Developing Leadership and Respectful Relationships in the Workplace and in Life
- John Lowry
- Sep 25
- 4 min read

“When you touch another person with respect, something happens” -
(Pierre Dulaine, founder Dancing Classrooms).
It is thought that dance predates language. We know that body language expresses underlying motivations and emotions that can be masked by speech. Dance, either as performance, or at a social gathering is communication at a subliminal level.
Tango, developed in the great port cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, on the River Plate, through the mixing of cultures and music, was distilled over fifty years into a powerful expression of love, loss, hope, meaning and life. It is a people’s dance, unique in place and time. This is why it was granted United Nations “Living heritage” status.
Because of its complexity of emotional context (not complex movements) Tango is not easily transferred. But it’s also the reason why it is beneficial as a training tool for business leadership, change management and today’s important topic - respectful working relationships.
Improvise
Change is inherent in today’s fast-paced business world. It requires teams to respond quickly and decisively to change, and improvise when required.
Tango is based on improvised movement. There are a few learned sequences that may be combined “on the fly” but there are no standardised procedures. Leaders learn to harness the power of improvisation and instant adaptation to new situations.
Change leadership becomes much more effective when leaders learn to improvise.
Profit from asymmetry
In Tango there is a clear role distinction between dance partners. It is clear who is setting the direction and who is performing this. It then instantly changes to allow the freedom to perform and to gently follow, offering just enough energy, but not inhibiting - until the next direction. This asymmetry is highly effective in providing clarity, a visible sense of direction and quick decision-making.
However, this asymmetry must not to be mistaken with dictatorial leadership or powerless submission of the follower, it must be based on a trustful and relationship instead.
Note: Direction and Directions are very different. With direction, the leader is creating opportunity for two people (or a group) to move together in the same direction.
Embrace emotion, protect pride
Tango is a performance of desire, passion, seduction, despair and the struggle for recognition. It therefore plays out a vocabulary of emotions, which are commonly unacknowledged in modern change management concepts. “Change management projects are emotionally charged – employees are proud of their work and this can be damaged in the process of altering the way things are done. Tango dancers protect each other’s pride during a performance by turning mistakes into deliberate moves. Good leaders should similarly seek to ensure their employees take pride in what they do, supported to shine, are pushed to their limit, but not beyond, and that their pride is not hurt in any upheaval. “ (Ralf Wetzel, Vlerick Business School)
Engage the senses
Tango simultaneously, intensely engages the senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell. It requires a high level of concentration to listen to and interpret music and to instantly convert the interpretation into action, via only sensing movements in the dance partner’s body.
The skill of "reading the room" is enhanced by the experience and learned ability to respond to signals beyond speech.
Human touch
“Touch is truly fundamental to human communication, bonding, and health. It is our primary language of compassion, and a primary means for spreading compassion”. Dacher Keltner PhD UC, Berkley.

Connection with other people, both physical and social is beneficial for physical, emotional and mental health. Tango offers very close non- threatening physical connection during the dance. Tango dancers quickly adopt the Argentine (and Latin) habit of embracing when they meet. Tango also provides a safe, healthy, non threatening social atmosphere for people to gather and socialise in a non-work, low-stress environment.
The Embrace
The embrace is central to the dance of Tango. “We embrace, connecting our bodies, closing our eyes, mixing our breath, walking every musical note”. “Tango is a 3 minute romance”. The tango embrace will emphasise the felt sensations of the embrace, rather than what it looks like for a detached observer, thus underscoring the importance of experiencing the dance for fully comprehending it.
Women are offered total agency as to who they choose to dance with, when and how.
At the same time there is a learned and understood etiquette, “the Rules of the Game” where individuals can confidently enter close working relationships, whilst understanding the boundaries.
Decision making (neuroplasticity)
Dance is known to engage more regions of the brain at one time than any other activity. Tango requires continual, fraction-of-a-second, decisions from both partners as they respond to one another’s subtle physical cues. These decisions are random and not predicted, or predictable (like golf or chess). Because of the random nature of many tiny decisions, the brain continually forms new neural connections. This aspect of Tango is an aid in the treatment of certain brain and motor- neurone diseases, particularly Dementia, Parkinson’s and similar motor-neurone complaints.

Creativity
Crerativity is driven by emotion, through the right side of the brain. However, in our modern Western world, we are encouraged to live in our analytical side. But innovation and invention occur when analytical skills are given agency to think and act more creatively.
Tango enhances creativity, by building stronger neural pathways to the connection between creativity and skilful action, At its best it is not a collection of rote-learned “figures” or “steps”. It is created from moment to moment, responding to the music, your partner and the people around you. As soon as it is created, it is gone.
Confidence building / skill development / teamwork / people management
Tango requires a level of skill and confidence. It also requires a sense of when to act and when to wait. It is an exercise in give and take, question and answer. That is why we call Tango a silent conversation between two people. These are life skills that are practiced in a dance.
Confidence, posture, balance and strength are all improved.
Tango requires a person to be centred. Even though a Tango couple are working intimately together, each one must be personally centred, in full control of their balance and actions for the dance to work.
It really is the dance of life.

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