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. Involvement in the arts is critical to a comprehensive education and extends into the disciplines of Leadership.
Authenticity: Genuine Creations
Question: Do I act in a manner that is true to my beliefs and that clearly articulates who I am and what I stand for?
(art: The Supper at Emmaus, Han van Meegeren; The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer)
“We assign aesthetic value to works that are expressions of the artist’s personal beliefs and to artists who act on what they genuinely mean and feel- and place much less weight on artists who ape the actions of others or who actively try to manipulate others without having their own personal commitment to what they do. We admire those who take risks and excel at the creative process. This is true in any discipline, whether entertainment, science, business, etc.
“Therefore, reproductions don’t command as much respect or attention. Harmless imitations that simply can be ignored become appalling when there is an intentional attempt to disguise the truth for self-interested purposes.
“It can be said of an organization that is the product of an authentic leader, that it is peerless. It has a distinct status that attracts outsiders…One thing an authentic leader and his or her organization are not is boring.
“By definition, authenticity implies risk. When you copy, you are following a path that is known and worn. It is a safe path, and there will be no accolades for having taken the truest route available. Still, in most companies, the safest path is the easiest and most convenient to take. Even if the proven path later becomes the wrong path, it is an excusable error in most organizations, because it was the most evident course to take. Indeed, in many organizations, it will be taken again and again until the action is massively and noticeably absurd that it no longer can be ignored or forgiven. Until that time, however, although it may no longer be the most advantageous route, it remains the road most often taken because it has a built-in justification for its use. The choice liberates our journeymen from blame.
“And this is why artists and great leaders are heroes in our society. They deserve to be, because they stand apart from the crowd by the work they believed in and the risks they knowingly took. They will be remembered at the extremes by history for their great successes or sensational flops. For good or bad, they tried.
“A great leader not only hones his or her own abilities, but enables and marvels at the good work of others, nurturing them as their talents warrant. The leader’s job is to help others become successful, not to falsely inflate or attribute accomplishments to themselves.
“There are many problems with forgers, but a contender for one of the largest is their lack of sincerity. Forgers have no convictions of their own. They will do what is takes to get what they want…Artists who dispassionately produce replicas of works have no belief system of their own- at least none that can be detected from their work. It is the same with leaders. Those who simply copy the work of others are hard to decipher, since they don’t reveal anything about themselves through their works. Without a reinforcing ideation voiced with zeal, we are left with the empty words of a leader and his or her shallow, transient commitments. These leaders lost their constituency by failing to take a stand. They flirt with the latest fads and are easily seduced by fashionable, but fleeting, ideas. They have no firm beliefs and, therefore, give us nothing in their work to believe in.
“Expressing what you think and following through in myriad ways is what a leader does. You won’t always win converts to your cause, simply because what you say truthfully may not resonate with some. However, for those who accept a leader’s commitments as their own, the leader will have won what may be most essential to the organization’s success, the followers’ allegiance.
Engagement: The Curious Culture
Question: Do I produce a challenging and intellectually stimulating environment where people feel compelled to take on issues and work hard to generate solutions?
(art: Las Meninas, Diego Velazquez)
“Great art in any medium is able to repeatedly draw you in and force you to seek out its embodied meaning through careful examination and discovery.
“Most good art keeps you coming back for more…In a word, art engages…The artist wants to present problems that will tap into an individual’s natural inquisitiveness. Engagement means having employees who are invested in solving the organization’s most demanding dilemmas by repeatedly exploring the evidence until solutions are conceived or discovered.
“The clearest way to get engagement is, first, to present facts that people can see and reflect upon…Second, the problem has to have a baseline of complexity…Third, the leader has to build a culture of inquisitiveness, allowing people the freedom to think for themselves.
Pleasure: Emotional Nourishment and Personal Enrichment
Question: Do I produce an enriching and satisfying environment where people are able to thrive and grow?
(art: Untitled (Sculptural Study, Five-Part Construction), Fred Sandback; The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Maya Lin)
“First, art should supply pleasure in myriad ways: it should be valuable, admirable, illuminating, awesome, enjoyable, and subjectively savory…Second, much of the pleasure in art resides in personal involvement and direct participation.
“If we could not feel, there would be no art. Indeed, if we couldn’t feel, we suspect that we wouldn’t care about leadership either.
“A great leader will, following the art critic and philosopher, Monroe Beardsley, keep people whole: enabling a sense of integration and a feeling of being restored- a hearty contentment that includes self-acceptance and self-expansion as fundamental components.
“Not everyone can be saved, but it is the leader’s job to keep people alive by preserving their intellectual and emotional health and sustaining their passion, so that they never figuratively drop out of the workforce. The way to keep people interested is to produce an engaging work environment that promotes rich interaction, contains alluring projects, and is welcoming of their participation and contributions. Foremost, the leader’s job is to maintain the convictions of all employees that they are capable and have something of importance to offer.
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we encourage students to have a clear understanding of their purpose, and give them reasons to consider the meaning and significance of their artistic pursuits.
Human Significance: Why Art and Leadership Persist
Question: Am I able to build a community that is cemented by basic human needs and concerns?
(wall sign: The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths, 1967)
“A critical value of art is its ability to show us something…in a different light. It forces us to examine our feelings, beliefs, interest, and values, not in order to reveal new, great mystic truths but to uncover old ones that make our lives special and worth living. Quite frequently, we share similar experiences and reactions to art as others: these emotional connections draw us closer together. We hunger for these affinities because we want to share with others those things that give us pleasure and have meaning. We want others to like the books and movies we like, for example, so that for a while we are able to occupy a common space in which we both take delight. That convergence of feelings and experiences builds communities.
