What You Say Is What You Get®: Positive Leadership Power from Dr. Linne Bourget, September, 2018
The Dance of Lead and Follow--What Can Dance Leaders Teach You about Leadership?
Advancing the Dance of Lead and Follow as a business metaphor, I interviewed 20 advanced,
all star and champion dance leaders, all competitors, at a recent convention. I asked what
was the most important thing to do as a leader in social dancing?
Why These Leaders and This Question?
1. These higher level competitors have training and experience to provide wise insights..
no beginners...like my executive clients.
2. In social dancing, they lead all levels of followers, like business leaders with employees.
3. As competitors, they understand and are proficient in dealing with a competitive
environment (dance partners, judges, audience, music, floor, fans/supporters/friends, competitors, social media, international conventions), like business leaders
have to adapt to dealing with employees, customers, strategic partners, competitors,
media/social media, and global market dynamics.
What Did They Say Was the Most Important Thing to Do as a Leader?
What Do These Dance Leaders Teach You as Business Leaders?
Here are their top 6 responses/priorities, in this order and the business leadership
implications of each:
1. Keep my partner safe, no injuries. This is crucial for the advanced dance moves I enjoy
and the turbulent global market requiring advanced leadership! This is analogous to a
business leader protecting the business and employees, via physical, financial, psychological,
and cybersecurity strategies. Advanced leaders do this well!
2. Adjust my level of dancing to hers. This is the Collaborative Leader, skilled enough to
adjust his/her communication and leadership strategies to different levels of employees
for creating greater relationships in business.
These higher level leaders understood this well. This is crucial for leading in the complexity
of the global market with demands for rapid change and innovation, and for talent retention,
so employees feel seen and heard.
3. Smile, make her feel good, comfortable, be positive. This reflects the need for leaders
to create a positive culture by offering positive energy and communication. My current
Manual for the Strengths Awareness System in my What You Say Is What You Get®
Positive Leadership Series discusses this in depth. Only a Positive Culture can support
successful FAST change and innovation and strengthen keeping your best talent.
“Business momentum follows positive energy
and is destroyed by negative energy.”
Dr. Linne’s Power Quote
4. Give her a great connection. This relates to having the leadership skill to know how
to connect with different personalities and styles in business, a crucial skill, while keeping
your own leadership strength and skill present to guide interactions.
5. Be aware of how I impact her, relax, be calm and mindful of my leading, my partner,
and the music. This means being able to attune to those you lead, seeing your impact
on them, not just focusing on yourself as leader. This is essential for success as a
Collaborative Leader, and crucial for leading rapid innovation, now a major challenge.
Millenials expect this, so retaining their talent requires this.
6. Give the lady a clear signal, leads that convey what I want. This sounds basic for business leaders, but often leaders’ messages leave room for multiple interpretations and confusion. Sorting this out and resolving the difficulties caused by this wastes your company time and money! Clarity is money in the bank and creates higher employee engagement. This is highly valued in dance leadership, and leaders at this level immediately apologize when they (rarely) give an unclear lead. Unclear leads happen more often
in business, as leaders may not realize theygive unclear leads.Many executive clients’
messages have a different impact than they intend due to lack of clarity.
A beloved Senior Vice President client in a Fortune 150 firm joked about leaving. His entire Division was upset! I spent the whole day undoing rumors and re-assuring them he was just joking! No other work got done! He did not intend to or realize he would upset them!
Economically and psychologically expensive!
“No leader can be the forest to his/her own trees”.
Dr. Linne’s Power Quote
How Do You Rate? If I interviewed your leadership team, what would they say?
1. How safe do they feel?
2. How well do you adjust your communication to their level?
3. How positively do you come across, making them comfortable?
4. How well do you connect the them?
5. How aware are you of your impact on them?
6. How clear are your leadership communications?
In my experience, clients rarely do all these well at first...they need to build their skills in order
to succeed, so always be willing to invest in building your skills!
I appreciate all of your positive leadership.
Peace and Prosperity,
Dr. Linne
"Build on Your Best" Giving you the power to predict, profit, &; protect
Dr. Linne Bourget M.A. M.B.A. Ph. D.
www.oldpowernewpower.com www.whatyousayiswhatyouget.com
Pioneer, strengths-based leadership, Master Intuition System
Founder/CEO 480-767-1717 Institute for Transformation Leaders& Consultants
Strategist, Consultant, Speaker, Author of From Old Power to New Power – Which Leaders Will Survive?
Co-author with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra, Amazon #1Bestseller, Wake Up, Live the Life You Love - Finding Personal Freedom
Author, What You Say Is What You Get® Series: The Secret Language of Great Business Results
Dr. Linne's Leadership Guides Series Positive Quotient PQ® Questionnaire Appreciative Quotient AQ® Questionnaire Secrets of Powerful Appreciation for Parents and Children, 2 CD Audio by "Dr. Appreciation" Appreciation: The Secret Key to Magical Marriage "The greatest challenge is taking complete responsibility for your own greatness." Dr. Linne Copyright 2005-2018. All Rights Reserved. Dr. Linne Bourget, M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D.
