BETTER THAN PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE
HOW INTEGRITY & SERVICE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR ANY SUCCESSFUL LEADER
written by Dr. John Franklin, Leadership Coach & Cultural Strategist ||:Leaders Creating:||
I am someone who finds wonder in simplicity. I could probably summarize my life as a series of motivations to find the simplest ways of thinking, speaking, and doing in essentially every aspect of who I am and what I do.
For example, some of my favorite snack foods consist of just two simple ingredients…
Pita & Hummus
Pretzels & Pub Cheese
Waffle Fries & Ranch Dressing
Peanut Butter & Chocolate
Similarly, some of the most effective leaders I have ever worked with all consist of two simple ingredients: integrity and service. Over the next few weeks, we will examine several ways regarding how effective band leadership is DONE. But, today, I want to emphasize the mindsets and characteristics that are the foundation, and frankly a necessity, for someone to be an effective leader in any band program, be it director, staff, or student leader. If there is any main takeaway from today’s article it is this tasty morsel:
LEADERSHIP ISN’T SOMETHING YOU DO. IT’S SOMETHING YOU ARE.
Yes, it is true that there are certain behaviors or actions that leaders of any band must exhibit, particularly student leaders. These include skills such as leading sectionals, teaching fundamentals, and the various administrative tasks that help the band run like a well-oiled machine.
But…
These are the easy parts of leadership because those are skills that can be taught.
When I work with student leadership teams, whether my own or as an invited clinician, my goal is to challenge each student to think about their attitudes towards themselves, the band program, and to those they lead. I usually begin this journey towards self-awareness by asking them the following questions, which I urge you to ask yourself as well:
What satisfies me about investing in others?
When making decisions for the group I lead, how much is based on what is good for me vs. what is good for the group?
Is there an example of a time when I have not received credit for something that I should have? How did I respond to that?
What is an example of a time I helped someone even when it wasn’t my responsibility to do so? What inspired me to do this?
INTEGRITY
I imagine that most band directors reading tend to look for students of great character to fill the most important leadership roles in their bands. Sure, it’s great to have a strong musician or visual performer. And, yes, it is also beneficial to have someone who has been part of the program for several years and knows its culture and operations. But ultimately, the skills of leadership and organization can be taught. Therefore, it is wise to consider the following principle:
Integrity is the most important attribute to look for when placing students into positions of leadership and influence.
Have you ever thought about what the word integrity really means? I imagine that most of us almost immediately think of the word honesty. Perhaps words such as consistency and altruism also come to mind. Let’s dig deeper and ask what does integrity mean for someone in a leadership role in our band program? In some ways, the answer to this depends on what it is you need your leaders to be able to do to be successful in their roles. However, there are some areas of integrity that are simply non-negotiable regardless of what leadership actions you require from your leadership team members. When I consider what I search for in my leadership team, I find that I need them to demonstrate high levels of integrity in each of the following areas, listed in order of importance:
Character
Etiquette
Musicianship
Visual Performance
Pedagogy
Let’s break these down a bit, shall we?
CHARACTER
Integrity is fundamentally about CHARACTER. In fact, I would say that it is the most important area of integrity. Without it, none of the other factors matter. We have all experienced working with someone who might be an excellent performer or pedagogue but has questionable character. This person cannot lead effectively because they lack credibility and the respect of others.
CHARACTER is difficult to quantify but easy to identify. We all know it when we see it in others. My colleagues from ||: Leaders Creating :|| and I will share some traits to look for in future posts that specifically relate to band leadership. We will also discuss how to develop strong character, both personally as well as within your leadership team, and how to identify emerging leaders within your ensemble. We are also available to provide specialized and specific consultation and training to help you and your program develop and embrace the core values upon which your program’s integrity is built.
