Leadership Lyrics

Songwriter's Lessons on Innovation, Creativity and Ingenuity

Whatever your preference of music happens to be; are you one that gives much thought to what it took to write and produce your favorites songs? My guess is that most of us don't.

COMMON THREADS

There is, however,  a leadership lesson to be taken from songwriters of all genres. To prove my assertion, pick up a copy of Paul Zollo's Songwriters on Songwriting (Expanded Edition; De Capo Press 1997). The book is a compilation of Zollo's interviews with the likes of  Pete Seeger, Willie Dixon, Livingston & Evans, Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Carole King, K.D. Lang and many, many more. All approach their craft in their own unique ways and all have written songs of untold numbers that have never been heard or popularized. The common thread is that they wrote, some often, some not so. At times the music came first and the lyrics followed or vice versa, but they wrote.

Willie Dixon, who died at 75 in 1990, and known by many as the "Father of the Blues" wrote thousands of songs. Like so many things, the 80/20 rule applied to Dixon's originals and the relatively few that produced royalties once well-known artists recorded them.

David Crosby on the other hand admits that songwriting hasn't always come easy and unlike his good friend Neil Young, Crosby's songs came few and far between. Zollo attributes Crosby's patience in the process  as the key that unlocked the likes of "Wooden Ships" and "Deja Vu,"  songs that catapulted Crosby, Stills and Nash to fame in the late 60s.

DIFFERENT PATHS

While Dixon and Crosby worked from opposite ends of the creativity process, both produced their results based upon personal experience while acknowledging that not everything that came to mind, heart or soul was going to meet with success.  Keep in mind that the floors of songwriter kitchens, basements or music rooms are littered with "failed" compositions.

CEOs and business leaders that come to the conclusion that innovation and great ideas can be nurtured through a disciplined process, in many ways, go about it as songwriter's do. Willie Dixon told Zollo that his "blues" were all based upon facts and contrary to the tendency for most to think of the "blues" as songs of woe and lamentation, Dixon's tunes were predominantly filled with joy and hope of better things to come.

Crosby, on the other hand, told Zollo, "I can't legislate a song into being, it just will not happen for me. I can make a space for it to happen, and sometimes it will come and fill the space." Innovation comes about this way as well. In the same interview Crosby went on to say, "I'm sure we don't really know how the creative process works...you know it comes every which way."

ONGOING CHALLENGE

Many leaders I've spoken to and work with struggle with innovation, creativity and ingenuity and yet all of them realize that without these, there may be little or no future to contemplate. Today an internet search of the word "innovation" brings back 80 million 400 thousand results. It's obviously an important topic that has provided fodder for an endless stream of how-to blogs, posts and white papers, not to mention complete MBA course offerings.

The fact is that we will continue to talk about the ongoing need to innovate, create and ingeniously bring new products and services to market and we will do so in many different ways. Business leaders that have yet to successfully unleash the creative, ingenious and innovative minds within their organizations should at a minimum, learn a thing or two from songwriters. Perhaps Crosby put it best when he said he couldn't "legislate (insert 'innovation, creativity or ingenuity') a song."  But, when he made a "space for it to happen," in time he'd find that space to be filled.

Quite simple, isn't it? Provide the space and buy out the time. Collaborate when necessary. Play it one way. Try it another. It doesn't matter how many attempts end up on the drawing room floor. What matters is that you and those with you are frequently writing new scores.

Jim Naleid is a Life-long Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnaleid