Premise:
I stumbled on to this performance by a school band and thought it was incredible and wanted to share this with all of you. When I think about this a bit more, I realised that there is a lot that we can learn from this band as leaders. Before we move to the learning part, first take the 8 to 10 mins to watch the band perform for the spectators here.
One of the most powerful way to stand out is not to conform to the expectations that people have of you. We don’t expect a band to play their music AND dance while doing that. So, when we see that, we are surprised.
When we are surprised, our brain tends to give more attention to the thing that surprised us and the chances of us remembering it is high. If the surprise was pleasant enough, we might even talk about it with others, share our delight and surprise, just like what I am doing here.
But it is not easy to stand out. We are taught from a very early age to not stand out. To conform to the norms of the society that we live in. To play by the rules of the game. It might be good advice if we just want to get by and be average and do average work.
However, if we want to do exceptional work, at some point we have to be ready to stand out, we have to overcome FOSO or the fear of standing out. I am pretty sure that the band did not get it right at their very first attempt at doing what they do now exceedingly well.
It would have been easy for the teachers or the conductor to stick to the norm and just get them to play exceptional music. It would have been easy for the students to not agree to try this out, for the first time.
I am sure that there would have been detractors who thought that this can never work because it was too difficult, because no one has ever done it this way, because it goes against tradition. And at the first instance when it didn’t work, come back with a “I told you so” remark.
But, becoming remarkable requires us to overcome all of these. At the core, it requires us to be open and willing to confront the fear of standing out. It requires us to take a bold step and do what people don’t expect and do it in such a way that people can’t forget it, once they have seen it.
I will never see a band the same way as I did before I saw this band perform. They have elevated my experience such that every time I see a band play, I will remember their performance.
It is not enough to attempt to do the unexpected. It is crucial to put in the hard work and practice that goes into getting performance ready.
It requires courage to keep going in the face of early setbacks, which are inevitable. It requires conviction, confidence and belief to know that the approach the team is taking is the right one for them and will help them get what they want. And it requires the team’s commitment and confidence in their leader to follow and execute on the shared vision.
This is not the first time I have seen something like this stand out. Once I watched the conductor – Gustavo Dudamel bring an entire audience to play with the orchestra. You will not have seen an orchestra perform something like this and the audience involved like this ever. You can watch the performance here.
I have written about a string quartet that did something remarkable in the past here. And there are other artists who take the risk of standing out and do path breaking and tradition breaking work.
The question I ask is why should this be limited to the world of entertainers. Why can’t we leaders learn and take a leaf out of this and be willing to be courageous enough to stand out.
Whether it is in a meeting where everyone seems to be agreeing, even when they are not really in agreement. When people get along to go along.
Whether it is in sharing a bold vision for the team that we are leading – to shoot for the stars instead of being content with the average.
Whether is it to break industry norms and do something that no one in the industry has ever done before. Whether it is to direct our attention to those who traditionally haven’t received it.
Whether it is to approach someone who has a different opinion on important issues than ours, with empathy and curiosity.
Whether it is to practice radical empathy and radical curiosity in an environment which traditionally doesn’t expect it nor support it.
In conclusion:
In conclusion, there are opportunities for us to stand out every day. Instead of avoiding them, it would be wise of us to explore and have the courage to stand out.
We can start with something small, with little consequence and learn our way to standing out on important and consequential issues that we face in our everyday.
We will not only benefit as leaders, but we will also help those who follow us by showing them that it is not only ok to stand out but it is imperative to stand out to achieve anything significant.
