Music as Leadership Builder and Soul Inspiration

Spoiler alert: This post includes two songs that could potentially inspire and uplift you. Don’t scroll away.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how leadership is evolving – how it needs to evolve – not only because of the urgencies of our chaotic world, but also because of the long term needs of humanity and for leaders of all kinds.

While this topic is both deep and broad, I will approach it from a somewhat unique perspective: the power of music as both leadership builder and soul inspiration.

From the mid 1990s until the early 2010s I was deeply engaged in the leadership world, through lecturing at business schools like Stanford, through writing a landmark article for the Harvard Business Review, through working with executive teams for Fortune 50 companies as well as major health systems including Kaiser, Mayo Clinic, Cathay Pacific Airways, Unilever, Duke Health, the NHS in the UK and others.

For 20 years I was part of the leadership team of the HeartMath Institute organizations and as a result I was integrally involved in nearly every aspect of our growth from startup nonprofit to becoming an established, respected world leader and innovator.

I co-authored a book on the HeartMath approach to leadership in organizations, called From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance. I was named one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders in Personal Excellence by Leadership Excellence magazine.

A two-year health crisis during 2009-2011 stopped my world in its tracks and forced me to go within to find the emotional, physical, and spiritual resources to deal with the challenges.

Anxiety and uncertainty characterized that journey which included surgery for cancer, staph infections in my blood, and later double hip replacement.

During this often dark and somber time, I found all kinds of music could lift my spirits and bring me hope and even joy, if I would only turn it on.

A Mahler symphony, a Stevie Wonder song, a James Taylor tune, a romantic ballad from Broadway, the Handel Messiah – all these musical masterpieces were embodied with the power to transform not only our moods but even our physiology.

Music helped me heal.

I let music take the lead and guide me.

During this period, I took a break from the leadership world, so I could lead myself back to health and viability.

Fortunately my journey, though incredibly trying and even frightening at times, has worked out well for me.

I had to learn to lead myself like never before.

I had to pay attention to the inner signals I had been ignoring.

Simple things like, “Get up and stretch your legs dude! Your brain needs a reset.”

Or, “Play some music right now that inspires you and makes you tap your foot or drum the table or bob your head. Or even music that melts your heart.”

While there are many things I hope to say about leadership in future issues of this newsletter, today’s message is simple.

Music is unquestionably an exquisite leadership builder precisely because it can provide soul inspiration. ?

This is because leadership starts as an inside job of mastery:

·????? mastering our blindspots: the ones that everyone except us can see quite clearly

·????? listening to the ignored intuitive instincts,

·????? becoming free of the expectations that are based not in practical reality but in selfish or egotistical attachments

·????? stretching ourselves to embrace and celebrate all aspects of ourselves, especially those parts that seem to show weakness or vulnerability.

Music has helped me grow in all four of the dynamics I just mentioned.

Less than six months after my health journey mercifully ended, I found myself longing to sing again.

I had had a thrilling five-year career in musical theater in New York City in the 1970s, even playing the lead role in the “world’s longest running musical” – The Fantasticks, for roughly 800 performances.?

I reached out to a beloved friend, the remarkable and visionary composer Gary Malkin , and we began a process to help me sing again.

What unfolded was so much more than singing.

Within a few months the nurse leadership of Kaiser Permanente asked us to create a “keynote performance” which we called What Makes Your Heart Sing.

Our intention was to inspire audiences of health professionals to reawaken the spirit of caring that brought them to their noble profession – long before the chaos and overwhelm that is US healthcare had diminished their vitality and deadened their inspiration. ?

To lead themselves back to the heart of why they were health professionals.

Birth of the Renaissance Human

Five years later, after dozens of performances around the world, and after finding my dance mojo again, I was approached by two remarkable singer/songwriter/producers, Isaac and Thorald Koren.

The two songs which follow are from the album we released in 2018, Renaissance Human.

The first song, called The Only Way is Through, might sound like it’s just focused on tough personal relationships that are breaking down. Indeed my primary relationship was on the decline as we created the album.

But there’s a deeper message for all of us who lead at any level: sometimes when the way forward is uncertain, when there seem to even be insurmountable obstacles in our way, the best path is to communicate and to keep moving forward – the only way is through.

https://youtu.be/eDafTpJ0PKI

The second song, Yeah I’m Me, is a celebration of all the parts of ourselves. Not just the business or executive persona we feel consigned to wear each day.

True leaders know themselves, all the parts of themselves.

Let the chorus of the song be your personal celebration of you, all of you. Yes, you.

To uplift you when you're discouraged or overwhelmed, to revitalize you when you feel spent or exhausted, and to inspire you when those you care about need your light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wzeHFRdROU

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To learn more about heart coherence techniques to boost health, increase energy, and improve your sleep, see here. I offer a range of 1-1 and group training for executives and teams.

I've also developed a comprehensive executive coaching/mentorship to ensure exceptional health and performance. You can learn about it here.