When Leadership Pays Off

 “Leadership is an affair of the heart: Highest performing leaders demonstrate affection and caring for their followers. Great leaders also love their work.” --Jim Kouzes and Barry Ponser’s “The Truth about Leadership” as presented by Terry Riedinger.

Incorruptible opened today.

I was so nervous and unconfident when I woke up this morning that I almost threw up. I’ve never been so nervous for an opening. It wasn’t that I didn’t think my team was prepared – I didn’t feel that I was prepared. I didn’t feel that I could handle running the show.

But worrying about it and telling myself I wouldn’t be able to do it wasn’t getting me anywhere.

So I took the afternoon to relax, review, my cues, and let my stress go.

And it worked.

Call was at 6:30pm. Dave had added a few sound cues to cover transitions, so I got my light and sound operators together to run through them. When I was confident and they were comfortable with the changes, we moved to fight call. The actors ran through their fights successfully.

House opened at 7:00pm.

There was such a rush at the box office that we had to hold the house for almost fifteen minutes.

The audience was incredible – they loved the show. They laughed at the jokes and even cheered for Jack’s pitiful jester’s routine.

By the time the show was over, I had no doubt that we had created the best show we could create.

I am so incredibly proud of my cast and my crew – all of their hard work and dedication paid off in the end. All of my stress and long hours were worth it and I wouldn’t change it for the world. That feeling of pure joy and pride in what we accomplished as a production team is why I love my job. Knowing that I was able to facilitate the success of my cast and crew is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Moments like that are all I need to feel fulfilled and successful.