Punk Britannia – featuring TV Smith, Johnny Rotten, Richard Strange – BBC4 Friday 01 June 9.00 pm
The Queen’s Jubilee celebrations approach and “Punk Britannia” hits the screens this Friday on BBC 4 – featuring several of the artists I’ve interviewed or seen recently at Richard Strange’s Cabaret Futura. It seems that punk is back in fashion, given the imminent arrival of the Queen’s Jubilee. I recall that my band partner cum journalist from our punk group “Alternative Posing” was censured on national TV in 1977 when he printed a punk fanzine which featured the Queen with a safety pin through her nose. How the times, they have changed!
I bumped into another Punk HR manager on Twitter last week – none other than Perry Timms who has coined the Twitter hashtag #PUNKHR. This reminds me to mention that you can still get a FREE copy of my new micro book Punk Rock People Management. Mail me with PUNK in the title at peter@humdyn.co.uk Punk Rock was about simplicity, brevity and authenticity and Punk Rock People Management is about these timeless qualities rather than the need to pogo whilst doing staff appraisals. Feel free to post a response on these questions:
How can we simplify business processes to the advantage of customers, staff and business?
How can we deliver products and services faster than our competitors?
How can we be more authentic in our dealings with customers?
Check the contents page of Punk Rock People Management out if you have not got your copy yet:
God Save Punk Rock HR
Contact us for a Punk Rock Business event or 24 hour retreat to consider critical challenges facing your business. We have none other than Bernie Torme, who fronted Punk Rock band Skid Row, coming along to our next showcase event shortly – just 15 tickets left. Finally, let’s see what started all the fuss about the Queen’s Jubilee:
In other cases, creativity can pour out of people, at the speed of sound and almost to order. Such was the occasion about 6 years ago, when I wrote a song and recorded a demo of the song all in less than an hour. The piece was inspired by my 8 year old son James, who seemed to demonstrate an ability to wrap my wife and I around his fingers at a level of competence well beyond his years and quite different to my older boy. One day, the idea of a song called “Cowboy James” came to me – words and music flowed and the whole thing was finished in minutes. I previously wrote about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the state of flow and this is a good example of flow in action. I recently re-recorded the piece with my friend dannylee on piano and percussion at his custom built studio-34 (mail@studio-34.co.uk) Please take a listen to this product of naïve and rapid creativity:
The business lessons?
Sometimes the first thing we do is the best thing. Resist the temptation to refine and overanalyse if your creativity feels right the first time.
Steve Jobs was known to trust his intuition as much as a spreadsheet. Balance head and heart if you want to convert creativity to innovation
As part of my MBA teaching and innovation consultancy over the years I have practiced with a suite of about 120 creativity techniques which improve the speed and effectiveness of brainstorming. Technique is only part of the equation to get an innovative climate, yet it can help produce creativity ‘on demand’ and certainly more reliably than a poorly run brainstorming session. Contact me via e-mail at peter@humdyn.co.uk to find out more.
Bill Nelson has just released a beautiful box set album covering 40 years of continuous creativity and flow. It is a testament to an intuitive approach to creativity, matched by discipline. Check it out at The Practice of Everyday Life
The Practice of Everyday Life - Picture by Martin Bostock www.martinbostock.co.uk
Rockin' all over the blogging world - Life and Business lessons from the world's top bloggers
This year I have been lucky enough to meet some fantastic people around the blogging world. They have kindly offered to send me a Christmas message, so here for your delight is part 2 of our Rock’n’Roll life and business coaching tips taken from a magical mystery tour round the world.
We left the last blog back in London with Alison Chisnell and we start there again – great minds think alike and when I asked people for suggestions for music with meaning, two people offered me the same song. Wesley Gransden agrees with Colin Millar from our previous post. Wesley goes on to say: “For me it’s got to be Queen’s ‘One Vision’…. This powerful piece of musical perfection inspired me to focus on ‘one vision’ & ‘one goal’ and was used with great effect in bringing together a team, setting targets and then achieving that goal. Will have to use it again one day.”
Over to Northern Ireland to meet bass supremo and consumer data specialist Jason Bell. Starting from a completely different musical place, Jason arrives at a similar ‘destination’. Jason offers us ”Discipline” by King Crimson. “To me this is a perfect example of team players striving towards a common goal. Every member is doing something very different but when it’s all put together the end result is astounding. Remove one of the team and the impact is not the same.”
