaged through all his extra pockets trying to find some extra cash, and he probably felt so embarrassed, cheeks getting red, and finally just resorted to taking items to put back on the shelves.

But the cashier stopped him and insisted on paying for all of his groceries. This teenage Elizabeth insisted on personally paying for all $173 of this man’s groceries. She didn’t overthink it, she just made the split-second decision, took initiative, and told him, “hey sir, don’t worry about it”.

She probably saw Layne becoming flustered and helped him calm down, so she was observant, and she led him through what could have otherwise been a super discouraging grocery run.

Five: Matthew McConaughey organized and hosted – along with his wife and kids – virtual video bingo tournaments for members of a local senior living facility. There was a prize every time someone won a game, it was fun, a great distraction from an otherwise likely uneventful day.

Six: A lot of us probably tuned into at least part of the confirmation hearings for now supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett, but even if you didn’t watch any of it, you may have come across the headline in a major newspaper that had a picture of her holding up a pad of paper with nothing written on it.

A senator asked her (and I’m paraphrasing), Mrs. Barrett, you know you are getting spoken to by a lot of different people and somehow you are able to recall who has said what to you or who has raised what questions for you over these many hours on end, and most of us would probably be taking a lot of notes to keep this all straight. Would you mind showing us the notes you have written down?

Amy Coney Barrett then just holds up a completely blank pad of paper. And yet she was listening well enough to all the different people asking her different questions that, when being spoken to, she was able to reference earlier questions and the person who asked her which questions. 

I think listening is a critical skill for any leader, and it also happens to be a very tough one.

Seven: Chris Nikich became the first person with down syndrome to race in and complete an ironman, but he couldn’t have done it without two critical leaders in his life. 

First, Chris’ dad: From what I have seen and read, he is very much to be credited with lending belief and helping Chris see his own potential, and I think that is just a fantastic leadership characteristic.

For such a massive goal, there were a lot of doubts in Chris’ mind. It all began years ago when Chris was extremely out of shape, extremely sedentary, and his dad just encouraged him one day at a time to adopt the 1% better rule: Get better by 1% every day. Years later, that encouragement got him to the finish line of an ironman.

By the way, that’s a 2.4-mile open-water swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run all under 17 hours. 

Second, Dan Grieb is a real-estate agent who *volunteered* to train with Chris – which I don’t even know how much time that took, but probably a ton. When they raced together, they did so with a rope tied between the two of them. Mr. Grieb is an example of pure generosity, pure belief in another person’s ability to accomplish something, being devoted to and loyal to a person and helping him or her reach a goal. He also had commitment considering how much time and physical energy was involved in this. 

There are so many examples of amazing leadership and incredible people all around us, and there are a lot more stories shared in the full episode. It just takes a little digging, but the positive news stories are there! 🙂

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