2 Great Examples of Thought Leadership In the Wake of Damar Hamlin's Injury

As with so many others who saw—or saw the coverage of— Damar Hamlin’s tragic injury last Monday night; I am relieved and heartened to see his extraordinary progress. Seeing Hamlin doing so much better, it feels appropriate to share two posts I read last week that I thought exemplified thought leadership.

Candidly, when the news is tragic--good thought leadership is both needed, and hard to properly execute. You never want to "trend" on tragedy: It's icky. And simultaneously, thought leaders recognize a moment in time when there is an opportunity to serve people who are: shocked, grieving, devastated, scared. 

The two posts I'm going to highlight were thoughtful, expert, and needed. That combination sets them apart.

Without further ado:

1.  A reel from Dr. Berul, Chief of Cardiology at Children’s National. Dr. Berul shared the difference between cardiac arrest, heart attack, and heart failure (plus a subsequent reel on what parents need to know): Imagine you were watching the game with your child-or maybe even they saw the news later-and they asked: "What happened? Could this happen to me while playing sports?" Children can be so heartened when they learn the facts of why something happened and why they don't have to worry. Creating expert content for children and parent fans was a great use of the platform.

2. A LinkedIn post from Mental Health expert Nidhi Tewari, LCSW. Nidhi discussed the trauma of witnessing Damar's injury both from a perspective of next steps for the NFL and for anyone who saw her post who was feeling overwhelmed. Again, a great example using her expertise to help anyone her social media would reach.

We can even consider when every NFL team changed their Twitter profile picture on Tuesday--which exemplifies social media as community, and for good.

It's easy to lament the bottom-of-the-barrel content on social media. But really meaningful, important, wide-reaching content exists too.