leading the way to humility

Yelling is effective.

I have done so much screaming and yelling this weekend that my voice has gone hoarse and I am in constant need of filling up my water cup. 

One of my proudest moments was when I had to yell at the entire student body in full marching band attire to: “MOVE TO THE SIDES! MOVE TO THE SIDES!” Unleashing all of the stress of the week on the poor students who were stuck by the main staircase. Oh, the looks on the students’ faces when the band screamed in unison. Oh, the random people who started taking pictures with me performing… I am still confused about where they posted it, but you do you I guess. (note: I am so intrigued and now want to see how bomb I look in their posts :) )

When it became time for the parade, since the colorguard is now coach-less, it was up to us four captains to lead the team to continue our performance and procedures in the traditional way. As many members were lethargic and unenthused about the daunting tasks of the night, I knew we were going to run out of time and be late – something that is never acceptable in marching band. To be proactive, I began yelling at the team to hurry up and gave them specific times to be ready by so we could avoid the late-ness. In hindsight, I feel as though there must have been a way to avoid the yelling, I just did not find the time to take a breath and think about how to accomplish our tasks while keeping the energy up. 

All in all, we were not late and our performance slayed the house down. To grow from this, I plan on talking to the team about how the captains can communicate all the things that need to be done that are told to us by our far-away coaches while maintaining a boosted morale. 

Leadership is all about adapting and how you treat others. In my core values WNB, I connected the main point of leadership to:

• Acceptance

• Accountability

• Appreciation

• Cheerfulness

• Collaboration

• Community

• Commitment

• Contribution

• Cooperation

• Dedication

• Dependability

• Enthusiasm

• Flexibility

• Humidity

• Inclusiveness

• Knowledge

• Learning

• Making a difference

• Mindfulness

• Optimism

• Open-mindedness

• Passion

• Performance

• Proactivity

• Quality

• Recognition

• Reliability

• Resourcefulness

• Responsibility

• Service 

• Teamwork

• Understanding

(Ok, well that may seem like those were my 250 words, I promise I am way over that limit) All of these words are necessary to include, because they can be related to a good leader: they describe an individual with attributes that help them and others accomplish a certain goal. 

The most important one I have learned this weekend is humility. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be; however, learning from mistakes – like the yelling to hurry people up – is the only way you can grow. It is ok to admit that you messed up, oftentimes people think leaders are the ones that are the best and never mess up, but the leaders that stand out are those who admit their failures and persevere and come out stronger than before and maintain passion throughout.