Your Voice

In this 5th article of my series “Playing the Changes: What Jazz Can Teach us About Leadership,” I’ll explore listening for and expressing your leadership voice.

Practicing Jazz

Playing jazz and improvising isn’t playing whatever you want to play. It’s playing within a structure that everyone agrees to. You need to learn this structure to be able to play with a group. Once you know how to function within a group, you can get to know your unique contribution to it. For me, finding my sound - my musical voice -  happens through both stillness and experimentation.

Stillness. My teacher taught me how to be still at the keyboard; to refrain from playing until I heard my inner voice compelling me to. No patterns. No playing to fill space. Just waiting and noticing. Sometimes, these improvisations are very quiet. Sometimes they are filled with notes.

Experimentation. Playing with an idea or a pattern helps me find my sound too. Inspiration can come after playing a chord pattern in different ways. A “mistake” can turn into a sound I want to repeat. Playing a song at a different tempo, or speed, can generate new energy. An idea from another musician can spark a musical reply and begin a co-experiment.

Both stillness and experimentation call on us to try new things and share our voice even when the powerful forces of self-protection are at work. Self-protection says, “Don’t play the wrong thing.” But the Beatles say “You were only waiting for this moment to arise.”

Practicing Leadership

We have leadership voices, too. We might not use them, opting to imitate a leader we admire or relying on “best practice” phrasing alone. This may feel safer. After all, if we don’t use our authentic voice, it can’t be rejected. But ultimately, this approach won’t work. We’ll be perceived as mechanical and distant. We cut off the value that our own unique perspective brings. We miss the opportunity to get to know it better ourselves and share it with others.

Teams will experience discomfort and, often, experience losses as they work through adaptive change. Those leading this type of change must connect with themselves so that they can connect with others. This requires compassion and courage.

Reflecting

• What role does experimentation play in your life? In your organization’s life?

• How do you connect with and develop your voice as a leader?

• What parts of your voice do you hold back from others? How does this impact you and others?

Listening: The Brad Mehldau Trio playing “Blackbird” by the Beatles

#PlayingTheChanges #Leadership #Experimentation #DeepListening