This week’s Note is unusual in two ways.
Firstly, it is the first delightful contribution from another member of the ever-growing band of influential leadership activists.*
Secondly, it has triggered the idea that all leadership activists have the opportunity to contribute their ideas to the Alpha Weekly Notes.
So, the trail is open.
Send a draft of your idea to alpha@karoo.world with the heading: My Leadership Weekly Note Idea. We shall take it from there.
We look forward to your contributions!
Scanning through the article and her TikTok account, I saw multitudes of influential leadership moments Hieu must have faced, and how her life is testimony to the philosophy, principles and behavioural attributes of influential leadership.
Vietnam. Hanoi. Streets and pavements flooded with traffic and humanity — bicycles, cyclos, scooters, vans, cars, SUVs, busses, and of course pedestrians — they are all there. Horns sound endlessly just to let you know we’re here, we’re coming, we’ve seen you, move along. Food stalls. Flower sellers. Fruit and vegetables fresh from the fields. Scooter workshops. Smiles mingled with frowns. Everyone has somewhere to go…
I have not been back to Vietnam since February 2020. However, the sights and sounds and smells that were my first life are still fresh.
I am from the South, near Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon), which we reckon is the capital of street craziness.
(Did you know that Ho Chi Minh City area has a population of about 10 million people, and just about every citizen has a scooter? The attached infographic shows scooters on the pavement!)
I keep up to date with events and people in Vietnam via social media; it was here that I discovered my influential leadership story.
Luu Thi Hieu.
On the last day of October, as I browsed through my social media feeds the typical Vietnamese street scene popped into view. I was just about to let it float past until I heard a lady’s raised voice, ‘Tôi bị quát tháo rất nhiều’ (‘I get yelled at a lot’).
The vision I had was of a girl-on-a-scooter crash; with a rolling helmet and bits of broken pieces scattered across the street. She is lying inert amongst the never-ceasing traffic flow. I had this happen a few times and have seen others having more serious ones than me.
I immediately clicked the article link.
There was Luu Thi Hieu — not on a scooter, and not in a crash scene. Yes, a girl, but sitting neatly in a motorised wheelchair waiting at a traffic light among the throngs of scooters and other road users. Thieu reposed as if she knew the teaming river would part, should she guide her chair forwards.
As I discovered in the article, Hieu has cerebral palsy (CP). For those who are unfamiliar with CP, here is a useful article to understand it better. Oh, and in Vietnamese, we read names backwards, so her first name (Hieu) is last, and family name (Luu) first.
I encourage you to read Hieu’s story and watch her TikTok videos to get a sense of who she is and what she has achieved. Without further ado, here is a brief snapshot of how she has given expression to her social agency at leadership moments:
Hieu gets out to shop, sightsee and have fun despite Hanoi’s lack of access and facilities for wheelchairs.
While Hieu puts herself at risk by navigating the choking traffic, this is a secondary obstacle in her lived life. The primary obstacle is so-called ‘able’ people who are attitude challenged. It is able-bodied people who tell her it’s impossible for you to do it and you will soon give up. These sorts of comments spur her on; they are leadership moments for her.
Hieu runs a social enterprise that produces crochet puppets to help other wheelchair-bound and unemployed people earn an income. This project was especially valuable during the COVID pandemic with its strict lockdown rules. She never seems to be idle, or to feel sorry for herself.
Hieu actively encourages her wheelchair-bound peers – who either choose to be housebound or are afraid to go out – to get out and enjoy their lives, despite their conditions. Hieu wants them to be seen, heard, taken seriously and have rights like ‘able’ people – the right to enjoy life as a conventional human being.
Hieu is a Tik Tok expert at making videos to gain public attention for her project that supports people with CP. She has also travelled to Japan for this project, to learn how her society can better accommodate wheelchair traffic and assist people who are not fully functional.
The leadership lessons I take from her life story include:
- Hieu never makes excuses for being ‘disabled’. She does not see herself as being unable.
- Hieu has not been robbed of her social agency — she believes in herself and her actions.
- What Hieu does creates hope and a better lived life for herself and for others.
- Hieu courageously keeps pushing social norms to achieve what she knows is right and dignified for all people.
- The seeds she sows will bloom in time.
- Hieu is energised by negative comments and views that spur her on.
So, Hieu’s endeavours and persistence confirm the attitude of Hồ Chí Minh** that military veterans who lost their limbs in the independence wars against France and the USA should continue with their lives as productive members of society. His encouraging quote which reads ‘disabled but not ineffectual’ (‘tàn nhưng không phế’) is still valid today.
Hieu’s story also matches Alpha’s metaphor that life is like a game of cards. Hieu has done the best she can with the cards she was dealt. She was born with CP, which she could have seen as a bad hand of cards, but she has played it to the full.
Perhaps the real disability that exists among us is not our physical or mental condition, but the absence of our social agency to think, choose and act. What is the value of having all our limbs and mental faculties, yet we live empty and meaningless lives?
I think the lesson for me, and perhaps the reader, is that we either accept our cards and play them like a winner, or we hide behind them.
Influential leaders play…
Regards,
Colin Donian
Shaping lives for the better
* Contributed by HNM.
** For those who have done Alpha, you have met Hồ Chí Minh – a person who made his mark in history, also against the odds.