Ellie Becker runs Ellie Becker PR, a cool inbound marketing and PR company in New York. Last time Doug Shaw mentioned Neil Peart from Rush as a great example of someone who has persisted against the odds. Ellie takes up this theme:
“The musical artist who inspires me most is my friend and client, drummer Ray LeVier. Ray has unbelievable chops. He tours around the globe with urban jazz singer/songwriter K.J. Denhert and has recorded with vibraphonist Joe Locke, guitarists John Abercrombie and Mike Stern, saxophonist Dave Binney and bassist Francois Moutin.
When Ray was 12 years old and had just started playing drums, he suffered severe burns over much of his body in a camping accident. His fingers were reduced to small nubs and he pretty much lost his thumbs. His face was left with scars that would not get most folks thinking in the direction of the performance stage.
What did Ray do? He followed his dream to become a professional, performing drummer, and challenged himself to play jazz – arguably the most nuanced and difficult style to play. He underwent risky surgery to fashion a thumb on one hand and devises whatever creative ways he needs to hold and work with sticks. According to Joe Locke and the other musicians and teachers he’s worked with, Ray has never exhibited one moment of self-pity. I’ve never seen any either.
Ray’s website is HERE Click the ‘Video’ tab to view two videos – Ray laying down a mad groove with K.J. Denhert’s group and giving a drum clinic to some aspiring young drummers. Listen and watch. You’ll find it tough to ever again complain about anything in life!
Onwards to Canada now to meet Tibor Shanto – a sales guru, author and agent provocateur – Find him at Renbor. Tibor chooses the awesome Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull as his inspiration:
“Half way through Thick As A Brick, at the start of side two when these things had sides, Ian Anderson offers us the following: ‘We will be geared to the average rather than the exceptional’ – this has always driven me to look for and be the exceptional.” I can testify that Tibor has lived up to this particular maxim!
Leaving on a jet plane, headed down under to Australia to meet Dr Timothy Pascoe, a leadership guru and author of the Leadership Potshots blog. Timothy chooses Beethoven’s 9th symphony as his inspiring piece of music. “Beethoven’s 9th is about the brotherhood of man. Interestingly, the theme of the last movement is the anthem of the European Union. I hope its leaders live up to his expectations.”
He goes on to offer us a leadership lesson from one of his favourite artists: The Greek Soprano “Maria Callas didn’t just sing the notes of her operatic roles. She changed her voice style and tone to convey what an aria was meant to be conveying. We all need to think about the intended (and hidden) messages sent via our body language and voice tone.” here we see a slightly different take on Maria’s genius, nonetheless with the same skill of body language from Mr Bean:
Back home to Blighty.
Back home to Blighty to meet Chris Glennie. “So, I was driving to fetch my daughter from school yesterday and thinking what to write back to you when Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow’ came on the radio. As a believer in things happening for a reason, I’ll pick that song.
The song expresses a great lesson. It says:
Focus on the future (‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow’)
Don’t waste time (‘It’ll soon be here’)
Keep a positive outlook (‘better than before’)
Learn relevant lessons from but don’t dwell on the past, you can’t change it (‘Yesterday’s gone’)
It may now have become slightly over-used and cliched, but things do become cliches for a reason…”
Editor’s note: Somehow, I had failed to notice just how sensible the lyrics of this song are for businesses. Perhaps that’s because I’m nota huge Mac fan. However, it’s simply true that companies like Apple, Unilever and First Direct have succeeded by following principles like this. Business strategy is indeed writ large into rock songs!
We’ve spent much of 2011 wondering about the state of the economy and it’s becoming clearly that we need more of different rather than more of the same. Lucy Brazier, owner of Executive Secretary magazine turns our attention to the need to be different rather than the same with the exquisite Stephen Sondheim song ‘Everybody says don’t', performed here by Barbara Streisand.
Lucy also responded powerfully to my question “what would the world be like without music?” She put it plain and simple:
“I learned to read music before I learned to read. I have an ipod full of music that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. There is something that enhances or supports every emotion. I would rather lose my sight than my hearing – I couldn’t bear to lose music from my life. My son is 19 and equally passionate about music. We quite often have evenings where he’ll say ‘Let me play you this one.’ and then I do the same to him. The excitement at hearing new music we haven’t heard before is palpable and I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend an evening than to play and listen to music with someone as excited by it as you are.
Hope you have a Rock’n’Roll Christmas! – if you have not yet treated yourself to a free copy of my new micro book Punk Rock People Management, get an electronic copy by mailing me at peter@humdyn.co.uk. I look forward to hearing your comments on this blog, suggesting other songs that have meaning for you.