“We can’t think of anything more profound than an activity that asks us to explore our priorities and values, examine the kind of lives we wish to live, and discover others’ tastes and interests that are most congenial to our own. When we want to separate, we send in the army. When we want to unite, we send in the musicians…When all else fails, art survives. It survives because it addresses what is common to all of us: our shared humanity.
“A true leader asks people to consider anew what has always been in front of them…The success or failure of a leader many times hinges on getting people to think about these very questions at critical moments- when there are decisions about right and wrong to be made.
“Art cultivates exchange, social cohesion, and intimacy.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we teach students the value and efficacy music and the arts bring into our community and culture.
Context: Right Time, Place, and Methods
Question: Do I manifest a distinctive management style, and am I able to adapt my style and approach in order to fit the conditions in which I am operating?
(music: “Helena Wanda Blazusiakowna” from Third Symphony, Henryk Gorecki)
“Leadership, then, doesn’t float around in a vacuum. Leadership operates in a context and has to be understood and evaluated within those parameters. The context includes not only historical precedents, but situational variables such as the organization’s culture and design. The context will affect how the leader executes certain tasks, but he or she always retains the ability to make modifications…Therefore, a principal task for a leader is deciding whether his or her goals and approach are appropriate for the context. Do the ideas a leader wishes to express fit with situational requirements and his or her stylistic inclinations?
“Tastes and conditions change. Art moves forward, and what is contextually understandable in one era may be incomprehensible in another.
“Good leadership, then, presupposes a healthy understanding of history about where things have been and where they are heading, with the more informed students of the past and the more intuitive students of the future having a better chance of success.
“Great artists are known for a style that is representative of their temperaments and personalities, which are embedded in their works. Minor figures emulate the style of others. The same can be said for greater or lesser leaders, but we add an important qualifier: great artists also know the conditions under which their style will work.
“You don’t have to change your personality or your belief system in order to recognize that circumstances may call for a different behavioral press from what you are most accustomed to and comfortable with. You want to find ways to play to your strengths, but you need to recognize that those strengths, under certain conditions, may become liabilities unless you are able to make adjustments.
We encourage students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to discover their uniqueness. Each student is different and will take a different approach and direction. It is our goal to facilitate each student’s journey by providing foundational skills and aptitudes that will help them discover their unique path.
Criticism: Take Me Seriously, Please
Question: Am I worthy of being judged and appreciated as a leader?
(poster: from the film Maniac)
“In order to qualify as art, the work must be able to meet a minimum threshold of artistic value.
“A primary aim of the leader is to make others successful and to achieve results that the organization requires for its continuation. However, when leaders only create interpersonal problems where they did not exist, obstruct progress, repeatedly demonstrate little tact by breaking confidences and verbally brutalizing others, then they neither should be taken seriously nor be held up as leaders. Indeed, such leaders should have their stripes ceremoniously ripped off.
“People who can’t manage others, shouldn’t, as they are missing the essential building blocks of excellence in leadership- such human traits as compassion, integrity, and gratitude.
“Let’s be blunt. It is hard to follow someone who espouses values contrary to what we know to be right and good.
“Organizational success is predicated on teamwork, and no one, no matter how good he or she is, should stand taller than the team. Good leaders worry about the welfare of the group first and foremost.
We hope to instill into students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the value of learning to appreciate and work with others in collaborative efforts.
“It has never been hard for us to fire high-performing lone wolves if they couldn’t abide by norms of decency. Why? We have never seen a group perform worse when the best but most egotistical performer has been let go…Disagreement is fine. Having to deal daily with disagreeable people is not.
In evaluating leadership, the authors conclude:
“A person may have done all the right things a leader should do without getting the results sought or the attention deserved because the market may not have been prepared for the offering. A foundation was in place, but it took time for the ideas to percolate before being embraced by an enthusiastic public. It is unfortunate, but sometimes great works sit unnoticed until someone, in retrospect, notes, ‘He was right all along.’
“Currently, the best chance of learning how to lead is to have had the benefit of good parenting and a first-company experience where leadership was seen as a specialty just like any other that cuts across an organization. The advantages of this corporate outlook are straightforward. First, companies that care about leadership watch people closely and give them timely feedback on their actions and performances, providing opportunities for up-and-coming leaders to observe and learn from more accomplished and proven leaders through mentorship programs; and using our criteria for assessment and feedback would help in the evaluation process. Second, these companies work hard to weed out leadership disasters, either channeling them in nonmanagerial directions and key sole contributor roles or pushing them out the door. Third, companies that value leadership give employees plenty of practice, trying them out on progressively difficult assignments with increasing supervisory responsibilities, offering them support and guidance as needed- and shaping their behavior, accordingly.
“In summary, we hope that we have appropriately illustrated…the quality of leadership- and that it is understood that when we say someone is a great leader, we mean more than he or she had a good year.”
We hope to inspire in the students of our music school in Odessa, Texas the values that produce great art and great leadership skills, as both are essential to success.
This was a unique book for me to read, in that it covered (rather successfully) the topics of the artist and the leader. Although their concepts were generally basic, the way in which they wrote was more beautifully and articulately stated than almost anything I have read in either discipline, particularly under the chapters, ‘Human Significance’ and ‘Context.’ This was a scholarly book, and I found the authors’ artistic knowledge accurate and refined, which made their leadership parallels palpable.