Team Work: In the working world, one of the most important skills you can possess is to know how to effectively be a part of any team environment, whether you are the leader or whether you are a team player. Cheerleading taught me to depend on my team members just as much as they are depending on me to perform at my best level and deliver my part on time, every time.
Competition: Cheerleading is a competitive sport—with all the rules, regulations and restrictions that go along with any sport. As a cheerleader, I trained with the knowledge that success is only achievable when everyone works together. In the business world, there is an organizational chart, with each branch building to a lower level. In Cheerleading, we built literal pyramids—with every part depending on the foundation to stabilize the levels above. While the analogy is crossed, the necessity of those members to work together is the same.
Flexibility: New routines are created and learned each week. This takes dedication, as well as creativity to keep coming up with new material that is competitive, as well as entertaining. And when we are required to integrate new rules into competitive routines at the last minute, that flexibility training pays off! In every business that I have pursued in my adult life, I have always been rewarded for having flexibility coupled with creativity and a cool head.
Getting the Job Done: Anyone who believes that cheerleading is easy has never been one. Try learning a new routine in 4 hours and then performing it the next day (sore muscles and all) to a crowd of 20,000. Working with or leading a team is hard work that requires skills you often see in people who have succeeded in the business world.
Despite dwindling school budgets and program cuts, today’s cheerleaders make the most of the resources handed to them and in situations such as the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) adjusting some rules and loosening up guidelines, it is the daredevils who figure out how to make the most of it. I’m sure we’ll see those same daredevils go on to greatness by creating the newest technologies or finding ways to work through tough situations and come out at the top.
