Leadership, Management, and Coaching

Business leaders of today and tomorrow need to develop themselves into Dancers - people who are comfortable dancing on their toes and the balls of their feet and able to move easily in different directions.  Dancers are strong, limber and nimble. As the business environment continues to sort itself out, what is apparent is that change will be a constant.  

The speed of communications has changed our workplaces as well as added complexity to our relationships.   We are all dealing with enormous volumes of material and information.  If we are going to take advantage of opportunities, make sense of all of that material, manage our relationship - personal and professional - and stay quasi-sane, we need to be dancers - GREAT DANCERS.  Dancers stretch. They know that without stretching their muscles become inflexible. The same is true for the Leaders of Tomorrow.

Knowing what muscles to stretch and how to stretch is important for Dancers.  Let's see what muscles you need to stretch:

Leadership, Management & Coaching: Every business leader - YOU - needs to wear each of these hats and to become very adept at knowing when, where and with whom to wear each one.

Leaders are the ones who look into the unknown areas of the "future" and create a future. They do not get paid to say what is already predictable.  Great Leaders throughout history were, are and will always be those who have the courage to be accountable for creating a future - an unpredictable future - and being committed to that future turning into a reality. 

Managers are those who manage "that future" - the unpredictable future - into a reality.  The management must insure that what is NOT predictable happens.  Most people take the path of least resistance.  What is predictable is meritocracy - to excel requires moving beyond what is predictable and mediocre.  To excel, we will have to have a system, structure, support of some sort that keeps us on track for what we aspire to. Management is required to establish the structure, system and support for anything beyond ordinary, mediocre results.  Management is also required to give us milestones and opportunities to step outside of our daily actions to assess our progress.  Management is essential for achieving great results and moving from mediocre to Extraordinary.

Coaches are being used in every endeavor of modern life.  There are coaches for; marriage, raising children, elementary school to professional sports, dancing, singing, investing money, publishing, and the arts.  It is generally accepted that "anyone who wants to be great at anything will get coaching.  Tom Landry, a Dallas Cowboy football coach says "a coach is someone who makes you do what you don't want to do so that you can be who you always wanted to be."  This is one aspect of coaching - a very large aspect.  Ordinarily individuals will sell out on their dreams and aspirations.  Another aspect of coaching is that a coach can see into what we call "your blind spot" and by doing so will give you access to better performance.