Leadership lessons from Jazz

As you may know, on June 21st, we have our traditional “fête de la musique” (Music Day) in France. We will not only celebrate the first day of summer but also live music at large, different kinds of music, played by both local amateurs and professionals. In every cities and villages of France, streets will be full of bands gigging and sharing their passion with the crowd. And the night will be short! At Societe Generale we have been supporting musicians for years now, and the traditional French “fête de la musique” became our International Music Day celebrated all over the world that I invite you to follow on our dedicated web site.

Today is the perfect opportunity to share with you my strong passion for jazz, which is only too well known by my friends and long suffering colleagues.

I love taking my teams to a live session at the Duc des Lombard in Paris or ending a long and exhausting road-show with investors with a concert in a Jazz club. My favourite places are definitely Ronnie Scott in London or the Blue Note in New York. May I also mention the endless discussions with my friend Sebastien Vidal, director of radio programming at TSF Jazz.

The beginning of this passion came from an unforgettable encounter. I had the opportunity to meet in my Business School, ESCP Europe, a great English teacher, Michel Marcheteau who was also a professional Jazz musician. He set up a very famous course about “History of Jazz” that was an enjoyable way to do something useful. I have to confess, I chose this course at first to escape from very boring sessions on “advanced accounting” or “exotic financial products”…

But it appeared to be an instant connection. Twelve weeks of intense initiation with a great storyteller, navigating through the early days of Jazz with Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong to the wonderful Jazz Singers, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, exploring then Be Bop with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker or more complex routes with John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, and then ending with the epitomes of Cool Jazz with Chet Baker and Miles Davis.

I could talk endlessly about the beauty and the virtues of Jazz, mentioning how inclusive this music can be, bringing together in the same concerts people from all ages and all possible backgrounds. I could also highlight the special relationships between the artists and the public during live concerts: there you can participate, support the band, express your joy, and congratulate the soloists.

But today I would like to focus on another aspect: how inspirational Jazz can be for leaders.

Jazz is a group-based activity. When jazz musicians are jamming, they are acting and creating on the spot. They are communicating with each other, and hoping that something good and creative will emerge. It also happens when work teams put their heads together to hit a groove, offer ideas, take turns soloing and supporting. 

Jazz creates collective emotions. Leaders can be inspired by the capacity of jazz musicians to manage emotions throughout a concert. Emotions foster creativity, innovation and passion. For a leader, managing emotional capital is a key factor of success to embark and inspire people.

Jazz is messy. Leaders in all sectors in the global economy face mess as the pace of change quickens. We live in a fast-paced world with clues and signals that we need to interpret. We have no guarantee whether our actions are going to be successful or not. We face incomplete information and have to take action anyway.

I found very relevant the taxonomy established by Frank Barret in his book “Yes to the mess: surprising lessons from Jazz”.

1. Unlearning - challenge your routines and learn your way into new and different areas

One of the principles jazz musicians live by is mastering the art of unlearning. The enemy of jazz improvisation is routines, habits and success traps. There is a temptation to play what has been played well in the past. It’s risky to make something up in front of an audience. That’s why jazz musicians have to trick themselves into unlearning their own routines and habits so they don’t automatically fall back into clichés.

Leaders have also to dislodge routines so new possibilities can emerge.

2. Say "Yes to the Unknown": be open to possibilities and the creative power of the team

Jazz musicians develop an utmost affirmative skill that favours experimentation and improvisation. That improvisational mindset means saying “yes”. Jazz musicians stay constantly in the flow. They do not stop to analyse and criticize what they hear. They just jump on it and build. In the same way, leaders need to cultivate a mindset that says “yes” to the possibility of something new and creation emerging.  This “yes” is self-empowering and empowers others – it makes it safer for everyone to leap in, take some risks and perhaps co-build something amazing together.

3. Learn from failures - use errors and mistakes as a source of learning. 

As Miles Davis puts it, “If you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake”.

Endemic to Jazz, errors push musicians to reach beyond their comfort zones. Jazz musicians assume that you can take any bad situation and transform it into a good one.

4. Use minimal structure and minimal consensus

Jazz musicians can’t improvise on anything, they need a structure, a song or a set of notes, on which they can create something new. But the best jazz is made up of “orderless orders”, where players are in constant dialogue, while doing their own thing, and building their creations on what other band members are doing.

Likewise, innovative places allow autonomy, open debates and experimentations without being tied up with sterile rules or trapped by a culture of permanent consensus.

5. Take turns soloing and supporting - Make each other happen

When a saxophone player or a trumpeter is soloing, the other instruments, like the piano, guitar, and the rhythm section, they are playing along or “comping”. Their mission is to listen so closely to what this person is playing and to help the soloist to be even more articulate. Sometimes it means providing ideas. It makes the person being more brilliant than he/she would have been without the presence of the band.

Behind all great leaders like Steve Job or Jack Welch you have also great followers, people listening and helping them to be more articulate, to think loud, and to deliver the great achievements they are known for.

6. Create spaces for hanging out

In jazz, learning and innovative ideas are arising from informal jam sessions where all musicians, apprentices or professionals freely explore and confront new techniques or fresh ideas without fearing being judged.

Similarly, innovative organisations have to create informal and congenial spaces to hang out where conversations about innovation and experimentation can happen, with a genuine sense of psychological security.

7. Leadership as provocative competence

Duke Ellington or Miles Davis were masters in the capacity to inspire their musicians to go beyond their comfort zone, surpass themselves and reveal their true potential. They were used to introduce progressive disruption to force their bands to explore unknown territories with the feeling of being in a “ugly zone”, while creating the most beautiful pieces of jazz.

Let’s conclude with a beautiful story.

When Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue in New York on August 17th, 1959, the dominant form of jazz was bebop – lots of hard driving, fast chord changes. When his great musicians arrived at the recording studio - John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb - Miles presented a sketch of just two chord modes, turned to the recording engineer, and said, “hit it”.

So everything on this recording was a first take. The musicians were exploring the music for the first time. They couldn’t rely on old routines and habits. They had to act on the spot, discovering and creating all simultaneously. It turned out to be the highest selling jazz album of all time.  

Maybe that’s why I love it – I love the spirit, the energy, it’s unleashed.  It has a freeing effect on me when I listen to it. 

So, how could we lead better like in jazz? Of course, I am aware that large, complex and regulated organisations are not exactly from the same wood as Jazz bands. Nevertheless, some key takeaways are very relevant.

Take risks. Experiment. Be comfortable making mistakes. Learn from your mistakes. Make it safe for others to make mistakes. Be forgiving – of ourselves and others. 

Of course, there are some areas where mistakes are intolerable. But, most of the time, allow exploration and experimentation. Follow sometimes and lead at others. 

Be a “YES”. Courage is the presence of fear and willingness to take action.

#jazz #fip #tsf #bluenote #ronniescott #sebastienvidal #societegenerale #ronitghose #lesliedubest #sunset #newmorning #lincolncenter #escpeurope #singularityuniversity #fdlm #oliviersaez