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“LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE BALLROOM WORLD”

Concept


The ballroom world offers vivid illustrations of leadership lessons that extend far beyond the ballroom into the boardroom and into our personal lives. Lessons such as the importance of close, respectful partnering, the equal importance of both “leader” and “follower,” the ability of two people to dance as one, being fully present mind, body and spirit, dancing full-out and fearlessly, executing your present step because this is what “produces” your next step or your future and how beating yourself up over a misstep (the past) is what will mess up your present and negatively impact your future.


Components 

 

  • Presentation by Patrice Tanaka, serial entrepreneur, public speaker on life and organizational purpose and best-selling author of books, including Becoming Ginger Rogers…How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO. Patrice will talk about leadership lessons from the ballroom world that helped her grow her business 800 percent by close partnering and co-founding two successively larger companies.

  • Ballroom dancers will demonstrate some of the “lessons” Patrice will talk about including:


     - “Close, Respectful Partnering and the opposite
     - “Dancing as One” and not dancing as one
     - “Equal Importance of Leader and Follower”
     - “Dancing Full-Out and Fearlessly” and not doing so
     - “Being Fully Present in Mind, Body and Spirit” and what not doing so looks like

What Participants Will Learn

 

  • The importance of close, respectful partnering with colleagues and clients

  • The equal importance of both leaders and followers in the success of a winning team

  • The ability to perform as one team to succeed and win

  • The importance of executing full-out and fearlessly as key to success and winning

  • The importance of being mindful and fully present when working with colleagues and clients

  • Staying highly attuned to verbal and non-verbal signals (body language, energy) to respond in the moment and make necessary,” mid-course corrections

  • Remaining focused on what is needed to successfully achieve the team’s/organization’s stated goals and objectives


Format and Length of Workshop


90 min “live”

75 min “virtual”


Cost


TBD, depending on specifics of engagement.

Man and woman are imitating dance in off
Businessmen And Businesswomen Dancing In

“BUILDING TRUST IN A WORKPLACE OR ON A TEAM”

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Concept

Employees who trust their employer engage more strongly in the following behaviors: Advocacy, Loyalty, Engagement and Commitment, according to Paul Zak of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University and author of Trust Factor: The
Science of Creating High-Performance Companies
(2017). Zak says that employees at “high-trust” companies, compared with those at “low-trust” companies, experience less stress, more energy at work, higher productivity, fewer sick days, more satisfaction with their lives and less burnout.

 


Components 

Zak's eight management behaviors that foster trust in the workplace, which can be measured and managed to improve performance, apply equally to building trust in a champion ballroom partnership. Fundamental to building trust with these eight management behaviors on- or off the dance floor is “respectful partnering.” These behaviors include:

 

  • Recognize excellence. Rather than focusing on what’s not working in an effort to improve performance. Dancers will demonstrate this idea.

  • Induce “challenge stress.” There is a difference between “negative stress” and “positive stress” – one helps you to grow and get stronger, the other employs force to maintain control and takes more energy and is debilitating for employees/teams. Dancers will demonstrate the difference between the two.

  • Give people discretion in how they do their work. In a dance partnership, the leader
    sets the direction and timing, allowing the follower to express and finish the movement
    and line. Both have contributed, invested and have ownership in the creative execution;
    the same is true in the business world. Dancers will demonstrate this idea.

  • Enable job crafting. As in winning ballroom partnerships, Zak’s research reveals that members of successful teams are encouraged to contribute their talents, expertise and passion to help achieve the organization’s goals and objectives. Dancers will provide a visual demonstration of how “job crafting” creates greater engagement and investment in a partnership or team.

  • Share information broadly. Not doing so often results in inefficiency and chaos within a ballroom partnership or team/organization. Conversely, sharing information so all parties are operating from the same understanding, using ballroom’s “Magic Partnership Board” and the formula of Create Vertical + Create Space + Create Shape, will result in beautiful, championship-level partnering on- and off the dance floor.

  • “Intentionally” build relationships. Ballroom champions are the result of many carefully built, respectful relationships over time, beginning with the dancers and their partnership, and the relationships they build with coaches, judges, competition organizers, sponsors, students, among others. No ballroom partnership on- or off the dance floor becomes successful without years of intentional, productive relationship building. The same is true in the corporate world.

  • Facilitate whole person growth. The most productive, high-performing teams and organizations focus on both personal and professional growth. Moreover, by helping individuals become more of who they are will be able to nurture distinctive thinkers and innovators. A popular saying in the ballroom world is that “no one becomes a champion by dancing the way everyone else dances.”

  • Show vulnerability. This is often perceived as a negative in both the corporate and the
    ballroom world. However, actively listening, being open, receptive, and admitting when you don’t know something is refreshing in both worlds and can lead to greater/faster learning, trust, ability to build stronger partnerships and success.

What Participants Will Learn

  • Building trust is KEY to success in any kind of partnership on- or off the dance floor​

  • How recognizing excellence in others will elevate the level of the overall partnership or team.

  • The difference between “negative stress” and “positive stress” in creating successful outcomes for teams and organizations

  • How to develop strengths of individual team members in a way that serves employees and the overall goals and objectives of an organization

  • Why bringing our “whole self” to work is a winning strategy

  • That trust is what makes doing business possible, easier and pleasurable

  • Being transparent and sharing information broadly is essential to building trust

  • The importance of “intentionally” building respectful relationships and “institutionalizing” this practice within an organization

  • The power of “vulnerability” to learn and grow more quickly and build trust


Format and Length of Workshop


90 min “live”

75 min “virtual”


Cost


TBD, depending on specifics of engagement.

“LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT”

Concept

The impact of strong leadership on an organization’s performance and productivity is clear. The important link is strong followers who are invested in the success of the enterprise. “It stands to reason that if leadership is important to performance, followership must have something to do with it too,” according to John S. McCallum in the Ivy Business Journal. Lawrence M. Miller from the Institute of Leadership Excellence elaborates, “Leadership requires followership and following is an act of trust, faith in the course of the leader, and that faith can be generated only if leaders act with integrity.”

 


Components 

Contrary to what one might think when watching ballroom champions perform, the roles of “leader” and “follower” are shared by both partners. And it is this easy “give” and “take” in seamlessly switching between these roles that creates a winning partnership and performance. The leader is the one to indicate the direction and timing, but the partners switch between who is the driving force and produces the power to deliver the movement.

 

This presentation communicates the following points and includes demonstrations by dancers, including:

  • Begin with a “Clear Vision and Strategic Plan” with demonstration by dancers

  • Provide "Clarity of Direction” with demonstration by dancers

  • "Empower and Elevate One Another” with demonstration by dancers

  • “Maintain Focus” throughout with demonstration by dancers

  • "Share Your Passion. It’s Contagious!” with demonstration by dancers

  • “Stay Humble, Keep Your Ego in Check" with demonstration by dancers

 

What Participants Will Learn

  • The equal importance of both leadership and followership

  • The clearer the shared vision and strategy the more each individual can deliver a
    winning performance and help the partnership/team succeed

  • How leaders and followers can empower and elevate one another to build trust and
    respect

  • How critical it is to maintain laser-like focus on each step, which produces the next
    successful step to build towards achieving the end goal

  • The importance of sharing your passion to energize yourself and those involved in the
    shared endeavor

  • How putting the needs of others ahead of yourself can create a winning team
    performance


Format and Length of Workshop


90 min “live”

75 min “virtual”


Cost


TBD, depending on specifics of engagement.

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