Re-inforcing Leadership through my Passion : Dance

Dance has been a lifelong passion for me. Having been a classical dancer right from my childhood, I have always admired the influence it has had on me, whether I’m teaching, composing, learning or just practicing. It also reinforces my belief on how your passion can help you shape your abilities and behavior as a leader. To quote some of my own experiences;

1. Breaking /Changing Mindset barriers
1. Let me start with the most important aspect that has driven me in the past 3 years. I used to be a dancer for years. It was not just my passion, but had turned to be my identity. And then one day I stopped dancing. Stopped for a very long time, for more than a decade. Just because, my mind somewhere decided that I could not make time for it anymore. Though I was doing well in my life, my career, I realized I was a little bored doing what I was doing.  It was not aligned with my passion, nor did I have any fire, that was keeping my inner self-alive. I had to break this mindset. And I did break it  and started dancing again. My creative juices were out again. I was looking at my life, my work in a completely different way (as I also point out below), and doing much better , as I am at peace.
2. As said by Dean and Linda Anderson, "Leadership mindset and style set the overall tone for organizational culture and performance, including how change efforts are run”. Leadership requires yielding to overcome resistances in many situations to bring out the best out of the situation. A rigid mindset could be harming your leadership style. Sometimes, it’s very much required to break the barriers in the mind to overcome past mistakes, to overcome the turbulence and start afresh. A fresh start, a new style could change the whole world for an organization. As also in an individual.
2. Learning has no beginning, no end
   1. And, no age too. I still learn a lot by watching the videos of eminent dancers, constantly trying to correct my mistakes. It has now motivated me so much so that I have now started learning a new style of dance since a year. 
   2. You need to keep learning, learning from your own mistakes and triumphs, learning from others mistakes and triumphs, creating new methods, adapting to new situations, all the time. The day you say, “I know it all” and that would be the end of  your leadership. This ignorance and this attitude could lead to stagnancy and loss of focus and trust.
3. Be ready to be criticized
   1. Yes, be ready to be criticized. Whether it’s the senior teacher or the junior or dance partner, I am always open to their criticism. Because I have the awareness, that I lack the finesse because of the gap. And unless I accept that, I will never build the perfection required to be there on stage beside them, which is my wish.
   2. Always learn from the criticism. Look at what needs to be changed. Explain, what need not be changed. Be aware of your limitations. Help yourself and your people to move in the right path of success.
4. Understand and adapt to the strengths of your people
   1. I need to accept that most of my students are learning the dance forms for the first time in their life. My students are in our office :) Some are adept at synchronizing the hand and leg movements, and some not. Some can absorb the complex movements, some cannot. It is important then that I do not stick to the strict teaching methods, but adapt the movements so that each of them can learn easily and move to slowly do complex patterns. This has ensured that not all of them have fallen out of learning, and come back enthusiastically week after week (Of course, some weeks are lost out of sheer laziness :) ).
   2. Accept people's weakness, and focus on building on their strengths. Help people to slowly work on their weaknesses. This encouragement and positive attitude will only help an individual to be motivated to work better and harder to achieve success. Also builds a trust with the leader, which will only mean, more focus on the single goal of the team.
5. Work on the weakest link and convert it into your strength
   1. I believe in this strongly. When I once injured my knee, a couple of weeks before an event, I ended up being the sore point, as now it was impossible to perform some parts of the dance as it should be performed. So, my dance partner and I, re-worked on most parts of the dance by filling in with more of her dance and working on my still stronger sides, without any trace of a problem.
   2. Look out for the hidden strengths of the so-called weak links in your operational team. Be innovative in utilizing these hidden strengths. This hidden strength could as well turn to be a great team builder for the team, or could be a source of innovative, out-of-box ideas, or anything that could benefit or even surge the team's performance.
6. There are always multiple and better options of doing the same thing
   1. Multiple examples in composing new items, which taught me this fact. It was either following the traditional compositions we could follow, or create our own ways of telling the stories, every time adapting to the audience that we would perform for and ensuring the message goes across.
   2. Either there is a standard option, your option, or there are your people's options. Be open to discuss all options, but then, decide on the best option.
7. Practice, perseverance and patience are keys for success
1. Restarting dancing after more than a decade was not an easy task. Every pain, every failure was a push back. It was only patience, practice and perseverance that has got me through until now.
2. Have patience, every great success was achieved after long struggles, persevering with their beliefs, practicing to build on strengths of self and team.

PS: You may watch here :