Microwave Leadership

How my dance group took a downward spiral

I used to be a member of one of the biggest and best Christian dance groups back in my University days.

However, the dance group failed because of leadership, microwave leadership. And to make matters worse, I witnessed its downward spiral.

You see, life teaches us many things. If you live through life without learning from mistakes and taking lessons, you will die a disappointment.

Many of the lessons I’ve learned in my lifetime are some of the stories that I share in this newsletter.

Today’s story is from lessons I’ve learned concerning leading oneself and leading others.

Leadership is very important and as John Maxwell observed, everything rises and falls on leadership.

Our dance group categorically boasted of being part of the top 3 best dance groups in school, conveniently sitting at number 1.

I had just gotten admission into pre-degree and because of the issues some students were having with admissions, classes had not started (if you schooled in Nigeria, you would know what I’m talking about).

So, I was young and idle in the University and I needed something to keep me busy. It was only natural that I joined the number 1 dance group in the school.

My sister, who was already in her third year happened to be friends with the dance coordinator of the group, so she hooked me up.

I passed the interviews, the dance tests, and all the things they required and I became a member.

Unfortunately, all the boys and girls who made the school shake with their dance steps graduated that year, so I never really did meet all of them (except a few who came around to watch our rehearsals).

Also, a new president had been appointed, and he would go on to become the president for 2 years in a row.

We would tour other Universities in Nigeria and wow them with our dance steps and our musical talents (yes, it was a music group too).

Even though we were paying meagre amounts in monthly dues, our feeding and transportation were all covered.

I found out later that we had a matron, a woman whose daughter was a non-technical member (we call those who didn’t dance but did other things in the group ‘non-technical’).

To be honest, this girl was very instrumental to the group’s well-being.

Apart from being the daughter of our matron, she was the one who cooked the meals and covered the welfare of the team. We loved her.

2 years later, the time came for the current president to hand over as he was graduating that year.

There were, of course, competent people who I was sure could carry on leading the group, I was very sure of two at least.

But everyone was shocked when the president handed over to the daughter of the matron. A 19-year-old shy girl, who was skilled in looking after the welfare of the members.

Now let’s not get confused, looking after people’s welfare can mean so many things, and for the lady, it meant ensuring everyone ate and was taken care of during our dance tours.

Everything rises and falls on leadership. A new leadership by a new leader, who wasn’t well baked in the oven would only lead to the downward spiral of the team.

If you want to lead a better team in a better organization or community, you first need to be better at leading yourself.

I used to have this vain desire when I was in elementary school.

I wanted to become a teacher when I grew up so that I could flog my students with pankere (cane in my local dialect).

But when I grew older, I realized that it was a stupid and childish reason to want to become a teacher.

Many people think that leadership is about being the boss. Telling people what they could and could not do, bossing their subordinates around, and being very silly.

Our new president was that and more.

After she became president, her mother’s support tripled, but what it led to was an unbridled tongue.

During our weekly Sunday evening meetings at the student union building, she would hurl insults at those who were still late on their dues.

If she caught you whispering to another person while she was speaking, she’d scold you in a rather offensive way.

She’d walk you out of meetings just because your phone rang and if you dared to come late to rehearsals, say bye-bye to your membership.

And because of that people started to leave, we were losing members to the rival dance groups and our rating was plummeting.

I remember one day, we were going for ministration in a school that was two states from ours, and a fight ensued between our president and one of the female dancers.

As usual, the president started to hurl insults and would shut down anyone who tried to interfere.

It became so bad that the driver of the luxurious bus that was transporting us, who had been pleading with us to stop fighting, parked the bus and went to sit far from us.

The lady who was quarrelling with our president came down and boarded another bus back home.

As soon as she left, some guys who were also supposed to dance in the ministration came down too and boarded another bus back home.

The rest of us on the bus had very minor roles in the ministration, yet our president asked us to continue the journey.

I have foggy details about what happened when we got to the school for the ministration, all I could remember was that the national president of the dance group (we had a national president because the dance group was present in about 7 Universities in Nigeria) came to our school to have a meeting with everyone.

As a leader, if you want to consistently make the right decisions and never do or say things you’d regret, you must have good character and be self-disciplined.

I want us to take a look at things from a different perspective, the president’s perspective.

She was suddenly launched into a leadership position she didn’t prepare for. She may or may not have been told that she was going to be handed over to, I do not know of that.

She had to lead a group of young adults, of whom she was one of the youngest.

She was consistently pressured (by her inner self) to take the group to higher standards than what her predecessors did.

She alone had to bear the burdens of finances, the welfare of the team, and the leadership demands.

And she also probably never had reliable assistants.

Leadership is a burden, and it can be very overwhelming.

I currently lead a creative team of over 40 people in my Church. Many of them are photographers, graphic designers, video editors, copywriters, and so on.

All of these people are volunteers, so there’s no salary motivation to keep them committed.

They can either decide to do the task assigned to them or not. Although, there’s a penalty for not completing tasks and there’s a reward for completing tasks none of these things directly contribute to their well-being.

Now here’s the thing, how can you lead a team of volunteers who think they have nothing to gain if they did the work, came for rehearsals, participated in meetings, etc. and have nothing to lose if they didn’t?

Sometimes, it gets overwhelming for me that I think of running away from the group. But I realize that to lead well, I must be intentional.

I must constantly inspect myself so that my team can respect me. I must meet the expectations of the people that have appointed me.

There’s more to being a leader than just bossing people around, just like there’s more to being a teacher by flogging your students with pankere.

The lady led the dance group for 2 years until she graduated. By then, only about 5 people (of which some were her friends and cousins) remained.

Good leaders know that power can be seductive and so they deny themselves of ultimate power.

Each one of us is responsible for ruling our actions and decisions.

I have been part of other teams that had tyrannical leaders, and I don’t plan to be one myself. So I know to keep myself from overstepping.

I want to leave you with this: Judge your leadership by the success of your team. If the people working with you are growing and improving, then you’re doing well.

Only your best will add value to others.

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