What business can learn from dancers

I love the book The Big Moo authored by one of my favorites Seth Godin. This was one of the books that got me hooked to the thoughts and ideas of this brilliant marketing guru several years ago and I still follow his thoughts and writings today.

In this book, he says that businesses can learn from dancers. I read the section and I have decided that not only businesses can learn from dancers, but working people like you and I as well.

This is what Godin says: Great artists are always looking to leave their mark. While some dancers are driven to become brilliant interpreters of others’ work, they are not unique. Remarkable artists are al­ways trying to find a way to put their own signature on their work. They try to tell their own story. They simply can’t perform like everyone else. The message: Be like an artist. Better still, be an artist.

Jack Cole was a dance innovator who worked out of Holly­wood. He was a mentor to many famous dancers. Uniquely, he incorporated East Indian dance into his style, taking it out of its pure form and jazzing it up. He’d add a shoulder roll, a flick of the finger. The dance became his.

Bob Fosse a student of Cole’s, took that style, put his own spin on it, and made it fly. An award-winning dancer, choreographer and director for Broadway and film, Fosse was not known for his stellar technique. He was often accused of having “bad feet” (feet that turned in instead of out), terrible posture (he hunched, an absolute no-no for a dancer), and poor flexibility. But Fosse used his awkward, atypical style to his advantage. Instead of forcing himself into positions that were just too foreign for his body, he incorporated his bad habits into an original style that became his trademark. Instead of hiding who he was, he flaunted it, and Fosse’s choreography became a landmark. Instead of pandering to others’ expectations of style and form, he did something new.

Isadora Duncan wanted to move differently, to go beyond her classical-dance background. For her, the work needed to be different. So, she let her hair down, took off her clothes, and danced in a new style. Duncan had the ability to express her ideas with charisma, humor, pathos and abandon. She took that bold leap and she succeeded. She broke away from the dance conventions of her day to emerge, virtually unchallenged, as the mother of modern dance.

None of these artists followed the form’s artistic norms. They were the misfits and the oddballs. Each, in his or her own way, set out to do something brand-new and timeless, utilizing what was inherently unique inside. And each of them was uniquely quali­fied to do just that.

Many people go into business because they envy other people’s successful businesses. And so they copy. And they offer not an ounce of originality and the only tool they have is to compete through price-cuts. These things do not last. Businesses need to add a certain touch of originality, creativity and inventiveness into their menu of offerings.

This is the same principle you find in leadership. You do not copy the leadership style of your bosses unless you emulate the good qualities. Still, you have to come up with your own unique personality and leadership style that would be relevant and timely in tune with the changing business landscape.

Now, I don’t dance and I have the sense to understand that my body struggles with poor parts coordination but after reading Godin I was greatly encouraged.

I don’t have to speak like other speakers, I don’t have to write like other writers and I certainly do not need to live the lives of others. God has made me original. I am so original that the moment you shake my hands you are exposed to a unique set of fingerprints you will never again encounter until the next time we meet.

Defects, I have a lot but now I do not have to feel inferior. In fact, I can use them as my uniqueness.

Do not be a carbon copy. You’re unique and you are an original. You are not an accident of birth and there is no one in the world like you. So be an artist. Better still; be the best God wants you to be.

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