A manifesto for straightforward, simple and authentic people management - Click on the picture to get your free copy of Punk Rock People Management
This year I have been blessed to meet some fantastic people around the blogging universe. They have kindly offered to send me a Christmas message, so here for your delight are some Rock’n’Roll life and business coaching tips taken from a magical mystery tour round the world:
Doug also offered us the example of Neil Ellwood Peart from the supergroup Rush – for his ability to recover from personal tragedy and his endless thirst for improvement. A class act. Lest we forget:
We must rush on … to platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross to join The Flying Scotsman. We are met in Edinburgh by Colin Millar, aka The Ranting Scotsman. Colin cranks it up with a leadership lesson from classic rock: Queen’s ‘One Vision, One Mission’.
Colin rants “The title and lyrics say it all and I think it’s a great message for business people – ‘One Vision’ is first and foremost about the ‘vision’ and extrapolating what that vision is and the unity vision creates, bringing people and cause together. I also like the concept of ‘consensus in eden’ that runs through the song”.
From a big country we then take a passage to India, to hear from Sonia Jaspal, who focuses on the power of music to create and maintain emotions. She says “I think without music, the world would lose the most beautiful power of expressive emotions. It touches the depth of our soul. I am still a person that when I listen to some of the softer numbers I have tears in my eyes. Yeah, I need a box of tissues while watching some movies. Also, without music, one would lose most of the inspirations in life. When one listens to beautiful music it somewhere resonates deep within. It has the capacity to change emotions and thinking.
Sonia’s favorite song is from an Hindi movie titled Safar (Journey). The song is ‘Zindagi Ka Safar’ (Life’s journey) sung in Kishore Kumar. It is portrayed via an actor suffering cancer. He is singing the song:
Moving on to Canada, home of Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Francois Guay, who leads the Attack Defend Disrupt blog. His choice of music that offers us a lesson in life or business is ‘More than a Feeling’ by Boston:
Francois takes up the story “This song contains my favourite guitar riff ever.“ Editor’s note – I can sign up to that! “Although most people see it as a man disappointed in a having lost someone he loved, the song to me is all about reaching your goal, i.e. When you achieve one of your key goals that is “more than a feeling” it’s sublime and must be reproduced again and again.” Seems like a lot of people agree that music inspires us to focus on and reach our goals.
Back to Blightly to meet Alison Chisnell, HR Director of Informa and author of The HR Juggler. Alison’s song with a message is Billy Joel’s ‘All About Soul’. She takes up the story: “The context is that as an idealistic 18 year old, I had just begun a six month stint working in a children’s home in Zimbabwe as part of my gap year and in the early days I felt isolated, homesick and terrified that I had made the wrong decision. This song resonated as a reminder to commit fully to the adventure I was experiencing, to bring my values and passion to the task at hand, to ‘man-up’ and become more resilient and to accept that standing up and being counted was and is a good thing. Bland is rarely, if ever, good….so don’t be afraid to be you and get stuck in! Just because it isn’t easy doesn’t mean that it won’t be hugely rewarding.”
Staying on the theme of soul, we finish with Sharon Howard, who offers us lessons in life and business from Bill Withers about the importance of delegation, support and asking for help. We all need the help of others in order to succeed and they need us too, we all need somebody to lean on A truly inspirational piece:
Coming up, we have more stories from bloggers and cool people all round the world.
Hope you have a Rock’n’Roll Christmas! – if you have not yet treated yourself to a free copy of my new micro book ‘Punk Rock People Management’, get an electronic copy by mailing me at peter@humdyn.co.uk. I look forward to hearing your comments on this blog, suggesting other songs that have meaning for you.
Have a great Punk Rock Christmas - Click on the picture for the free book - Picture by Lindsay Wakelin Photography http://lindsaywakelinphotography.com/
Here’s a short post in the form of 10 pieces of business wisdom, summarised through the words and music of rock music, presented in a PowerPoint show. To get the show go to ROCK WISDOM and click on the icon ‘Download Rock Wisdom’.
To whet your appetite, here are some of the 10 tips, without their business lessons to ensure you go look at the show – it’s worth it.
