If it ain’t got that swing: Jazz, PR and leadership
08 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Guide, Muse Tags: corporate communications, leadership, management, public relations
So it’s nigh on a year since I last blogged, but Keith Nicols and his Blue Devils have been my muse for this post. I was watching Keith and his chaps playing the music of the great Duke Ellington and I got to thinking how leading a jazz band was very much like leading a PR/Communications team.
For a start, as a leader of a jazz band, or indeed a PR team, you need to be able to set the context for your team: have a vision for how the combined voices will sound. This doesn’t mean playing all the instruments yourself, but having an idea of how they should sound together. You have a team of experts at your disposal (if you have chosen wisely) that can work what they need to do to get that sound. Similarly in a PR team you don’t need to be expert in every discipline (Keith’s is clearly piano; mine is public affairs), but need to know how they will combine to get where you want to go – the ‘arrangement’ if you will.
As in jazz, you also need to manage the conversation, letting your various disciplines/staff members take their turn in the limelight – it all gets a bit boring if you’re the only one for every solo.
Keith took pleasure in showing the audience how expert his band were and reiterated the complicated bits where you may have missed it in the overall performance. It never hurts, especially as an in-house PR practitioner, to demonstrate that PR is more than ‘fannying around with press releases’ to your paymasters every so often, especially where your team just gets on with it and makes it look easy.
Throughout the performance there was a lot of banter, and again, as a leader you need to make sure the chemistry between your team, and the passion they put into their work, is maintained. Know whose head is down and needs pepping up if necessary. Acknowledge brilliance.
Finally, make sure the wider organisation (or client) know who your team are, and what they do. Every big band performance finishes with everyone being acknowledged, and taking a bow for what they do. Your team is not just about you and your expertise, but the contribution that everyone makes.
So while I’m at it I’d like to acknowledge my own team - whatever they think I’ve taught them, I’ve learned twice as much from them. They have been an absolute pleasure to work with - the definition of talent, creativity and professionalism!
‘Don’t matter if it’s sweet or hot, just give it everything you’ve got….It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing!’
