The jazz-leader is a new kind of business leader — one who accepts there’s no longer any ‘score’ to play from, and understands that we must all now improvise.
They’ve got several distinguishing features.
Here are just 5 of them:
1. The jazz-leader draws on tradition, but balances it with experimentation and risk-taking. If necessary, they reject the past entirely.
Duke Ellington is continually renewing himself through his music
Billy Strayhorn
2. The jazz-leader learns continuously, is open to new ideas, and is humble enough to admit what they don’t know.
The thing that makes jazz so interesting is that each man is his own academy
Cecil Taylor
3. The jazz-leader listens actively to find out what’s others are thinking, to pick up on ideas, to consider different perspectives.
Keep listening. Never become so self-important that you can’t listen to other players
John Coltrane
4. The jazz-leader accepts that mistakes are inevitable, and it’s what you do with them that counts.
When you remove the fear of failure, impossible things suddenly become possible
Regina Dugan
5. The jazz-leader creates a stable environment that can withstand disruptive, creative provocations.
Improvisation is a balance between control and surrender. It’s like two sides of a highway. And you’ve got to walk down that yellow line.
Bobby McFerrin
Does your boss have these characteristics?
Do you?
5 more characteristics next post…
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