The following contains excerpt from the book, Every Leader Is an Artist (Michael O’Malley, William F. Baker).
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we believe the arts and music are much more foundational to education than is currently believed in our culture. The emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (or, STEM) is not a complete education. Involvement in the arts is critical to a comprehensive education and extends into the disciplines of Leadership.
This is a book in which the authors take examples of revered works of art, expound the history in which they were brought forth, and apply those historical lessons to successful leadership. The tag-line of the book reveals the concept, ‘How the World’s Greatest Artists Can Make You a More Creative Leader.’
“When appraising leadership ability, then, our solution is to assemble a set of criteria that most everyone would agree is essential for leadership excellence…Leadership is a creative discipline, and we need to give it some space. Leadership won’t be viewed the same way at all times and in all places…our approach allows us to use the same universal criteria for all kinds of leaders at all organizational levels- without having to create new categories or resort to fine and unnecessary distinctions.”
“Leaders and artists both give us perspective on our social condition, good or bad, and greater appreciation of our world, ourselves, and our choices. They challenge, excite, comfort, and motivate. They bring us closer together by providing a forum for shared experiences and forging a sense of community. Leadership and art animate social encounters and have the potential to change lives in ways that are as invigorating and real as if hit by a wave.”
“These are our 12 criteria:
- Intent. Makes an express commitment to achieve certain exceptional ends
- Focus. Uses various verbal and nonverbal means to highlight certain features…to separate the important from the trivial
- Skill. Demonstrates mastery or virtuosity over the…way the work is accomplished
- Form. Combines myriad communications, structures, policies, etc., into a unified, coherent whole
- Representation. Produces nonobvious and captivating ways of conveying meanings as opposed to giving simple directives and making straightforward declarations of fact
- Imagination. Makes surprising and unconventional departures from the ordinary that created a new sense of awareness or understanding
- Authenticity. Presents stylistic distinctiveness that is an honest expression of individuality and personal beliefs
- Engagement. Offers complex and challenging information that encourages intellectual effort and imaginative contemplation
- Pleasure. Provides emotionally rewarding experiences that are shared among members of a group, promoting stronger interpersonal bonds and fostering personal growth and fulfillment
- Human significance. Facilitates personal reflection about who one is, what is most important, what is culturally valuable, and what is possible
- Context. Takes actions that are commensurate with institutional practices, customs, demands, and norms, adopting a style of communicating that is understandable and appropriate under given circumstances
- Criticism. Is an assessment of the leader’s behaviors, where the effects of those behaviors invite critical discourse and evaluation from others regarding how well a person performed and the amount of appreciation he or she should be afforded
“Character clearly is important to leadership, and we have described basic traits that are critical to a leader’s success elsewhere. These are compassion, gratitude, humility, humor, integrity, and sincerity. Collectively, these attributes make great leadership possible, or, in their absence, difficult. Their presence does not assure leadership excellence, but it does set the range of potential. This means that some people will never excel at leadership because their character will never permit them to develop fully or to execute with nuance and craft.
We encourage students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to carefully consider the value of developing a good character, as it affects every aspect of making music as well as leadership.
Intent: Leadership Begins in the Mind
Question: What am I trying to accomplish?
(art: Impression- Sunrise, Claude Monet)
“A corporate culture that encourages risk taking and accepts intelligent mistakes may alleviate the fear of trying. If you want more daring leaders, then a company needs to make some allowance for human error.
“Intention is critical to leadership because it distinguishes serious attempts to lead from the mindless doodlings of dilettantes…intention counts toward leadership because it represents the leader’s commitment to realizing an idea. If a leader has no good ideas or lacks a desire to see reasonable ideas through to fruition, then that leader had better excel in some other way.
Focus: Emphasizing the Center of Attention
Question: How will I focus, or frame, the action on what is most important without relying exclusively on words?
(drama: Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road), Temporary Distortion)
“Creating something alluring doesn’t happen by accident…has to be different from what is routinely available in our daily lives. The frames on paintings act in the same manner as frames around action in live performances. They isolate the work from their surroundings and accent meanings. Reframe a work, and the meaning changes with it.
“Good organizations think their employees are special and are pleased that they have elected to join the company.
“One definition of both art and leadership is ‘the distillation of chaos.’ It is an ability to choose the essential for presentation and eliminate the distractions.
