Managers train throughout their lives, most often using traditional sources (continuing professional training, reading, experimentation, etc.). We don't think much about it, but there is so much to learn about leadership by creating observation bridges to related activities. Jazz is one of them.
If, on the surface, we can easily consider that the position of leader of a Jazz group is at the opposite extreme from that of business manager, the two practices in reality have a disturbing proximity in terms of leadership.
In fact, the life of a company is very close to that of a Jazz group: we choose our team, we get started, we pursue objectives, we have our own culture, we generate an image, we must stick to duration, grow to survive, and so on.
For you who are wondering how to manage a team , here are 11 very relevant tips collected from great Jazz musicians by Josh Linkner , New York “serial entrepreneur” and writer.
To get us in the mood, I suggest you continue reading by listening to “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck, timeless
Some decision-makers will tell you that in these turbulent times, taking risks is an inappropriate action. They forget that entrepreneurship finds its essence in risk-taking . Musicians will tell you that refusing risk is “playing small”. Risk is a parameter inherent to entrepreneurship. To refuse it is to stifle, limit creativity and innovation, and sometimes even to die.
For every hour of “live”, you should work 3 to 5 hours in advance. It is the preparation that launches the musician into a perfect performance and even offers him the luxury of improvisation. Why would it be any different for you in the meeting room or in front of your clients? Yes, your leadership needs work.
If you're the only one talking, you don't learn anything . Listen, absorb and use information to make conscious, informed choices.
You have won a project, well done, you are the boss. But never forget that you didn't win it alone and that your team needs recognition as much as you do . Thank her and praise her in public: without her, you are nothing.
Anticipate surprises and adversity! Calm seas never make an experienced navigator, the adage goes. Anticipate storms and involve your teams to stay the course.
Don't go playing Fats Waller in front of an audience of Django Reinhardt groupies. Fats Waller is good, but that's not the point, is it? If you don't know who you're playing for, it takes a lot, a lot of luck . I think you know that luck isn't always a word to put next to leadership...
You obviously live with an insatiable thirst to tell everything about your business. Your business is your life, you breathe your business. Do not do that.
Rather than giving up, tease! Make people want to know more! Don't launch 15 products in the same range, launch 2 and have your audience begging you to launch the next ones.
The leader's job is to ensure, during the sax solo, that the drums support it adequately. Your mission, if you accept it, is to orchestrate, to create synergy between the professions , to polish the relationships between your musicians and to extract the best from them!
If you drive the same route every day, you will learn to avoid potholes. Jazz works the same way: if you have played a combination hundreds of times, you will be able to associate it with another combination played a hundred times, then with another.
The same goes for your leadership. As a manager, you are the sum of meetings, deals, projects, procedures, you build your experience throughout your career. The fruit of this experience is the ability to combine the famous “patterns” to avoid potholes and create shortcuts.
A Jazz musician is paid according to the size of the room and its capacity. As in Jazz, shyness has no place in business . You are not in a process of introspection, your private life serves that purpose. You are there to give your all, that's what your musicians expect of you, that's what your audience expects of you.
Jazz has its roots in real-time and collaborative innovation, just like when you start and grow a business. If you are not actively constantly looking for new challenges and ways to expand your horizons, you stay on the sidelines : more often than not, there is no “lukewarm atmosphere”.
