My March Madness: Wrapup - To Where My March Leads

To celebrate March 4th (March Fourth - get it?), I kicked off My March Madness series.  Throughout the month, it was my goal to explore how my time marching in the Saints Drum and Bugle Corps provided the foundation for many of the skills I came to find as essential in leadership. 

Jane Kise's Intentional Leadership served as a great touchstone for many of the experiences.  The specific skills I referenced throughout the month included networking, relationships, individuality, and personal development (Lens 1);  loyalty, accountability, visioning, and optimism (Lens 4);  as well as balance and discovery (Lens 12). 

Skills aside, there was something nagging at me throughout the month, some story I felt I was leaving out somehow.  As such things sometimes do, the missing link hit me smack upside the head last week with a Throwback Thursday image I posted to Facebook.

The "likes" and comments kept coming, and coming, and coming.  Many were from my Saints Siblings and Corps Cousins, remembering who that person in the picture was back in 1974.  Reading what they shared forced me to step back and think about what influences had the greatest impact on me at that time in my life.  Simply put?  It's when I learned Servant Leadership.

As Robert K. Greenleaf (2002) explains, "The servant-leader is servant first ....  It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.  Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."  The simple action of me wrapping up the rope used to space out stanchions on the competition floor brought it all back.

We were surrounded by servant leaders in the Saints.  Parents who drove buses, crafted equipment, hunted down opportunities to march and perform.  Instructors who worked for next to no money, and even had to wait for that.  Judges who would stop by a rehearsal to give us a critique before the season started.  
 

Just some of my Saints family ...

Even more than experiencing servant leaders, we were encouraged to serve one another.  It's how I ended up doing everything I did BESIDES march while in the Saints.

Did we have our share of "leaders first," as Greenleaf describes?  Sure.  Truth is, they didn't work out very well in our corps culture.


I'm fortunate that I'm able to "give back" as a servant leader these days as part of the Catholic Community of St Matthias, and am forever grateful for those lessons learned during my drum corps days. 

Thanks for following along with my March Madness!

Interested in how my consulting services can help you
improve focus on leadership skills?  Contact me at parentehrg AT gmail.com.  

Three Things I Chuckled About This Week

First, there's been LOTS of press and discussion over the new euphemism for separation and divorce coined by a couple of popular entertainers.  At the same time, to / too / two, there / their / they're, and dozens of other homonyms continue to be abused without little regard.  Don't even get me started on misused apostrophes.

Next, I wish that all those who complain about the crazy, cold Spring we've been having here in Jersey could have been with me Thursday.  I stood in my front yard for a bit, entertained by a lone robin tenaciously harvesting a reluctant worm for its morning meal in sub-freezing temps.  When done, it gave me a "what the heck are you grinning at, lady?" kind of look before it hopped off to another spot. 

Finally, in a way I would not have expected, I received inspiration for the wrapup My March Madness related to leadership skills I learned in drum corps.  While it will be posted on March 31st, here's the photo that triggered it all:

Thanks for listening.  See you Monday!

  

 

Three Things I Appreciated This Week

Just to be clear, there were LOTS more than three things I appreciated this week, but I'm trying to stick with my original format ...

First, having the means and ability to travel is a gift I will never take for granted.

Boyton Beach, Florida

Next, the opportunities I've had this week to photograph so many different things / people / events have been exhilarating.

Tufted Cormoran, Flamingo Gardens, Davie FL

Sabatino Verlezza, Loretta Fois - RVCC Faculty Dance Recital Tech / Dress Rehearsal, Branchburg NJ

Alan Chesnovitz - Al Chez and the Brothers of Funk, JP Stevens HS, Edison NJ

Finally, I think it's really neat that so many of the "kids" I marched with in the Saints Drum and Bugle Corps still get together after all these years - even though our corps disbanded over 35 years ago.

Just some of my Saints Sibs in attendance at the Al Chez and Brothers of Funk concert.
L-R:  Patty Antol, Mark Scotto, Karen Parente, Lisa Wagner, Jack Bodzas, Lorraine Ravino, Valerie Fair, Kathy Donnelly, Maureen Fastuca.

Thanks for listening.  See you Monday! 

My March Madness: Part 3 - Leadership, Drum Corps, Limits, and Opportunities

Jane A. G. Kise's 12th Leadership Lens, Balancing Limits with Opportunities, takes on so much meaning when I think back to my marching days.  One thing in particular, though, sticks in my head and won't leave.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we had a great sense of loyalty to one another, and to the vision of being champions.  Particularly in the Saints Color Guard, the more adept we became at handling our equipment, the more we experimented on our own.

During breaks in rehearsal, or even before or after, it was common for members of different sections to "play around" with their flags, rifles, or sabres to come up with "work" - the movement and handling of equipment to match the music and a particular part of marching drill.  Discovering different movements or equipment positions was fun and exciting for us.  Execution of those movements required quite a bit of practice to perfect the work to a level high enough to include in competition.

At first, the limits on what would eventually make it into the competitive drill were set by our instructors.  Having a better sense of what it would take to achieve championship status was the wisdom they brought to the process.  By our final winter season, though, we, the marching members, had achieved a strong enough sense of balance between the opportunities for creative movements, and the limits imposed by the judging system, for us to choreograph much of the equipment work.

Did we succeed?  You bet!

A moment in the drill when simplicity spoke more strongly than equipment work.

