Have you ever heard of "leading from both the balcony and the dance floor?"
It's a concept that's part of adaptive leadership—a leadership approach that embraces and harnesses the critical thinking among your team and guides them to cultivate their own problem-solving skills so everyone's equipped for the constant state of change.
As leaders, it can be easy to observe what's happening in our organizations through the lens of a particular situation or team, and then act based on that information.
Adaptive leadership requires leaders to observe actions—and reactions—throughout the entire org. Doing that means "getting on the balcony."
When you’re able to observe the change or challenge at hand from a higher vantage point, communication and action patterns become more apparent. Being able to see from a higher plane can also help leaders understand the relationships that are formed—and the interdependencies that occur—as their organizations work to embrace change.
As much as we need to have that balcony view, adaptive leaders also need to “get out on the dance floor," as adaptive leadership expert and author Ronald Heifetz says. Heifetz says that great leaders are able to “simultaneously play the game and observe it as a whole.” He goes on to say, “Leadership is an improvisational art. You may be guided by an overarching vision, clear values, and a strategic plan, but what you actually do moment to moment cannot be scripted. You must respond as events unfold…moving back and forth from the balcony to the dance floor, over and over again.”
Heifetz’s words are a good reminder that leadership is always shifting depending on the understanding that we have. While today’s plans might make sense now, tomorrow you’ll discover the effects of today’s actions—and will need to adjust and adapt. And that cycle will repeat, over and over.
I'm curious, where are you leading from today? The Balcony or the Dance Floor?