Cut to the rock concert.
A member of the band we saw is a childhood friend of my girlfriend’s. I first went to one of their shows a couple years earlier at the same venue.
Prior to this concert we were backstage chatting with a few of the band members about the tour, life, and a funny video one had posted on social media. They are always a welcoming, fun group to be around and I enjoy spending time with them.
Later, while watching the band perform I looked out over the crowd and saw hands raised and mouths moving in unison to sing the lyrics, the crowd swaying in time to the sounds of the guitar.
3,500 people all entranced and focused on four musicians on stage.
As I watched this interaction, I thought back to the cadet on patrol who had lagged behind and what could have motivated that one person to engage as any member of this rapt audience. What words, approach or relationship (or combination of all three) would have the power to help a team member reach down deep to tough out a challenge and to find success.
I continued to watch the crowd as these thoughts coalesced in my mind. My phone was dead so I grabbed my girlfriend’s and began typing out emails to myself to ensure I didn’t lose any big ideas..
The band was in complete control of their audience. Any member could have told the crowd to scream and a roof shaking wail would have welled up from their collective throats. Why? Because the members of the band were and have been inspiring to these individuals.. They created a connection, making the audience feel that they were part of the music being played. They were all collectively sharing and creating that moment.
Leadership embodies many of the same ideas. It entails creating connections with those you lead and working to make them feel like they are “on stage” with you, making them feel like they are holding the drumsticks or the guitar pick or that they have the microphone pressed against their lips.
The context may not be through music, it may be productivity, orders shipped, profit margins, etc., but, as a leader, if you inspire your teams and they will do anything for you.
How do we create this inspiration??
This is the problem. How do you create an emotional response to and connection with your projects? How do you apply what great musicians do on stage to what you do in your career?
Of course there is no simple answer to that; I am not an expert in that area and will not attempt to exhaustively answer that question here. That said, I do think it’s worth some exploring.
I believe you start with the desired end goal: creating engaged, high-functioning, dedicated, and willing team members who are all focused on a common goal. This starts with sharing ownership of your project, regardless of the scope, to each team member regardless of his or her level.
Here is a quick example of how this might look and may be familiar to many veterans. At a turnover meeting during my deployment to Afghanistan, the Executive Officer made a point of telling us to make sure we talked about our missions to those in the squadron who never flew them.
“Even if it is the most boring mission, tell them what happened; talk to them. All they see are the aircraft leaving and then coming back later. Let them know what happens between take off and landing,” he would say.
So, after each mission I would provide a download to those colleagues who were not the part of the lucky few who actually flew: maintainers, logisticians, admin, medical, etc.
Even for the most boring the benign missions I would usually get rapt attention. They wanted to know what happened “out there” even it is was boring to me.
In sharing this information and experience, I gave these team members more ownership of a process in which they were directly involved if not vital to..
How can this translate?
I think the answer is different for everyone. I give ownership of projects to each and every team member in some form or another. I believe that is a critical step to success. Everyone has a role and everyone’s role matters. I believe this and I convey it. Just because one person may be standing in front of the customer doing the presentation doesn’t mean that the most junior member of the team shouldn’t know what that pitch means, is, does, etc. The answer should never be “you don’t need to worry about that.” That may be true but answering their questions, giving them insight may be that rockstar moment that get’s the entire crowd of 3500 singing in time with you or listening to your every word. It also may be the moment when you need to inspire your own Cadet “X” to push on when they want to quit or are unsure of the process.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of inspiring people and giving them ownership of a project.