Lately I’ve been feeling this heavy burden on me. I can’t seem to shake it. The heaviness of being this “Great Leader” is becoming a little too much to bare. I have so many amazing people in my life I look up to and people who look up to me. Growing up I looked up to a lot of people I viewed as leaders in my life. Some bad and some good. I’ve seen many leaders succeed and a lot of leaders fail! I’ve had people mentor me in my spiritual life all the way to me just as a person; shaping me to become who I am today. I’ve learned a lot from people along the way. The weight comes from trying to keep it going.
I’m in a business where people of many ages will come through my door. Dancing is what I do and teaching is what I love! Sometimes I feel the people older than me don’t take me as seriously as I would like them to. I feel because I haven’t experienced as much in the game as they have that I have no “new” advice to give them. I see a lot of the younger crowd take notes on what I say but some of the youngin’s act just like some of the older cats! Whatever ever happened to “RESPECT?” I grew up respecting everyone, no matter how old! Maybe it’s just my culture. Nowadays, I see choreographers with a lack of respect to their dancers and dancers a lack of respect to their choreographers! WTF?!? Seriously? “High-Maintenance” dancers and choreographers irritate me! What i mean is that dancers who come to class and TEXT while the instructor is teaching or don’t try hard to fully understand the choreography PISS ME OFF! Choreographers who don’t take the time to fully teach moves to have dancers better understand how they want the piece conveyed PISS ME OFF! Whatever happened to the love of dance and sharing what you love doing rather than doing it for your name to get big? Whatever happened to the passion of teaching and seeing kids grow to love what they do? What happened to those days?
I struggle with leadership because I care too much. I’ve been leading a great group of people for a couple years now. They’ve stuck with me through the bad and have been my armor when stuff gets thrown our way! I see the hard work and dedication they put in to make this family function. We struggle together and their loyalty has proved to stand firm through the storm! Every new person that comes along I take under my wing as if I’m responsible for their success. I want people to be successful and surpass me. But there are some people who come under and don’t try at all to be successful within the group. They rather use the group name to get ahead. Use it as a source of connection then split! Be part of a group they don’t contribute to! This is what I struggle with. People who want to call it their own but don’t put the time and effort into it. It’s not all about performances or shows. It’s the inner workings of how the crew stays afloat. It’s the rehearsal times, it’s the conversations, it’s the hang-outs, it’s the presence! BE INVOLVED!
To sum this all up, leadership is a struggle,especially when the leaders before you did a poor job leading you. You take some of the good and toss out the bad and learn everything else by trial and error. I’m learning. It’s a struggle. But I’m blessed with the people I have. I couldn’t ask for a better CORE group of dancers who are there when I need them. On the other side, It’s hard to lead people who think they’ve arrived and want to LEAD as well. It’s also hard to come under insecure leaders who don’t know how to lead. Leadership is so crucial nowadays because this is an untrusting world. How do we get back to that place where we all learn from each other again? When do we get off our high horse and take correction? I don’t think it will ever get to that place of honesty again but my hope is that dancers and choreographers stay hungry and humble. Leaders become more teachable and approachable. Erik Saradpon said it best, “Continue to teach HUMILITY!”
Where did the HUMILITY go?
Food for thought!
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