Leadership topic - Clever

What breeds what many are looking for in the workforce today? Creativity, Innovation, and most importantly, Engagement – all come from encouraging and embracing constraints… with this word that you don’t hear much today…

A critical skill that leaders and teams often overlook is built from the inevitable constraints we have to operate under. Budgets, schedules, markets, customers – all eventually lead to the paradox that usually then leads to tough decisions.  Often in those moments of conflict, another voice can be found, one that takes a different approach, often risky, always challenging, and most importantly, Clever.

Raised in a family system that always had lots of constraints, I grew up around people who by nature would build amazing things out of nothing. And took pleasure from that versus simply buying things.  Many musicians are brought up in similar environments, and the band for this week in particular, was literally a family of musicians before they became a Band. And they thought nothing of mixing races, genders, musical styles, even audiences to create brand new, iconic, and Clever music of the late ’60s.

The story of both the band and my career in this season was about being unconventional.  Doing things that others said couldn’t be done, bringing together different talents, encouraging differences, and also occasionally taking a big risk to try to change the world of both space and music. If you don’t think of yourself as being a risk-taker, perhaps there are some Clever things you can take away… and if not, I know the music will take you higher.