This year, I have been practicing how to recognize the people in my organizations. In The Student Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, the last practice is called "Encourage the Heart." Encourage the Heart is about building community, recognizing contributions, and celebrating victories. As Kouzes and Posner put it, "When social connections are strong and numerous, there’s more trust, reciprocity, information flow, collective action, and happiness – and, by the way, greater wealth.”
For the past seven years, I have been supporting my middle school and high school's theater department. When I was a freshman in high school, I was asked to become the head of the set design department. My junior year, I became Peak to Peak's technical director. These past seven years have taught me tremendous amounts about what it means to be a leader.
In our theater, we have a long standing tradition called "Senior Speeches." These speeches occur right before the last show of the year. Each senior is given a chance to reflect on their time in theater and shout-out anyone who has supported them along the way. I knew that by me leaving, someone else was going have to fill my roles as technical director and head of set. During my Senior Speech, I expressed my gratitude to the set department and announced who would be taking my roles after I left. Part of my speech was reserved to celebrate the new technical director and their accomplishments. I handed them a bouquet of flowers as a thank you, and told them how excited I was for them.
That night taught me just how important it is to publicly celebrate victories. I have never been a very outgoing person, and the idea of a speech Infront of a group of people scared me. Still, I knew that it was important to recognize this student for their hard work. I realized that it was easier for me to talk about someone else instead of myself, and I found myself feeling more confident after the speech. In our field experience to Medtronic, we learned how important it was to have your mission and vision public and visible. Your mission and vision explains who you are and why you are doing what you are doing. Although it was scary to be vulnerable during my speech, I knew that it was impacting others.
Although my time with theater is now over, I will take every experience I have had in the past seven years with me into college and beyond. My leadership journey has taught me that creating personal connections with the people I work with has real influence. When you are involved with every level of your organization and seek to know the people you work with, these celebrations will be more meaningful because you will have been there every step of the way.
