Boooorrriinng!!!

Leaders must display energy -- " but not raw energy," cautions Gaulier. " Energy must be trained into impulse, spirit, élan." The problem with most leaders is that, even if they have energy, they stay in their mind. " When you stay in your mind, you don't have fun, dreams, or spirit," says Gaulier. " You can't tell a story."

Gurus of leadership and directors of theater insist that their work is played out entirely in the realm of the psychological. That's why most leaders, like most actors, have developed terrific subtlety of range -- but only from the neck up. To play the role of the leader in its entirety, facial and vocal expression are not enough. Outstanding actors, like outstanding leaders, have always brought their whole body to their roles.

Isabelle Anderson believes that training a leader's body should not stop with developing strength, flexibility, or coordination. " You could do 100 sit-ups and still look uninspiring," she says, " because doing sit-ups doesn't develop awareness or consciousness of what's being expressed by your gestures." In other words, leaders must develop a body that is an expressive instrument, not just a physically fit instrument. They must develop an intelligent body.

" We have lost so much awareness of the body as an expression of who we are that we lead only from the head up," continues Anderson. " But basically, we are animals. When two animals meet, they size each other up quickly: friend or foe? Dominant or submissive? We have only a fraction of time, a few seconds, to establish our authority."

Drawing on Lecoq's and Gaulier's teachings, Anderson analyzes bodies according to energy types: "We are each predominantly a head, a chest, or a hip personality," she says. "Head people are distinct because they walk with their head leading the way--preceding their body by an inch or two." Head people tend to define their roles intellectually and relate almost exclusively with others through ideas, numbers, or concepts. They leave those who are not on the same wavelength out in the cold.

"Chest people are concentrated in their lungs or their voice," says Anderson. "They may walk with their chest out and talk in a constrained voice. For these people, everything is about passion, breath, inspiration. They can be easily exhausted: They may use up their energy on a role that is too inspired, too airy, too difficult to follow.

"Hip people stand firm, hips and legs solidly planted, feet square on the ground," she continues. "Their energy never flows any higher; they are not inspiring. Hip people tend to be rooted, conservative. They give off a feeling of heaviness and determination."

Assessing your energy type helps you locate your energy blockage. It helps you find the points within you that are dead--the points that keep you boring. Then it's a matter of distributing your energy so that it flows through your entire body. As your energy moves through your body, you gain size and authority. The most mesmerizing figures are those whose entire bodies communicate energy. Those are the leadership bodies.

Anderson leads her clients in exercises that center their energy. Head people stand barefoot and wiggle their toes. They are told to walk consciously--heel, ball, toe. When you walk with energetic intention, you communicate that intention to others. At the same time, you become unaware of others. Magically, crowds clear. An intentional walker can part seas.

Anderson has a different exercise for chest people. She teaches them how to breathe from the stomach, to break the blockage in their lungs. "Breath is connected to the mind," she says. One exercise that she teaches chest people is how to deepen their breath in order to help their mind become steady and clear: "Put your hand on your abdomen, breathe in, and count to 10," she says. "Notice when you breathe whether that hand comes into your body or away from it. When most people breathe in, their hand goes in. When they breathe out, their hand goes out. That's wrong, and it shocks most people to learn that. When you breathe in, your stomach should expand, so your hand should move out. You become bigger when you are filled with breath; you can use that to push out big emotions, to make complicit connections.

"You must always have a deep breath under your voice," she continues. "Otherwise, speaking is nothing more than your will. And that is never as effective a sound as when speaking is your conviction. Breathe properly, and your conviction will speak."

Hip people are instructed to lean forward in order to engage the mind and become more leaderlike. The leadership body uses energy to communicate spirit and excitement. "It is," says Anderson, "as much a requirement as being slim, fit, or healthy."

Playing Yourself As Big as Life