At my favorite coffee shop with my friend David Hutchens, I told him that I now was using a line he gave me about story and leadership as part of my team building program introduction. David said that our job as leaders is to integrate the many personal stories that make up our company into one narrative – the organizational narrative. My only issue with that statement was that when I’m introducing musical team building or presenting a keynote, I’m working with groups in which not everyone is a company leader.
“Ahh…” David exclaimed, “We’re all leaders in our organizations – or at least we should be.” Light bulb moment for me – duh, that makes sense. At a company in which employees are engaged and feel ownership, each individual will also feel responsibility to lead, to follow, and to partner with others. There are times when we all have the opportunity to work for change, to lead, to contribute our own ideas and share our skills with pride. Thus, we all do have genuine opportunity to tell our organizational story as leaders – be it the person answering phones or the CEO.
Thanks David, for helping me integrate the role of story and leadership into my music team building program intro…and for reminding me why our program has grown so organically and so quickly, for reminding me why I’m often jet lagged and always excited – because people like to tell stories. And people like music. Music breaks down barriers, cuts across hierarchy and allows everyone who participates to feel leadership and ownership.
In every personal or business relationship I can think of, sometimes I follow and sometimes I lead. Sometimes I’m singing my own song, and sometimes I’m singing my group’s song. Most importantly, I’m telling my story – telling ‘our’ story. Don’t you think it’s time you did the same?