Lead the Conga Line

To be a leader, you must possess a magnitude of attributes:  trustworthy, responsible, creative-thinker, communicative, positive, goal-oriented, responsive, inspirational, motivated, driven....I can go on and on. I've been a leader for most of my career, but it didn't come easy. Some skills took longer to develop and some I learned by example. I've heard that we're all born with a particular style of leadership. Regardless of our innate abilities, I believe it's our behavior, attitude, and method of delivery that defines our success.

A leadership skill I haven't mentioned is the ability, or strength, to put yourself in front of others and start a process to accomplish a task. Call it, initiative. Uncomfortable? Can be. Risky? Certainly. I think of a soldier on horseback with his sword in the air yelling, "Charge!" Either the other soldiers will follow his lead or they'll back their horses up thinking he's crazy for charging. To get results, we must take the bull by the horn, get off our feet, and do. That's right....DO.

This brings me to the person who taught me this:  my 7 year old daughter. It was her first elementary school dance. We dressed her in a cute little outfit, dolled her hair all up, painted her nails pretty pink, and drove to the school. I glanced in the back seat and her cute, little face stared out the window as she smiled with excitement about her first school dance. My gosh, her legs didn't even touch the floor of the car! My little girl was going to her first dance.......and this was when the floodgates opened and thoughts poured out of my head like a raging wildebeest. Will she know anybody? What if nobody talks to her? Will she dance at all or be too shy? Will the other kids be mean? Oh my God, what if I pick her up and she's in a corner somewhere with tears running down her face all by herself? .....That's it, she's not going. 

"Mom, do you think my friend will be there?" she asked. With my tears and worry ready to detonate, I held back and replied, "I'm sure you'll have lots of friends there." Heck, I didn't even know if she had any friends because she was always so shy!

We arrived at the school and walked to the gym hand in hand. "Ok, Madison, have a great time and I will see you in two hours when the dance is over," I said as she walked slowly towards the other kids. I stood there for a minute wondering if I could just hide somewhere just to watch...you know, in case I needed to quickly grab her and go. But I thought, NO, THAT IS RIDICULOUS. I can't be hiding around the school. Or behind the stage curtain. Or behind some parent volunteers.

With much hesitation, I left the school gym.

Two hours later (on the dot!), I arrived back at the school. Hurriedly, I walked to the gym and started looking for my daughter. At first glance, I didn't see her anywhere. 'Oh my God, look in the corners,' I thought to myself. Nope, she wasn't there either. Where in the world was she? All of a sudden, I see a long line of kids in a conga line smiling and having a good 'ole time. My eyes popped out of my face because I'll be damned if my daughter wasn't leading that conga line! Sure enough, with a smile from ear to ear, dancing with her arms up in the air and moving through the gym with 20 kids behind her, my daughter was their leader.

After the song was over, I gave her a wave and she ran over to me to go. "Bye Lauren. Bye Becka. Bye Taylor. Bye Ryan. Bye Tommy.  .....and I was worried she didn't have friends? As we walked to the car I said, "Wow, Madison, you sure looked like you were having fun leading that conga line." She bluntly replied, "Well Mom, I wanted to do the conga. And if you have a good idea, sometimes you just have to get up and do it yourself."  Dang straight.

Erase all insecurities and take an idea you know is good and run with it. Lead the conga line.

Lesson learned from a 7 year old.