5 (more) ways to spot a jazz-leader

The pre­vi­ous post gave you 5 char­ac­ter­ist­ics of a jazz-leader…the new lead­er­ship approach that’s designed for con­stant change.

Here are 5 more:

1. The jazz-leader hires very care­fully, ensur­ing per­sonal goals are aligned to organ­isa­tional object­ives, and then focuses on mak­ing the most of an individual’s strengths. This means each per­son is fully engaged, play­ing a part that res­on­ates with them, and being val­ued for exactly what they have to offer.

You write just for their abil­it­ies and nat­ural tend­en­cies and give them places where they do their best

Duke Elling­ton

2. The jazz-leader looks indis­tin­guish­able from the rest of the group. They guide the vis­ion, while being act­ive in the pro­cess of real­ising it. They take the lime­light when it’s their turn, stand­ing to the side when it’s another’s time to dir­ect the action. They’re clear about what they need, and then they let go.

With Bill Evans it’s a mutual exchange. Yet, in a way, it’s very demand­ing because he lets me play so much

Eddie Gomez

3. The jazz-leader builds a cul­ture of trust. They recog­nise that it’s impossible to impro­vise if con­fid­ence is eroded by cri­ti­cism, if you ques­tion every move you make, if you’re afraid of being judged, ridiculed or ostra­cised. They ensure there’s the sta­bil­ity of trust in order to have the free­dom to improvise.

How great musi­cians demon­strate a mutual respect and trust on the band­stand can alter your out­look on the world

Wyn­ton Marsalis

4. The jazz-leader makes the sys­tem the ser­vant not the mas­ter. They provide struc­tures that ‘hold’ the activ­ity rather than dic­tate it. They design frame­works — roles, instru­ment­a­tion, rep­er­toire,  arrange­ments — that enable real-time change. They are unam­bigu­ous about the found­a­tion so cre­ativ­ity can be built upon it.

Form is possibility

Cecil Taylor

5. The jazz-leader knows that the state of being on pur­pose, or ‘in flow’, motiv­ates every­one, and can be found through any work. They accept that peak per­form­ance is unpre­dict­able and can­not be forced, and they build a work­ing envir­on­ment that prom­ises it could hap­pen at any time.

Because you never know when the rev­el­a­tions will come to you, you have to prac­tice very day

Barry Har­ris

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