I came across a quote from author Pierre Pradervand that states:
"Which drop of water constituting an ocean is unimportant?"
I've been talking with my son recently about the desire to feel important and how 3rd party validation of what you do doesn't bring forth importance, no matter how cool it is to be recognized for doing something well.
In 2018, I was awarded the Jr. NBA Minnesota Coach of the Year by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx for my work coaching a team in the Mounds View Basketball Association. I stood at center court of a Timberwolves game in front of 18,000 people as they cheered my accomplishment.
I asked my son if it was at that moment I received the award when the work that I've done with youth basketball players became important. When did it become important? As he has coached with me on three different teams, he has a 1st hand perspective on what was accomplished and not accomplished.
He knew the work we had done together was important regardless of such recognition. In fact, I was relieved of my duties coaching my other son before I started at Mounds View because parents and a different association didn't appreciate my methods of connecting life skills with what they were doing in basketball when 4 years later I was celebrated.
My son knows from the smiles on kids' faces when they see us, or in the developing skillset players obtained over the course of a season that we have an impact and our work is important.
In fact, I mentioned to him that his multiple requests over the last couple of weeks to make certain dinner waits so we can eat together as a family (he's 19 years old) was very important to me.
We, as leaders, can choose to hold to the notion that importance happens when the dashboard lights up green or when you get recognized for work. That's signifies transactional leadership.
Or we can open ourselves to recognize the little things that occur every day. Those little things, done all the time, make up the ocean of our total efforts and are important. For without those steps, those drops of water, an ocean cannot be created.