We encourage students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to know how to focus on what is important, giving them the framework to make those distinctions.
Skill: If You Are Incapable of Doing It, It Can’t Be Done
Question: Do I have full command of the medium, methods, and techniques that will allow me to excel?
(sculpture: The Burghers of Calais, Auguste Rodin)
“We can’t think of any individuals offhand who accomplished anything of significance without first dedicating themselves to a discipline and preparing for the inevitability of lifelong learning. The latter point is worthy of emphasis: because art changes, the artist has to change along with it. The same applies to leadership. It is not something that is learned. It is something one learns and continues to learn indefinitely.
“It is the leader’s job to possess ample expertise so as to be of value to others. This doesn’t imply the need to know the answer to every possible contingency that may arise, but to know enough to consider the relevant variables. It also is the leader’s job to fully understand the context in which people work. That includes knowing the fundamentals of the industry and related industries, the business content and imperatives of the specific discipline, the operating procedures and processes to efficiently accomplish the work, and the capabilities of people in order to use them to their fullest potential through proper placement.
“Leaders have a sixth sense…they don’t see dead people…but they know how far and how long they can push their organizations until the people and materials begin to quiver and cracks begin to form. As we have heard fine leaders say, they know when to let up on the gas before the outcomes of their work are compromised.
“Leadership contains two underappreciated skills, both highlighted in the Rodin piece. One is to recognize and communicate things as they are without the spin to which we have become all too accustomed…The other is the use of symbolism to reveal and underscore unspoken truths.
In our music school in Odessa, Texas, we hope to provide the coaching to each student that gives them the capacity to rise to their level of competence, becoming skillful in their art and, ultimately, leadership.
Form: Putting It All Together
Question: Have I assembled the various communicative devices into a coherent whole that presents a uniform message and direction?
(art: Composition in Black and White, with Double Lines, Piet Mondrian)
“The simple can be so beautiful…One of Mondrian’s gifts was an ability to visualize patterns through the clutter…Unity is one of those essential components of art that produces art’s seductive effects.
“The idea behind catastrophe theory is that little things can make a big difference…Small changes, big effect…Our point is that quite often these adverse events happen gradually.”
Representation: Many Ways to Say Things
Question: Do I use a full range of methods of communication, including symbols, to unambiguously convey my points?
(art: Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake, Utagawa Hiroshinge)
“One of the interesting facets of art is that is frequently doesn’t come straight to us from the artist. Film, theater, and symphonies all require a host of intermediaries to bring a work to life. Directors, actors, conductors, and musicians, for example, are called upon to deliver a message. These intermediaries put their own imprint on things, and if they are good, they add value.
We encourage students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to find their unique voice in their creativity, as well as seeing a range of possibilities in their approach.
“We have two comments regarding the use of intermediaries. The first is that these intermediaries are called middle and upper-middle management in companies. They are the conveyors of representations. They are the ones who can transform a marvelous work in to a thing of beauty or into a dud…they are fundamental to the entire work.
“The second point is that talented intermediaries will want to put their individual mark on a performance without compromising the spirit of the work. We thing this is a good thing, as it allows room for creativity and surprise. Classical composers, for example, left room in their compositions for improvisation that gave the performers allotted space to demonstrate their virtuosity.
Imagination: Social Constructions and the Land of Make-Believe
Question: Do I produce imaginative, original, and stimulating ways of conducting business, and have I created a company where inspired thinking thrives?
(novel: Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf)
“The difference between great writers and the also-rans is that great writers use more sophisticated and refined methods of eliciting our imaginings and establishing a place where we can feel and understand the emotions and attitudes of the characters.
“It is up to the leader to be imaginative and to inculcate imagination in others throughout the organization- excluding no one.
“Some of the worst leaders, in our estimation, are not the ones who can’t think resourcefully or boldly but the ones who don’t because they insist that veering from standard protocols and orthodoxy is not permitted or somehow strangely unlawful.
“Imagination, then, requires a connection to the past that grounds our imaginative experiences and gives our beliefs plausibility. This is why we think that the preservation of corporate histories is vitally important and, even given a change in organizational direction, should never be completely abandoned. It is each person’s link to the past that allows that individual to enter a speculative place and accept its possibilities.
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we believe imagination is one of the most important practices a musician and artist can participate in, and we encourage each student to continually see new possibilities.