Music & Leadership

Part One:

The Music industry baffles me. Record labels bemoan the fact that CD sales are suffering because of pirated internet downloads. The proliferation of CD writers and the MP3 format (/players) has made it too easy for the consumer to get their hands on the music they want, when they want for little effort and minimal cost.

It seems obvious to me that the reason why people don't buy CD's any more is because it is easier to copy music. I believe people justify this by the low value they place on mainstream music. From memory, there are about 100 new singles a week, most are will be average and forgettable. The reality is that as long as record labels churn out mediocre music to make a quick buck, consumers will circumvent the old process of having to buy the music they want in favour of getting this disposable music for free.

Now what does this have to do with leadership? Well a couple of things. One of which I will touch on now. I had a conversation yesterday about developing the leadership skill sets and capacity of a company's senior leadership team. Sadly, there is no plan on the horizon to begin the search, investment and development in the people who could be the future leaders of the company.

I think that people are instinctively cynical about programmes design to boost leadership ability. And like the music industry, employees learn and adopt the ways which circumvent anything that seems to be of superficial value. The question I proposed to the people planning to implement this leadership programme is what gains do they expected from these people who are, in all probably, not placed in their current position because of their leadership prowess but because of their ability to manage people and teams to impact bottom-line results.

Now managing for bottom-line results in necessarily bad, but it isn’t leadership. Corporate leadership - in fact leadership full stop - in New Zealand is suffering because organisations don't make it a priority to focus on the people who have the greatest potential, the great greatest capacity, and the natural gifting and strengths to be level 4 and 5 leaders…

Getting it wrong

I just read this scathing article about a new MP3/cellphone hybrid called Chocolate. What is amazing about this is not the disappointment of the technology but the fact that somehow through an escalation of commit, through buffalo mentality, through group think, lack of robust testing process and systems or whatever, this terrible device made it though to the consumer market.

I haven't tried a Chocolate for myself (not available in NZ) so it might not be as dreadful as the reviewer makes outs. The problem however is that this journalist works for The New York Times and this article is linked from the papers homepage (this page gets massive traffic), so however valid, this opinion matters by warrant of its reach alone.

I'm sure that the people who work fro LG and Verizon (the makers of the Chocolate) on the whole want to create category killer products (like an iPod, like a Treo), yet they release something to market which is clearly not one. I bet that those who develop product concepts design these products, and develop marketing plans, dream of being involved in the next big consumer electronic craze. Yet most of the stuff that get shovelled out, like the chocolate, is crap. People will buy this, probably, but it won’t be something its makers will retire on.

• Why do we allow mediocrity to surface so often?
• What is it about people in organisations that cause us to tolerate average (or below average) performance?

I, like many, many others I’m sure, know some of the potential explanations from an organisational behaviour and management perspective. However, it seems what is readily available insight doesn't seem to register with decision makers very often (well at least at LG quality control department).

How can smart people be so dumb so much of the time?

Buffalo Wings

Now ask most Kiwis if they have seen a buffalo in the flesh and most, I'm guessing, will say no. Yet we experience the buffalo mentality in organisations with which we participate, all the time.

Buffalo unfailingly rely on the actions of those around them. The beasts' eyes are positioned on the sides of their heads which gives them ability to see exactly what other buffalo are doing.

Some First Nation tribes of America (American Indians to you and me) realised that by taking advantage of buffalo’s heard mentality they could take out a massive amount them. The First Nation people observed that once the leaders of the herd set a direction the rest of herd will follow running with their heads down nullifying the ability to cast their vision into the future and scan for challenges and opportunities on the horizon. Unsurprisingly, it proved rather effective to stampede a herd off a cliff and into a gully.

How could this possibly work? Well by the time the leaders of the herd realised they had reached the precipice of a gully they were unable to stop going over the edge as the momentum of the herd following them pushes them forward plunging them to their deaths. The rest of the animals actually cast themselves over the edge willing as they judge the validity of their bearing by those they are travelling next to.

Many organisations, whether non-for-profits, multinational, family run, franchise or partnership, have driven themselves over the edge propelled by their own herd mentality momentum. Not enough people questioned the organisation’s direction and the leaders never really had control of the rest of the herd.

The burden to great leadership and high performing teams in the work place and in life is on both those forging the way and those following. Not surprising the buffalo population is no where near the extent that it once was; they were such easy targets to manipulate.