Leadership = Dancing in the Moment

I had the honour and the pleasure of attending a wedding on the weekend. Anyone who knows me will tell you that my favourite part is always the dance floor. My cup was filled to overflowing.

Leadership is a lot like dancing. Sometimes we have great moves, sometimes we have magnificent failures, but we have to find the rhythm and keep dancing.

I’ve seen two spectacular failures of dance moves at weddings and been part of one myself.

1) A woman moved into the circle of dancing guests and attempted a headstand. It was well executed, but as her head hit the floor and her feet swept into the air, her flowy dress fell straight down to her waist. She will likely think about wearing undergarments in the future when attempting such a move.

2) At this most recent wedding, I witnessed a male guest jumping onto the back of one of his friends for a piggyback ride around the dance floor. As his legs swung out around his friend, the seat of his pants split wide open. Thankfully he was wearing undergarments and I imagine he will think about his attire before attempting such a move in the future.

3) My own amazing wedding dance move was years ago. My dance partner was swirling me around in a fantastic spin, let go of my hand and I spiralled out of control to do a dramatic skid on my side across the floor. There were no resulting injuries and I laughed it off and kept dancing.

My Lessons from the Dance Floor

· Think ahead about your vision and what you want others to see

· Be aware of your limitations so you don’t split your pants

· Keep going when you stumble and fall

There are always opportunities to screw up. That’s what it means to step out and lead (or to step out onto the dance floor). Just keep dancing. At least you’ll have more joy while you’re doing it.