ETIQUETTE
ETIQUETTE has been defined as “the customary code of behavior among members of a particular society, profession, or group.” In the band world, this word usually relates to the behaviors and processes that the group agrees to follow in order to maximize rehearsal and other tasks with positive energy and focused intensity. As my fellow coach Gary Rupert discusses in his article WHICH COMES FIRST, LEADERSHIP OR CULTURE?, culture is created by every member of the band. This has to be established by the example set by the staff and student leaders who do so via a cycle of empowerment, encouragement, and enforcement. I will explore how this works in a future post when I discuss the tenet of Leading by Example.
MUSICIANSHIP
On the surface, it would be easy to list MUSICIANSHIP as the most important area of integrity to be a successful leader. It most certainly is important as it is an area of integrity that is specific to leadership in the band setting. This is also a tricky area as it is not uncommon to have students with great character but who may be only mediocre musicians (just as it is not uncommon to have great musicians but questionable character!). It has been my experience that even the most angelic of character struggle to gain and maintain the respect of their peers or followers if they do not also possess strong musical skills.
VISUAL PERFORMANCE
VISUAL PERFORMANCE, like MUSICIANSHIP, is a band-specific area of integrity, particularly within the realm of marching and similar visual-based ensembles. And, like MUSICIANSHIP, it is an area in which a leader in these types of ensembles must demonstrate a high level of achievement in order to be effective. Earlier in my career, I often encountered student leaders with excellent character and musicianship but whose sub-par visual performance ability negatively impacted their ability to gain the trust and respect of their peers.
I confess, dear reader, that I struggled for the first part of my career with the conundrum of how to utilize student leaders who were outstanding students and people but who had deficiencies in their musical and/or visual performance abilities. I learned to work around it by A) putting student leaders in leadership roles vs. leadership positions; B) using various means to discover their strengths/deficiencies and placing them where they will be most successful; and C) developing curriculum that teaches them the skills needed for them to be successful in their specific role.. By taking time to discover their passions and strengths, I am now able to find ways for my leaders to serve in roles that allow them to be successful. This also allows me to refrain from requiring them to lead in ways in which they are unable to successfully do so. Of course, I challenge my student leaders to be the best musical and visual performers possible by giving them the tools and feedback needed for them to grow as performers. Part of my work with my own student leaders as well as with other band programs is to help them develop processes that will put them on the Trajectory Towards Success in both their musical and visual performance skills. I look forward to sharing some of these tips in future articles.
PEDAGOGY
Of the five areas of band leadership integrity, PEDAGOGY is the least necessary, as long as the leadership role does not require the ability to either teach or assess performance skills. For some of you, this area of leadership is a very small part of the student leader’s responsibilities, if it is any part at all. For others, perhaps you rely heavily on your student leaders to teach marching fundamentals, help set and clean drill, and/or run sectionals. If you are the in the latter category, it is important to not expect your student leaders to be able to perform these tasks at a very high level. Furthermore, no student leader should be put into a position where their inability to teach or assess inhibits their ability to establish trust and respect needed to effectively lead their peers. One of the biggest mistakes I have witnessed is when a band director assumes that a good and/or experienced performer can automatically translate those skills into effective teaching, coaching, or assessing. At best, this model puts unnecessary limitations on the band’s overall success. At worst, it creates the type of scenario outlined as Truth #10 in my article entitled BEACONS, BOUNCERS, & BARRIERS: Understanding the Cultural Dynamics That Impact Your Band’s Success.
I am not suggesting that student leaders are unable to teach, coach, or assess, but it is important to not assume that they can just because they are great people or performers. You might have some students who are able to lead in this way to some degree and it is certainly possible to teach pedagogical skills. But this is an area that we band directors must be very careful as it is easy to set up our student leaders, and consequently the entire band, to fail. Which leads me to another important truth…
LEADERSHIP INTEGRITY IS AN “ALL OR NOTHING” CONSTRUCT
In other words, it is impossible for a leader to be truly effective unless they have high levels of integrity in each of the areas previously discussed. It starts with CHARACTER and ETIQUETTE but the leader in any band setting must also possess great MUSICIANSHIP & VISUAL PERFORMANCE integrity, especially if their leadership role includes any sort of performance leadership. PEDAGOGICAL integrity is also necessary for those with any sort of instructional, coaching, or assessment role. This is an area that should be judiciously assigned to student leaders and needs a tremendous amount of support from their director in order to carry out these types of leadership activities with integrity. But the important thing to remember is that:
Integrity concerns in one area will adversely affect integrity in ALL areas.
