Recently I have been in discussion centered around leadership styles. It has been such a great time of discussion. We are currently looking at an article centered around the book "Primal Leadership- Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence". In this article it speaks of dissonance in leadership as negative. As a musician, when I heard this I began to struggle. In music, dissonance creates tension and enhances the sound. For example, instead of playing a 1-3-5 chord on the piano, which is very classical and clean, I drop the 3rd and play a 2nd (1-2-5). This creates a healthy, cool tension that a 1-3-5 chord cannot produce. Another example is when you hear people singing sweet harmonies. The tightest and best harmonies add dissonance in all the time, which create excitement, wonder and expectation. The key though to adding tension is the resolution, which causes the WOW factor. To just play dissonant sounds in music would be plain annoying and harsh, but accompanied with the resolution it is magic. As leaders, it is good to create some tension from time to time among those we are leading. It produces some doubt, enables questions to be asked and traditions to be questioned. It is crucial that we bring the resolution so as to not create dissension or chaos, but healthy dissonance is not something to avoid completely. It is also important, just as in music, to know when to use dissonance as a tool and when to keep it clean/resonant. As we lead, let's look for opportunities to add in healthy tension so that when the resolution comes it will bring forth growth and a response of 'WOW'.
