Industry Magazine Grand General Agency Fall 2016 | Page 10
4 Great Leadership
Lessons from the Arts
BY: KEVIN DAUM, AUTHOR OF ROAR!
Math and science are noble endeavors, but
real leadership is taught in the arts. Here are
four powerful lessons taught best by artists.
AS much as people spend money for
movies, television, theater and music,
why do business experts continue
to ignore the incredible leadership
teachings that come from the arts?
Several years ago, I published a journal
article called Entrepreneurs: The Artists
of the Business World, after discovering
through an anecdotal survey that more
than 15 percent of the Entrepreneurs’
Organization membership had arts
backgrounds, compared to less than
5 percent who studied business. (As a
member and theater arts grad I figured
I couldn’t be the only one.) Since this
elite organization requires applicants
to show $1,000,000-plus revenue, its
members must be doing something right.
Below are four leadership lessons taught
regularly in the arts.
1. Lead a Project from Start to
Finish
Many B-school programs culminate
study with the writing of business
plans that rarely lead to funding or
success. Meanwhile, performing arts
students must create a concept from
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scratch, refine it so they can articulate
a compelling vision, recruit skilled labor,
and manage everyone to completion
on time and on budget, since moving
opening night is never an option. They
also get to sell their product and collect
immediate customer response in the
form of ticket sales and applause. This
process is completed by millions of
students several times a year, all over
the world.
2. Manage Dynamic People Effectively
People like to describe artists
as eccentric, and many are. And yet
somehow, these people happily and
consistently deliver highly creative and
effective product, even with strict time
and resource constraints. And the work
they deliver almost always considers a
powerful customer experience as the
primary objective. Most artists are
drilled repeatedly on how to lead their
artistic colleagues in a collaborative
manner to achieve an effective
experience. And despite the frequent
presence of professional egos that would
crush a Wall Street executive, they learn
how to bring all people forward together,
or no art would ever be created.
3. Ensure Total Accountability
Let’s say you are a stagehand in a
simple community production of Hamlet.
And you are given the job of placing
the skull for the famous Yorick scene.
The first time you forget, everyone in
the production will chastise you. The
second time you will be fired. And you
will forever be known as the guy who
screwed up the scene, or the violinist
who went flat in Beethoven’s Ninth, or
the dancer who fell in the Nutcracker.
Artists live and die by their dependability
yet non-artists consider them flaky
and irresponsible! Artists develop in an
environment where the production is
only as good as its weakest participant.
Individual performers with both big and
small parts are inherently motivated to
bring up the entire company rather than
showboating personal performance like
the sports players business people love
to exalt. Even most stars in the arts know
they shine best against a rich and unified
background.
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