SERVICE
If Integrity is the “peanut butter” then Service is the “chocolate” that turns this two-ingredient concoction of Effective Leadership into the perfect snack. Let’s grab a spoon and dig in by starting with a brief exercise…
List the following without looking up any answers:
The five richest people in the world
The last three #1 hit songs
Five people who have taught you something worthwhile
Three people who have made you feel valued
Which of these lists was the easiest one to make?
Our world tries to convince us that the things or people who have the greatest popularity, prestige, or power are the ones that matter most to our lives.
But…
The reality is that the ones we remember the most are those who have made a significant impact on us personally, especially by those from whom we have learned valuable lessons or felt valued. This is a significant truth, dear reader. Our commitment to being a powerfully positive influence on the students and staff we lead is the foundation to being a successful band director, educator, and, well…human being.
When ||: Leaders Creating :|| started forming in the summer months of 2020, we established the idea of Leading Through Service as the bedrock of our core values. We strive to live this out in our interactions with each member of the team and when we engage with our clients, the music education community, and students. The leadership strategies we teach when working with band directors and students to maximize and refine their band’s culture are firmly entrenched in the idea that the most effective way to lead in a band setting is by serving those we lead to empower them to be the best versions of themselves.
SO…WHAT IS SERVANT LEADERSHIP?
Servant Leadership is a concept that was introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf (1904–1990) in his 1970 essay entitled “The Servant as Leader.” The central tenet to this leadership approach is that “A servant can only become a leader if a leader remains a servant.” In the ensuing decades, this leadership approach has been adopted in business, education, and in some areas of government. The ten traits of servant leadership according to Greenleaf are:
Servant Leaders LISTEN first.
Servant Leaders are EMPATHETIC to the other’s worldview.
Servant Leaders work to HEAL the injured.
Servant Leaders are AWARE of their physical and emotional environment.
Servant leaders PERSUADE through non-judgmental argument to create change.
Servant Leaders can CONCEPTUALIZE the big picture.
Servant Leaders use the past and present to plan for the FUTURE.
Servant Leaders take full responsibility for the STEWARDSHIP of their followers.
Servant Leaders put a premium on their COMMITMENT to the growth of their followers.
Servant Leaders strive to BUILD COMMUNITY.
In short, servant leadership is a leadership philosophy where the leader
Shares power
Puts the needs of others first
Helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.
To achieve this, a leader in any position must adhere to the following tenets:
Leading by EXAMPLE
Leading through COMMITMENT
Leading with VISION
Leading through ENCOURAGEMENT
Leading through COOPERATION
I plan to address each of these tenets in greater detail in the weeks to come.
As always, thank you again for taking the time to read my thoughts regarding the two basic ingredients needed to be an effective leader. I am excited about the series of follow-up articles to come in which we will closely examine each of the five tenets of leadership listed above. In the meantime, send me your relevant thoughts and questions by commenting below and/or emailing me at johnf@leaderscreating.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We at ||:Leaders Creating:|| value the opportunity to engage with our readers, clients, colleagues, and friends. Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section!
John is an educator in music and leadership who also happens to be a band director, a role that he has served for 22 years in a variety of settings including middle school, high school, small college, large state university, and both private and public institutions. His diverse experiences in developing and growing band programs have provided opportunities for John to learn from his students how to help them become effective peer leaders in order to create positive, intentional, and goal-driven band cultures. John’s work as a leadership clinician ranges from self-development and improvement, effective communication and pedagogical skills, and the application of servant leadership in the music ensemble setting. His materials are adaptable for a variety of settings including large and small groups, one-on-one coaching, virtual and in-person clinics, and for both students and educators of all levels.
Visit https://www.leaderscreating.com/ for more information about our program!
