The following contains excerpts from the book, Leaders Eat Last (Simon Sinek).
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we believe that music is not just sound. It is, at its core, relationships. When discussing the subject of relationships, leadership becomes an important topic. The model for leadership is the service-oriented model.
We hope to help students in our music school in Odessa, Texas, learn the values of service-based relationships and community influence.
“Leaders are the ones who run headfirst into the unknown. They rush toward the danger. They put their own interest aside to protect us or to pull us into the future. Leaders would sooner sacrifice what is theirs to save what is ours. And they would never sacrifice what is ours to save what is theirs. This is what it means to be a leader. It means they choose to go first into danger, headfirst toward the unknown. And when we feel sure they will keep us safe, we will march behind them and work tirelessly to see their visions come to life and proudly call ourselves their followers.”
“If good people are asked to work in a bad culture, one in which leaders do not relinquish control, then the odds of something bad happening go up. People will be more concerned about following the rules out of fear of getting in trouble or losing their jobs than about doing what needs to be done.”
The author enumerates, from World War I to present-day, how we have violated the above principles in areas of business and culture.
“Boomers were raised in times of rising affluence and prosperity…As our wealth and attitudes changed, we started to transform from a country that would fight to protect a way of life into a country that would fight to protect the way we prefer to live…They became a group that seemed to be more concerned about their own happiness and well-being than the happiness or well-being of those around them.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we want our students to learn empathy. Connecting with people, whether it be an individual or an audience, empathy is where the relationship begins.
In the 1980s “We were…becoming more and more comfortable with products having shorter lifespans…We were actually looking for more things we could throw out. And there was one other thing we started to view as disposable: people.”
In today’s world, “We no longer see each other as people; we are now customers, shareholders, employees, avatars, online profiles, screen names, e-mail addresses and expenses to be tracked. The human being really has gone virtual. Now more than ever, we are trying to work and live, be productive and happy, in a world in which we are strangers to those around us. The problem is, abstraction can be more than bad for our economy…it can be quite deadly.”
“When we divorce ourselves from humanity through numerical abstraction, we are…capable of inhuman behavior…The more abstract people become, the more capable we are of doing them harm.”
One of the greatest reasons our music school in Odessa, Texas exists is to help people get back to the basics of human interaction and community through learning how to make music together.
“Be it a politician or someone working in a company, perhaps the most valuable thing we can do if we are to truly serve our constituents is to know them personally…we often use the Internet as a means to expedite and simplify communication and the relationships we build. And just as money can’t buy love, the Internet can’t buy deep, trusting relationship. What makes a statement like that somewhat tricky or controversial is that the relationships we form online feel real.”
“Just as a parent can’t buy the love of their children with gifts, a company can’t buy the loyalty of their employees with salaries and bonuses. What produces loyalty, that irrational willingness to commit to the organization even when offered more money elsewhere, is the feeling that the leaders of the company would be willing, when it matters, to sacrifice their time and energy to help us.”
“Destructive Abundance happens when the players focus almost exclusively on the score and forget why they set out to play the game in the first place…For all the organizations that have suffered from Destructive Abundance, there is a clear pattern…There was almost always a leader who didn’t take their responsibility as a leader to heart. Once the Destructive forces of the Abundance really set in, integrity started to falter and cooperation gave way to politics until the people themselves became just another commodity to be managed, like the electricity bill.”
“A company of strong character will have a culture that promotes treating all people well, not just the ones who pay them or earn them money in the moment. In a culture of strong character, the people inside the company will feel protected by their leaders and feel that their colleagues have their backs. In a culture of weak character, the people will feel that any protection they have comes primarily from their own ability to manage the politics, promote their own successes and watch their own backs.”
Learning how to make music with others points to interpersonal skills in how to establish and maintain relationships within a community. The ability to listen, while at the same time assuming responsibility for one’s own part in an ensemble, becomes a deeper life-lesson than most would think. At our music school in Odessa, Texas we emphasize the importance of participation in musical ensembles as an immersive experience in learning life-relationship lessons.
“It is the leaders who decide what kind of environment they want to build. Will they build an inner circle around those closest to them or will they extend the Circle of Safety to the outer edges of the organization?”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas it is our goal to establish an environment of learning in which the student feels respected and encouraged, an environment where they feel safe and empowered to develop close friendships and relationships that last.