shutterstock_99691559I knew a businessman who was partly responsible for the demise of his company. As an executive, junior to the president, he proposed, and his president disposed, disposed, that is, of the young executive’s ideas. His answer was always an adamant and automatic no. The junior exec locked into his position, advocated it with extreme vigor, and the president, hoping to retain him, finally yielded. Together they made disastrous decisions for their company. There was no cost-benefit analysis. It was my way or the highway. Whatever you propose involves risk, sometimes a great deal of it. The Alexander Technique teaches the skill of navigation between risk and reward. Every moment of a lesson empowers choice. The technique teaches the businesswoman the art of staying back, removal from the fray, the ultimate position of power. The businesswoman, armed with the Alexander Technique, knows that there is no inherently good course of action, only choices between alternatives, each with its own set of risks. The alternative to “A” is not “not A”, but “B,” or “C,” or finally, perhaps, “A” revised. The businesswoman learns to be a chooser so that neither she nor her company wind up as the loser. She learns to enlist rather than insist. A recipe for success in any endeavor.