Empowering Leadership and Music Articles
Each article uses our empower framework that we also use for our leadership coaching services.
… and the renewal of Virtue…
An interesting thing to observe through this season has been the increasing focus on Justice - that there are things that are Right and Wrong. That actually can be a good...
executing Virtue…
“It is 10 to the hour, and based on our agreement, this meeting is over. Thank you for coming, we will schedule a follow-up soon. And now you may all go to your next engagement”. Stunned is probably the best description of the people in the room, including me…
Virtue wonders….
To this day, I am known for connecting people and seeking out relationships to work through challenges and opportunities. I stalked a person for a year, who is now a good friend, and more importantly, a master Organist… and knew some Bach works that I should feature this week…
How are Virtues observed?
As I leaped out of IBM just before they laid off 40,000 people, I was fortunate to land a job at Fannie Mae. Their Vice-Chairman saw a Business Week article (remember that magazine…) about Software Reuse, and directed the CIO to pursue it. It makes sense – write software well once, and Reuse it over and over,
Virtue partners…
… some leaders who are stunning in their clarity and focus on what matters most – living out their values authentically for their team and themselves. I was honored to partner with one at VeriSign who went through many busy seasons with me, including learning to leverage RAPID for our team’s best…
Do you manage with Virtue?
Interviewing for my last “real” corporate gig, my peer was venting about his team – and how they were not “leading” like he wanted them to. I wasn’t a coach – officially yet – but asked what seemed obvious … “Well, have you told them what you expected?”
What Virtue engages?
It will not surprise you that I was a big fan of the early Woody Allen. His wry ability to engage the world around him by turning everything on its head has guided my life…
Can we engage The Middle?
Later this week will be the Spring Equinox – the day that we officially move from Winter to Spring (at least in Astronomy). The sun will be right over the equator at 5:01 am Thursday EDT, and thus within some tolerance, everyone on the planet has exactly the same amount of light and dark. So at least for one day, we all have about the same – The Middle…
The renewal of Surfing…
Where I was raised in Texas, we didn’t do a lot Surfing…. but we did do a lot of water skiing. As I was graduating from High School, my parents bought a small “fishing shack” on a local lake – including a “ski boat”. It BARELY qualified, and probably by a factor of 10 to 1, I spent more time working ON the boat than USING the boat… but no matter. Like Surfing, the basic principles are the same – a wing gliding on top of the water, and unlike snow skiing, you lean back…
How do you execute Surfing?
As I started this series on Surf music, today’s song is probably what came to mind first. The song—this version as well as cover versions—has been featured in over 20 films and television series since 1964, appearing at least once a decade since. You may not know the name of it, but the opening and ongoing drums instantly identify it as one of the most well-known songs of that era….
Surfing Wonder
An exercise we did this week was to find a picture of ourselves before 10 – hopefully, around 6 or 8 – before many of the “worlds” voices have had a chance to change the “music” in your life. Pictures were posted of “little kids” invariably smiling, many of them twirling, dancing, playing… enjoying life. The concept is that is your natural self …
When do you observe Surfing?
As I hope you have noticed, the “talent” that gave us Surf music came from all over. By the early 60’s, globally the availability of relatively inexpensive amps and guitars, along with the popularity of radio and TV created a tidal wave of kids trying to figure out how to put that all together into something that would Surf them into fame.
Who is your Surf partner?
For this workshop, we needed at least 3 others who would contract to partner with us. “The Pod” had to commit to meet weekly for at least half an hour… and also to check in daily on our progress. At first, this seemed a bit over the top,
What manages to Surf?
We were recently out at a pond with our daughter/granddaughters… and of course, we started skipping rocks. The delicate approach of first finding a smooth, flat rock, and then throwing it sidearm so it would land nearly parallel with the surface of the water came back to me….. after a few misses 😉 Watching the rock bounce 2, 3… 5… 15 times…
Can you engage with Surfing?
One of my favorite “memes” is Captain Piccard with his head down, captioned, “Damage Report Number 1”. Every day, a new wave crashes over us. I have at least stopped consuming ‘news’ ….as there isn’t much that is, and that that is… is mostly beyond my control… and reminded me of one of my favorite types of music and the perfect soundtrack for our times… so… Let’s Go Surfing!!!
engaging The Fall…
I rarely run across a song and a group that I have never heard. And not bragging… just when you make it your business to notice and know music, it is a shock. Recently people have given me the tagline “… and his encyclopedic knowledge of music” It is why I love listening to Sirius XM Deep tracks… and Wikipedia 😉 Between them, I can still occasionally reward my brain with something that it has to process for the first time… and, wonder is something that only gets better when you use it… often…
renewing and ReLaunching leadingWithMusic
The days of summer are waning, and I hope you have had a chance to renew a bit. We have had the great fortune to gather with our extended family a number of times, which helped me reflect a bit on what the last few years have taught us.
renewing Powerfully
As we were standing in the small conference room off of the Vice-Chairman’s office, we were surveying some of the memorabilia that he had collected over his Powerful career. One of the few engineers to actually ascend to this stratospheric level, he had been my idol when I started. If he could make it as an engineer, I had a chance also. Our President was playing with a ball-bearing race, with the silver rolling balls exposed that he was gently nudging around the circle. He turned to my boss and said, “… at least one of these is mine”
Power execution
Our dinner out that night in Manhattan was lovely and relaxed. Mostly because we were killing time… until an overnight flight would deliver a replacement card for a demo scheduled the next morning. In setting up our demo at THE seat of Power of IBM at that point, 590 Madison Avenue, in the boardroom no less, I had discovered the hardware was dead. And, there was something called DeltaDash that at that point was slightly more common than FedEx, and would bring us a new one at 3 am. No problem, we would drive back and have a few hours before our 10 am demo.
The wonder of Power
As we deplaned in Atlanta, we were looking for directions to the private jets section of the Airport. Catching a taxi across the tarmac, we arrived where the Powerful people fly, and waited for our Division President to arrive. We were due for an important update on the project he was the Executive Sponsor for, and the only time we could find was to fly back with him from Atlanta to DC… So if you are wondering, we flew down from DC to fly back with him … to DC.