The great pretender – Queen
Puppet on a string – Sandie Shaw
The great escape – Blur
Video killed the radio star – Buggles
This town ain’t big enough for the both of us – Sparks
Purely for pleasure, let’s see one of the points on marketing made musically by the genius that is Prince, in the form of ‘U Got The Look’ from his seminal album ‘Sign O’ The Times’:
If you like the slideshow, you will love Punk Rock People Management. This new book recently overtook Dave Ulrich, Gary Hamel and the usual HR Gurus, having hit No 1 on Amazon Kindle in management and HR books. There are a number of options available to get your copy:
The print version of the book makes an excellent and unique Christmas present. Check this review out by the Open University Businsss School. I recently presented a copy of the book to Evan Davies, BBC presenter of The Today programme and Dragons Den.
I’ll leave you with another musical version of one of the 10 Rock / Business lessons from the slide deck, from Blur, in the form of ‘The Universal’ from their ‘Great Escape’ album:
Strange things happen at work and in life if you keep your eyes, ears and various other orifices open … So it was that a series of networking coincidences happened on my recent trip to Greece to give keynotes on leadership, marketing and HR in Athens recently for Boussias Communications. As the title of my post suggests, we should start with the simply fabulous song ‘In the lap of the Gods’ by Queen:
My journey to Athens began by sitting next to the British Ambassador for Greece on the plane to Athens (but I never got any Ferrero Rocher chocolates!) Once he got over his first impression that I might be a busker and not an author/speaker/business consultant, we got on rather well. Seems that we had both studied Ancient Greek and Latin, although our careers took rather different paths from then on. I asked him if there were any good restaurants around the Intercontinental hotel and he replied wistfully “Not really, it’s a pretty unpromising area really, full of strip clubs and brothels” – He was right – I attach a picture of the view from my swimming pool on the 8th floor – I imagine that the “Kinky Opera” must be an art gallery ! Reminds me a little of my blog post on the 3B’s of Reward – The Bar, The Bathroom and The Brothel.
View from the top - Sex, Diplomacy and Rock'n'Roll
The conference coincided with a general strike in Greece and as a result I was asked if I could devise a keynote at one day’s notice for the marketing conference. As a result ‘We will brand you’ was born. As a consequence I also got to meet the wonderful Richard Laermer – outrageous New York PR expert, all round provocateur and author of Punk Marketing – An excellent companion read to Punk Rock People Management. What is the statistical likelihood of this chance encounter happening? Turns out that I was able to connect Richard with my other great PR expert friend in NYC – Ellie Becker. This networking coincidence was a product of social media and face to face contact, which demonstrates that we need both to turn networking into business.
The conference also enabled me to meet Professor Adrian Furnham, who I have admired for a number of years. Adrian was struck by my infusion of HR academia and rock music so much that he said he would write a piece about Punk Rock People Management in the Sunday Times. I am indeed honoured.
The Marketing Director and HR Director events were extremely enjoyable, not least because they involved performances with two talented and beautiful women – one a mystery woman from L’Oreal and Pamela Caravas who is MD of Coaching Evolution. Pamela is pictured below with the amazing Dr Yiannis Kalogerakis and Yannis Kouris.
Because she's worth it
Lady sings the blues ...
The lessons from this happy series of accidents are:
You make your own luck by keeping your eyes, ears etc. open
Both social media and traditional networking skills are required to turn networking opportunities into business
Blend a deliberate approach to networking with an intuitive outlook
‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ is available via the Punk Rock People Management webpage. If you like this blog, you will also LOVE my other book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’. Contact us to book your next conference keynote based on our heady mixture of business and music. We have a free event on Punk Rock HR coming up for Senior HR people at the CIPD on November 24 – contact me for details if you wish to attend.
Finally, I still dream of going to the Ambassador’s Ball and getting my fair share of the Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Oh well, one can dream… Next, it’s off to meet Evan Davis from the BBC’s Today Programme and Dragons Den – I wonder what networking accidents will occur en route? ! It all comes down to Sex, Networking and Rock’n'Roll in the warped words of Ian Dury:
Very short post here to mention two performances of a special show written by Joe Blair, on the life, loves and music of Leonard Cohen at the Edinburgh Festival – Follow the link to Blue Raincoat.
The evening offered a selection of Leonard’s most special songs alongside a narrative that reviewed his life as a poet, lover and songwriter.
I met Joe a couple of years ago at a management seminar in Northern Ireland and he has been trying to infect me with his obsession with for Leonard Cohen ever since. Speaking personally, I only travel as far as Morrissey and Lou Reed on the scale of moribund reflective music but it takes all sorts etc. I agreed to provide much needed coaching on the musical performance aspects of the event and to provide some accompaniment using the haunting tones of the e-bow, an unusual guitar effect that makes guitars sound more like a violin, hence the name ‘energy-bow’. I bought my e-bow around 1978 after seeing the music genius Bill Nelson play one. Read more about Bill’s next show on October 1st at The Art School Ascended on Vapours of Roses.
