lead is defined by follow.
A guest post by Reed Colver
“The first follow is what turns a lone-nut into a leader”
I have always been intrigued by leadership.
What is it, what does it mean, how does it work? Who is a leader?
When I began dancing at Paso, I discovered that my greatest challenge was not to lead, but to learn how to follow. Being someone who tends to take the more challenging route – for better or worse – I decided to learn how to follow.
One of the many struggles I faced in this choice was overcoming my own preconceived biases of being a follow. In particular, the one that tells me ‘it’s all about the lead.’
Well, yes.
In many ways it is. The lead chooses the timing, moves, space, and other elements of the dance. The follow needs to be aware of the lead’s choices and how to work with them.
However. Per an earlier post, what happens without the follow? What happens for the lead when the follow doesn’t engage? Plods along and just does what she’s told? Or doesn’t do what she’s told?
One of the roles of the lead is to make the follow look good. A good follow makes that easy for the lead.
How?
Understand the basic principles of the follow. Be aware. Be willing to stick with your lead – regardless of what he or she does next.
Know your own dance. Know the music. Know your body. Find the moments of creativity … and DANCE!
The follow, you see, also makes the lead look good.
This Ted video with Derek Sivers looks at leadership through a spontaneous dance mob that was started by one crazy guy dancing on a hillside.
It’s worth watching (go for it – it’s less than 4 minutes long) but the bottom line is this: It starts with the shirtless guy as the leader. But as Derek Sivers points out, it’s actually the first follower to join him who transforms him from a crazy shirtless guy, into a leader.
Follows – without us, the lead is just a dancer doing his/her own thing. We are what turns the lone-nut, into a lead.
Related posts:
Any hints on how to stop the follow from trying to predict the lead’s next move?
Ah – trust me – you are not the only one! I’m still working on it, but for me one of the key things is to try and get my head out of my dance…start feeling and stop thinking so much. I actually wrote another blog post on this a while back, and it still rings very true for me!
http://www.thecubansalsablog.com/2009/09/feeling-your-fingertips/#comments