Stand Out then Blend In: Ideal Leadership for Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement: Lead, Engage and Blend In.

Waltzing into leadership. I encourage you to watch this popular “dancing” video from the Sasquatch Music Festival. It begins with one guy “dancing”…another guy waltzing in…joined by a third and then the tipping point. Stay with it to watch the crowd take over.

Leaders disappear into the dance. The analogy to employee engagement is that leadership and managers can play a big role in fostering and enhancing employee engagement but the best leaders disappear into the dance of engagement once it has fully evolved.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. ~ T. S. Eliot

Leadership overexposure. I see far too many “leaders” with such a strong focus on themselves. Their image is splashed across book covers and corporate publications. It was inspirational to see the leader disappear. It reminds me of Lao Tzu’s statement: Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, “We did this ourselves.

Stand out and blend in:

1. Do you have the courage to lead the dance?
2. Are you willing to stand out and then blend in?

If the video fails to load in this window, click here.

I learned about this video from Mike Troiano who writes the blog Scalable Intimacy – Branding in the Age of Social Media.

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David Zinger is a leading expert on employee engagement. He is committed to creating authentic and sustained employee engagement for the benefit of all. Contact David at (204) 254-2130 or Email dzinger@shaw.ca.