Copies of our latest album “Music from the Basement of Cognition“ will be available at the Leonard Cohen show. For now here’s one track, aptly titled “I always knew you would come back to Earth” after a week of madness on the streets of England. I did once record a Prince styled version of Cohen’s “The Butcher” and an electro-pop version of the same song in the style of Erasure, but I am not posting them here for fear of reprisals by ardent Cohen fans!
I’ll finish with my favourite interpretation of Leonard’s ‘Hallelujah’ by John Cale:
Postscript: The highlight of the Festival was meeting up with the Jimi Hendrix styled blues guitarist Richard Blues - Check Richard’s work out by e-mailing him at richardsgottheblues@yahoo.com and here’s a brief excerpt of his performance at the Fringe:
Also very much enjoyed meeting Will Gracie. As one third of the outrageous group Hot Gusset, Will’s journey started at the age of 7 when he saw Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman. We did some impromptu Queen and Prince songs on the street to the amazement of the festival goers. Later that day I saw him appearing on BBC Newsnight. It’s no wonder, for Will is a great talent. “Gimme fried chicken” in the words of Freddie Mercury !
Whist developing the show, I discovered to my surprise that even Leonard Cohen was sensitive to his musical environment and did change his musical style towards songs that people could almost dance to in the 1980′s when synthesisers became popular. I guess that’s where Lady Gaga got it from !
Glam rock duo Sparks unwittingly stumbled upon a critical business strategy issue in their 1974 anthem ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’. Lest we forget:
Sustainable competitive advantage arises from:
1. Differences between firms, not similarities. Thus, if you are in close proximity to a competitor in terms of products, services, geography and so on, one strategic option is to create a difference that creates space between you. This may of course mean that you compete better. It may simply open up the market in ways that means everyone can gain share.
2. Foresight is better than hindsight. In order to know before the competition is going to head you off at the pass, we need dynamic approaches to strategy, rather than static use of models, which tell you ‘what happened’, rather like driving a car using the rear view mirror. One such approach is ‘Scenario modelling’ which we have used to help companies pre-empt decisions by competitors with impacts measured in millions. Read more about how this can be done at Strategy.
3. What do you do when your competition is too close for comfort? Well, you could collaborate – This can take many forms, from joint ventures, partnerships etc. In extremis, buy your competitor if the market is big enough to sustain the result.
What else can music teach us about business strategy? Share your thoughts here. I’ll leave you with a little teaser in the form of Queen’s ‘One Vision, One Mission’ clearly a song about focus or, as Tom Peters puts it ‘Sticking to the knitting’:
Lady Gaga is a music and business phenomenon. Simply fabulous electro pop and dance music. Strategy, marketing, finance, HR, operations, social media and so on, all rolled into one. Setting aside all the controversy over her music, fashion and so on, what might an MBA graduate learn from Lady Gaga about her approach to business? Before we start, in case you have not caught up with Lady Gaga, take a look at her ‘Edge of Glory’ video, with lyrics inspired by the death of her grandfather:
Share your thoughts on your favourite Lady Gaga song / performance by making a comment on this blog. Since she is a controversial figure, if you cannot stand her, it would also be interesting to know why.
Here are five MBA lessons that you can learn from Lady Gaga:
1. I personally love Lady Gaga’s music but it is not completely new. Her music springs from 80’s and 90’s electro-pop and dance music, drawing upon a range of influences, such as Bowie, Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. I’d add Prince to the list as I’m sure she has been influenced by the Purple Genius. Many people are creatures of habit in terms of their musical tastes (see my post on AC/DC for more on this) and this makes Lady Gaga’s music a very acceptable diet for consumers, young and old.
MBA lesson # 1. Innovate within the familiar range of the customer’s expectation for maximum early impact. Build on that for long term sustainability.
2. If Lady Gaga’s music is in the familiar range, the presentation certainly is not. Or is it? Sure, people are shocked to see Lady Gaga attacked during her performance and then die in a pool of fake blood. But, remember Alice Cooper’s electric chair executions and Madonna’s on stage masturbation scenes for ‘Like a Virgin’ on her ‘Blond Ambition’ tour? We have been here before. The difference that Lady Gaga brings is that she has learned from all of these people and improved the packaging and presentation of the theatrical elements that accompany her music. Top business thinkers such as Tom Peters have written about becoming a learning organisation, which, broadly speaking is an organisation that learns from its customers, staff, partners and so on. That learning can be simple, such as “How can we do what we do better?” It can also be more fundamental, such as ” How can we start over?” Unlike some businesses, Lady Gaga has actually taken notice of Tom’s wisdom on learning organisations.