Saints Color Guard, in our earlier days.

Interested in how my consulting services can help you
improve focus on leadership skills?  Contact me at parentehrg AT gmail.com. 

Three Things I Recognized This Week

First, no matter how much I prepare myself, I always struggle with fasting and abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday (yes, I realize there are more stringent religious fasts out there - I'm weak, I admit it).

Second, I'm so grateful to be surrounded - physically and virtually - by wonderful people who are generous of heart, of time, and of resources.

Finally, while I had a sense before I began my March Madness series of how much I learned in drum corps about leadership, I'm actually surprising myself that the stories keep pouring out of me the more I write about it.  In case you missed the first couple of posts:

• March 4:  My March Madness: Part 1 - (Almost) Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Leadership, I Learned in Drum Corps
• March 7:  My March Madness: Part 2 - More Stuff I Learned about Leadership from Drum Corps

Thanks for listening.  See you Monday!

My March Madness: Part 2 - More Stuff I Learned about Leadership from Drum Corps

The year was 1967 when the Saints Drum and Bugle Corps of Fords, New Jersey, held its first registration nights and rehearsals.  My sister Karen and I were among those 100+ kids who signed up as members right away.  One thing we all had in common?  None of us had ever marched before, and most of us had never even seen a corps in competition.  Yeah, I know - that's two things. 

As members, we really had no sense of the big picture when we started.  

Parades?  Yeah, we got that.  Field and floor competition?  No clue.  

While my memories of that first year are mostly pleasant, I can't imagine the challenges the instructors and Board of Directors faced.  How do you share the vision needed to get such an organization up and running?  How do you remain optimistic while doing so?  

I'm pretty confident that much of what happened back then was management by the seat of their pants.  Here we are, all these years later, and I discover that those wise parents and other adults were "balancing reality with vision," or the 4th Lens described by Jane A.G. Kise in Intentional Leadership.  

As the weeks and months progressed, we learned to be accountable to one another.  We understood the importance of every rehearsal, and how we couldn't march forward if there were holes in the ranks.  We purchased windbreakers with the corps' name and logo on the back, and proudly wore them to school (and every place else, truth be told!).  

We marched together in our first parade in April, some nine months after the first rehearsal.  We soon had the chance to see other color guards and corps in competition, filling out the vision of where we were heading.  

We stuck it out, and grew.  We learned how to march in drill patterns while playing drums and bugles, or twirling flags, rifles, and sabres.  It wasn't pretty in the beginning, but we held each other accountable to get better with every rehearsal and competition.

The loyalty, accountability, visioning, and optimism paid off.  Three Aprils after that first parade, our Saints Color Guard won its competitive season chapter championship.  Our guards and corps continued to rack up championships and awards after that - all made possible with that balance of vision and reality.

The first championship flag earned by the Saints Color Guard:
National Judges Junior Color Guard and Corps Association, Chapter 3 Champions, 1971

Interested in how my consulting services can help you
improve focus on leadership skills?  Contact me at parentehrg AT gmail.com. 

My March Madness: Part 1 - (Almost) Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Leadership, I Learned in Drum Corps

You just don't know what life experiences will come back to serve you in another context.  In my case, time spent decades ago while marching in, or providing other support for, activities related to drum and bugle corps still serve me well, time and time again.

For the uninitiated, the best way I can describe what drum corps meant when I marched is for you to think of a college band half-time show, done military-style.  We marched and performed year-round, independent of a school affiliation.  Our members were as young as 9 and as old as 21, after which you "age-out," or are no longer eligible to march in a junior drum corps.

So, what were some of the leadership skills I picked up during that time?

In her book Intentional Leadership, author Jane A. G. Kise describes 12 different lenses, or ways to categorize leadership priorities.  The 1st Lens, Outer and Inner Focus, sounds really complex in drum corps terms until it's broken down:

• Networking and Relationships (Outer Focus) - this describes our connectivity with others.  In the case of the drum corps I joined (as well as in most others), we were together constantly.  Rehearsals, parades, competitions, tours were all opportunities to develop the skills of working and playing together in the literal sense.
• Individuality and Personal Development (Inner Focus) - Besides the section, guard, or full corps rehearsals, we each spent individual time practicing skills needed for our chosen piece of equipment (flags, rifles, sabres, drums, bugles).  Just ask my dad about how many overhead light fixtures my sister Karen and I smashed while practicing with our guard equipment in our bedroom ...

Discord in the ranks, or lack of practice by some individuals, is easily spotted and measured in performance.   By nature of the activity, members have no choice but to develop these skills - and to keep them in balance - to remain competitive.  

For the rest of the month of March, my posts will explore the spectrum of Kise's leadership lenses. I promise, it will take you Just a Minute to read each one.  In the meantime, Happy March Fourth!

 Me, just before a competition while on tour during my age-out season

Interested in how my consulting services can help you focus on leadership skills?
Contact me at parentehrg AT gmail.com. 

Three Things I Realized This Week ...

First, January and February slipped by very quickly for me this year (translation:  yes, that means I still have Christmas decorations to store away).

Second, keeping a fairly constant wakeup time each day (around 6 am) serves me well, and has for a long time.

Finally, almost everything I ever needed to know about leadership, I learned in drum corps.  I’ll be sharing some of those unique lessons throughout the month of March.

Thanks for listening.  See you Monday!