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From The Carrot Revolution, Chester Elton's Blog

Dancing Management

February 02, 2010

At a conference this month in Birmingham, England I met the most interesting man. Christopher Head is a lawyer and his firm specializes in employment law in the UK. Their slogan is “Solving People Problems”.  But that isn’t what makes Christopher interesting. It is that he dances. And not just any dance: the Argentine TANGO.

Here is how he explains the dance itself:

Argentine tango is a dance of close embrace and improvisation. The leader (usually the man, but we live in modern times, and tango can be danced by m/f, m/m or f/f couples…it takes two to tango, but you don’t have to specify which two!) should respond to the music, and his partner, and the circulation of the dancers on the floor, and indicate (principally by change of weight and orientation of shoulders) the steps or figures that he is inviting the follower to take. This is the ‘lead’.

The term ‘the lead’ is where he caught my attention. What could this dance teach us as managers and leaders of our teams?

The ‘lead’ is an invitation, not an order!  The follower has the choice to ‘accept’ the lead and perform the figure indicated, or may perform some other step or figure than the leader expected.  Sometimes the follower does something unexpected that actually works very well, and the good leader leaves enough room for the follower to surprise him or her with greatness.

I believe the great leaders in business do just that; they invite people to join them in their goals and aspirations. They lead, they don’t command. Mr. Head continues.

When things go adrift, poor leaders blame the follower for not doing the ‘right’ (i.e. what they thought they were signaling) steps. The wise leader knows that it is never (well, only exceptionally rarely) the follower’s fault that the dance goes wrong.  If the lead was not clear, what makes that the follower’s fault? If the follower is inexperienced, it is the leader’s responsibility to dance simple figures that are within the competence of the follower. Push the boundaries a little so that you take the follower just beyond the point of her comfort zone into a place of exhilaration and excitement—but so that in reality the follower has little choice but to exceed her own expectations in the dance whilst all the time feeling cherished and held by the leader. This does not always work, but it is a good aspiration, and when it does work, the dance is truly wonderful.

Poor leaders blame their team. They make excuses. Great leaders take responsibility. When they allow their team the freedom to express themselves and take chances wonderful things can happen.

Christopher left me with this quote from one of his instructors: Every step with intention. Every step with commitment.

As in dance and in business, to lead is to invite and to create. It is rarely to command and to control. When we are committed to our cause and we give our people the freedom to create, great things can happen. And when a team can coordinate like the dancers on the floor in the Argentine Tango the results can be world class and beautiful!

To better understand the dance itself, take a look on You Tube at the two-time world champions Vincent and Flavia at Strictly Come Dancing 2009. And thank you, Christopher, for sharing such wonderful insight. I hope it inspires all of us to be more creative in our leadership and management styles.