MBA lesson # 2. Stand on the shoulders of giants if you want to innovate. Be a genuine learning organisation if you want to stay in business for the long term.
3. Lady Gaga has succeeded in an age where society is questioning the profit imperative of corporations and celebrities. How has she done this? By cleverly combining the profit and purpose ambition as Daniel Pink, author of ‘A Whole New Mind’ points out. Gaga combines exceedingly clever cross branding (music, fashion, headphones and so on) with a number of social and humanitarian causes such as the Haiti earthquake, the Japanese Tsunami and various AIDS / HIV causes. This has enabled her to withstand a number of public relations crises when others would have crumbled.
MBA lesson # 3. Combine your social responsibility agenda with your business plan in a seamless way. Execute your plans with meticulous detail.
4. Lady Gaga has a shrewd approach to HR Strategy – partnering with evergreen stars such as Madonna, Elton John and Cher. This gives her access to a much wider market for her music and legitimises her brand across generations.
MBA lesson # 4. Use partnerships and joint ventures to enlarge your market share in ways that benefit all the stakeholders. Choose your partners wisely and in ways that provide genuine win-win benefits.
5. Lady Gaga has captured the hearts, minds, souls and bank balances of several generations through the clever use of social media, in ways that major corporations can only dream of. She has given her fans control of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on. They have a shared identity (little monsters) and Gaga has allowed her fanbase to operate a ‘market pull’ approach to affiliation instead of using traditional ‘push’ approaches to marketing.
MBA lesson # 5. Understand that social media is social and the powerful imperative of the word YOU in social media. People like social media to interact with their own lives and values.
I’m sure there are many more MBA lessons to be drawn from Lady Gaga. Please send your thoughts in as contributions to this blog, which will be included in a sequel. In the meanwhile, here is Lady Gaga’s fantastic piece of post-modern pop music ‘Poker Face’.
p.s. My new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ is available on Amazon KINDLE or for FREE as a download. Please contact me directly here or via the Punk Rock People Management webpage for your copy.
As part of an occasional series of blogs, I will bring you some great tips on business, extrapolated from the lyrics of great rock and pop songs, sometimes wildy so! There are many more examples in the book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’, acclaimed by Tom Peters. Today’s Rock’n’Roll Business tips focus on the area of interpersonal relationships.
Rock'n'Roll Wisdom mixed with top business thinking
Let’s start with 70’s Swedish glam classicists Abba with their song ‘Knowing me, knowing you aha’.
In my Rock’n’Roll world, this innocent phrase is an allusion to the concept of ‘emotional intelligence’, as Daniel Goleman puts it. I’d put EI more plainly as:
‘Living inside your own head AND outside it’
Great leaders / musicians are able to do BOTH i.e. they exhibit personal mastery whilst maintaning a connection with those around them. Bad leaders / musicians often live inside their own heads, not noticing their impact on others. Let’s have your thoughts in the comments on ways in which you can develop the systematic habit of inner and outer awareness?
From Freddie Mercury, we get the evergreen hit ‘The Great Pretender’. What business wisdom can we read into these three words? Well, it reminds me of the issues of leadership style and authenticity. Leadership requires us to be a master of style. Dictator, salesperson, facilitator, confidant, comedian, entertainer, counsellor and so on. Importantly, you should know your own range so that you don’t have to end up ‘faking it’. Lou Reed wisely observed “I do me better than anyone else” on the question of authenticity. What do you consider the practical business implications of Mercury’s cover to be?
Finally, in the world of interpersonal relationships, the ‘how’ is often much more important than the ‘what’. In other words, the journey is more important than the destination. It’s what Bananarama sang about in their hit ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it (that’s what gets results)’. A seemingly trivial point, but one with massive impact if you need to get results through others or influence people to change. Please share your tips on how you place value on the ‘how’ when working with others in the comments to this blog.
For fun, what might be the ‘hidden business message’ in this song by Abba?
Share your answers on the blog comments and I will award a copy of Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll to the most strange and wonderful one. Entries close on 31 July 2011.
For more Rock’n’Roll tips visit The Academy of Rock website and click on ‘ROCK WISDOM’ on the front page. Join the blog to receive regular updates on business mixed with ideas from the world of music.
A truly inspirational piece:
