In the past five days, I have shared a few thoughts on "Finding God in Corporate America." Each day I reflected on some leadership lessons. As I look back, I see a common thread in each of the leaders. They are all dedicated to grow the people entrusted under their leadership one way or the other. Indeed, leadership is not about directing people, but rather, awakening the possibilities.
I was introduced to a short excerpt of Benjamin Zander’s TED talk on “The Transformative Power of Classical Music” in the Catalyst conference last year. The speaker only showed about 1.5 minutes of Zander’s talk, but I was captivated. The sister who sat next to me and I immediately turned on our smart phone and started searching the talk. We managed to find a few clips, but were not sure if those were the right ones. Nevertheless, Zander’s statement on leadership lingers in my mind as I left the conference.
I searched up the TED talk right after the conference and found both the video and the script. I have dropped down the few points that particularly touch me. May these thoughts resonate with you as well.
1. It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, "I have a dream. Of course, I'm not sure they'll be up to it."
2. How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be? If you thought, "Three percent of the population likes classical music, if only we could move it to four percent." How would you walk or talk? How would you be? If you thought, "Everybody loves classical music — they just haven't found out about it yet." See, these are totally different worlds.
3. But the conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. It was totally life-changing. People in my orchestra said, "Ben, what happened?" That's what happened. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. How do you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it . . .So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world.
4. I have one last thought, which is that it really makes a difference what we say — the words that come out of our mouth. I learned this from a woman who survived Auschwitz, one of the rare survivors. She went to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old. And ... And her brother was eight, and the parents were lost. And she told me this, she said, "We were in the train going to Auschwitz, and I looked down and saw my brother's shoes were missing. I said, 'Why are you so stupid, can't you keep your things together for goodness' sake?'" The way an elder sister might speak to a younger brother. Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him, because she never saw him again. He did not survive. And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow. She told me this. She said, "I walked out of Auschwitz into life and I made a vow. And the vow was, "I will never say anything that couldn't stand as the last thing I ever say." Now, can we do that? No. And we'll make ourselves wrong and others wrong. But it is a possibility to live into.
Lord, grant me the wisdom so I know when to let go and step aside so others can raise up and shine. Prevent me from becoming the lid of the pot or the bottleneck that may jeopardize growth or suffocate potential.
Below are the links of the TED talk (both the video & scripts). It’s a powerful talk on both classical music and leadership. Check it out. If you are interested to read my series of blog entries on "Finding God in Corporate America," check out my main blog page http://www.arootedlife.net/main-blog/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LCwI5iErE
https://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion/transcript?language=en