People often wonder how with my speech, theatre and psychology education/experience that I find it not such a large leap to business practices and from there–in particular, to the training of leadership.
I suspect those of you in theatre or any of the performing arts will understand almost immediately why that is so. You know:
- why actors can grab and hold an audience.
- what we know about establishing credibility.
- what we know about finishing what we start.
Every play I see as a critic reminds me of any organization evolving from cradle to grave–well, maybe to prime is a better analogy. I didn’t see it so much as an actor; as a director, I do it. Having lived the theatre life and worked for the government and private sector, I’ve seen it, and lived both lives. With one difference: I’ve always looked at the non-artistic side from another perspective.
What will you do when you’ve stopped performing? Please continue to study the world as you are and you can’t fail.
If only THEY looked at their business or non-profit with a different perspective, too… Who’s they? Organizational trainers and leaders, of course.
First, theatre is a business. Second, actors and other performers use the same skill set as business leaders. “Whaaat!” you say. The following quote may help to summarize what I mean:
The same set of skills that actors rely on to deliver a riveting performance can be found in our most innovative and successful business leaders. Actors must speak with presence, with passion, and intention. Great leaders in all fields rally our emotions, our allegiances, and our commitment in just that fashion.
—Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre
So, how do the top leaders get there? There’s no one way. That’s why I wrote a blog on Why Isn’t All Training Like Training for Your Black Belt? that changes our approach to how we look at training and leadership as a whole. It is similar in what theatre does to put on a show requires the employees share the same vision, dedication, cooperation and leadership, which are absolutely essential aspects necessary in leading a successful company. What does this have to do with training. It means our training charter can change.
Kevin Daum represents the business side of things, and his latest blog article, 4 Great Leadership Lessons From The Arts, gave me this idea for training based on his four points. Kevin published a journal article, Entrepreneurs: The Artists of the Business World, which makes sense since Kevin has an arts background along with more than 15 percent of entrepreneurs, making more than a million dollars a year, who belong to the elite Entrepreneur’s Organization. By the way that million dollars is the minimum requirement for membership in that organization. As Kevin says, that 15 percent “must be doing something right.”
Here’s what Kevin says theatre or any other performing arts leaders do and not-so-remarkable business leaders do not (the comments underneath Kevin’s points are mine):
- Lead a Project from Start to Finish
- I’m developing and directing a play to performance, which means not one plan but several plans to start with and see to through fruition.
- Manage Dynamic People Effectively
- I’m holding auditions, hiring technical and design staff and making sure all work together while I am directing a play, and making sure this cooperation will continue during the performance phase.
- Ensure Total Accountability
- I’m directing a play, responsible for the quality of opening night to the audience, to the board members of the theatre, to the funding sources, and accountable that my employees do not have to work under stressful conditions.
- Implement Big Picture Thinking
- I’m directing a play and believe I have a unique vision to share that can make the play stronger in the eyes of today’s audience than when it was originally presented, and I have to sell everyone on this vision or it will not work.
It’s rather obvious isn’t it. If you are familiar with my own training blog, What Would a Cave Man DO or How We Learned What We Know About Training; this is a perfect example where outside sources unrelated to your business can provide untold insight. I actually wrote and published an e-book, called The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development; yes, the title is spelled correctly. The “cave” refers to our work place or our home today, but the principle is the same. 
I also wrote a dystopian science fiction e-novel, Harry’s Reality, available from Amazon and from other major vendors, probably for free since it’s just coming out. It is about what’s real and what isn’t, but beyond that, it’s just a good read in my humble opinion. Actually, it’s full of mystery, adventure and humor, but who wants that these days? And, we blow up a few things, too.
For a more in depth look of the four points from my perspective, see my complete article, Using Theatre to Train Leaders on my training and development site at The Free Management Library.
As for those of us already engaged in bringing the arts to business, we need to keep up the pressure not only the businesses, but in the schools. Businesses say they want certain individuals ready to work, but are they sure that’s they really want. Is an arts degree so bad after all? The media has been saying it all along. We know you need two jobs to do theatre or dance professionally until you hit a touring company, a Regional Theatre, or Broadway or the West End. Maybe, that’s not all there is…
Again, there is the obvious. Just show these four points to business and hope they buy into it. I say incorporate creative arts into your leadership training.
These four points resonated with some of my theatre friends who applied for jobs in business and were turned away. Perhaps they shouldn’t have been turned away. With what we know now–these very people are the creatives and creatives innovate. And, those people that innovate?
My thanks to Kevin Daum for his inspirational post of the four points here and ideas that might have been triggered by him for me to put on my own particular twist. An Inc. 500 entrepreneur with a more than $1 billion sales and marketing track record, Kevin Daum is the best-selling author of Video Marketing for Dummies. @awesomeroar
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Shaw's Reality 