You can see from the front pages of this site that I look to work with visionary leaders to see beyond their vision, to “work with them to bring out their unique gifts.”
Benjamin Zander is a legendary classical music conductor, he sees his role as “to awaken possibility in other people” and he knows he is being successful in this when he sees their eyes shining. To him, “success is not about wealth and fame and power. It’s about how many shining eyes I have around me.
Read on for Ben Zander’s amazing TED talk and no how I see that link to my focus on Beautiful Leadership.
I love TED talks, and Ben Zander’s is a favourite. I was reminded of it this week as it introduced the latest excellent blog by my friend Bruce Peters of Beyond Teal.
Ben’s talk is titled “The transformative power of classical music”. It is about that, and also about so much more. In his time with the audience, he leads them along a path of beauty and makes 1,600 eyes shine.
This then lead my thoughts to the frame of “Beautiful Leadership” and the collaborative relationship I am building with the wonderful Alan Moore of beautiful.business
Beauty is the lens through which Alan sees the world. As he puts it “beauty is the key to everything”. As is relates to business and leadership, he says:
“The lens of beauty enables more thoughtful design. It inspires the crafting of more meaningful products and services. It creates a resilient business, with a more committed workforce. Beautiful leadership brings out the very best in people so they feel inspired to do their best work. Beauty is not a soft option, it takes hard work and commitment. It can produce real returns for those who are willing to invest. This is deep work as we are looking at the root of your creativity and leadership potential.”
Alan and I and other collaborators are looking to “..build a beautiful community. – We will practice what we wish to bring more of to our own organisations. We will work together physically as well as intellectually.”, and this will be through a “faculty of diverse master craftspeople and artists”, with craftspeople and artists in the broadest sense as we create programmes of practice as, for an example, an alternative to executive education and other such programmes.
At this stage, we will first be talking to master craftspeople and artists, including several I’ve mentioned here on this site (and including Bruce Peters). Together we will build something of beauty to bring beauty and craft to leadership for what Alan calls restorative businesses, businesses that are profitable and beautiful, and so also take the lens of beauty beyond sustainability to that word restorative.
Back to the top of this post, then. Yes, I work with a limited number of individual leaders (and often their teams) in my client work, and at the same time, my purpose leads me to look for collaborations to have an impact for the world in other ways.
I’m introducing here the work on Beautiful Leadership. Where this resonates with you, where the idea makes your eyes shine, connect with me, I’d love to talk.
I leave you with Ben Zander’s exquisite TED talk. I recommend creating twenty quiet minutes, a nice cup of tea, and sit undisturbed and ready to be moved by the transformative power of classical music.
I wish you shining eyes