Balancing each other on the Teeter-Totter (or SeeSaw), the two elementary school girls personified a key leadership skill: cooperating with each other for their mutual benefit.

With that well-secured bond of trust, each can soar to new heights with the reciprocal action of the other.

But without that bond of trust linking these partners, one can come quickly crashing down when the other simply steps off the Teeter Totter and walks away.

That’s why the most trusting leaders always FIRST discern the consequences of their own actions on another.

Then they project those behaviors on to themselves with a greater sense of emotional intelligence.

Indeed the most trusting leaders FIRST see themselves IN the other person’s shoes — not stepping ON each other’s toes. After all, it takes two to dance the Tango of Trust.

Here’s a tool you can use to shine your dancing shoes, hone your collaborative spirit and generate the synergy to perform productively on your proverbial teeter-totter with others.

Consider purchasing a 280-page book that is available now on Amazon.com.

It is titled THINKING LIKE A LEADER.

That book on thinking like a leader is the first of three books in The Leadership Mints Series designed to help leaders refresh their feeling for leading with short stories (called Leadership Mints) you can grab ‘n go like a candy mint.

The two others books focus on leading with empathy LOVING LIKE A LEADER and leading with civility SPEAKING LIKE A LEADER.