What you can learn from watching your colleagues
If you are following Tights and Tiaras on social media, you might already have heard that I quite recently joined the Győri Ballet company in Hungary, and are just getting started in the theatre that will be my home for the foreseeable future. In other words, I could have just sat down and written the post about being ‘the new guy’ all over again. I’m not going to do that, but you can head over there and check it out if you will.
What I want to share with you today also has a connection with being the new guy at work. As you get into your daily routine, you (or, at least I do) start looking around a bit, curious of your new colleagues – are they good at what they do? How do they do it? What are they doing differently than me?
If you use the resources in the people around you to grow, you’ll learn a lot, and it builds great relationships, too! The perfectly cliché picture is borrowed from wcet.wiche.edu
Seeing your colleagues work for the first time, or with fresh eyes if you will, can be a really inspiring and instructive experience. If you pay a little attention, you may notice a trick, a certain way of approaching something, or just a philosophy towards the job that you can use and benefit from. Even if it’s a bad way, if your colleague is doing something wrong, you can still benefit from it. It makes you think – ‘what is the right way to do it? Which way works best for me?’. And that makes you grow!
My colleagues in Győri Ballet seems to be an excellent group of dancers that I can learn a lot from. Some are already showing interest in helping out, letting me know just how that pirouette is going to work, or where to put in that little extra effort! It’s a great feeling when a dancer in the company shows a little attention towards you as the new guy. It makes being that new guy a lot easier. Note to self: When meeting a stranger, give him a tap on the shoulder, and you’ll have a new friend. It’s all it takes.
I think learning from the people around you is a great way to improve, and that goes not only for ballet dancers! Everyone has something they can teach you, you just have to look, or ask!
What have you learned from your peers lately?
See you soon,
Ta-Ta
H
