Leadership Reflections of a Rockstar
OK a wannabe Rockstar. The band I’m in, ’Down the Rabbit Hole’ recently performed its first ever gig for friends and family with an extravaganza of 90s rock covers. Having come down off the adrenaline high of performing, it has been interesting to reflect on the process. In doing so I have realised that there are many cross-overs into daily business life, leadership and sport. Here are the highlights:
1. Have a Growth Mindset - Anything is Learnable. Three years ago I had never played a set of drums, let alone read music. Now I can play at an intermediate level, read drumming music, and even sing some songs while playing. There were many times along the way when the independence of hands, feet and head wouldn’t work. Many hours of frustration, slowing it down, working it through, then speeding it up until it became second nature. Many leadership skills are the same, they just take intentional practice. Anything is learnable.
2. Consistency & Structure. Small amounts of practice often – sometimes one rudiment, one fill at a time (sorry drumming talk). Practicing your individual skills, and then practicing together as a band. Having the discipline to do it. Discipline and structure beats talent every time. Discipline and structure keeps you going when motivation wanes. I had a friend start drumming at the same time and she reflected on the significant difference of where we were both at in the learning process. Which brings me to the next point.
3. The Power of a Goal and a deadline. I used an online drumming platform that had levels and goals which gave me a pathway to learn and achieve along the way. As a band, we were practicing and going along OK, always with the view of performing one day, but it kept drifting out. So, we put a date in the diary six months out and said, ‘That’s it! We’re doing it.’ The focus that this bought to the rehearsals, song selections, frequency of practice and levels of commitment were hugely powerful. Nothing motivates like a goal with a deadline.
4. Accountability & teamwork. You never wanted to be the person who hadn’t practiced. Nothing ever needed to be said as everyone was self-accountable. Similarly, when a muck up happens in practice you keep going, but at the end you simply self-acknowledge it and everyone moves on. The other observation is that talent lifts the team. We had a member join quite late in the process, but they had played in a band before in university days, so their self-expectations to memorise the music, technical knowledge and level of practice inspired the rest of us to be better. I have seen the same as a business leader when you inject an A-player into a team.
5. Purpose & Selflessness. Knowing our goal and purpose became clear when early on we needed a bass player. One of our rhythm guitarists simply said, “I’ll do it and learn it”, because it was what the band needed. Then later when we still couldn’t find a lead singer, our back-up vocals singer stepped up out of her comfort zone and said she would do it because she knew we couldn’t perform without one. Again, it was about doing what the band needed, beyond one’s self.
6. The Perfectionist Trap. It was all too easy and often as we practiced, to think we weren’t good enough. But we kept comparing ourselves to recorded music which was invariably studio recorded perfection. Where in reality, when we heard some of our bands on the LA Fires Concert live, they were anything but perfect. It was about perspective. It’s the same in business. It is easy to look across the fence at a competitor or another business who looks perfect from the outside, but trust me, they all have their challenges going on. You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to be doing it and getting better. Our second concert will be better than our first. Your 2.0 will be better than your MVP.
7. Iterate, Ditch it, but Move On. Everything doesn’t play out. There were many songs that didn’t make the cut that we tried along the way. They were either too fast, too high, too complex etc for any one member of the band. We would try it, thrash it, some we adjusted or iterated, some we called it and moved on. It’ the same as business, not everything will work or play out. Your strategy is a hypothesis you will try. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you can come back to it. Have the rigour to adapt and move on.