I’d been working in leadership positions for over eight years before I did any kind of formal training - and I think this is pretty typical in the arts sector. Everything I’ve learned about how to lead well has come from either watching and learning from the leaders that I’ve encountered, or from things I’ve read / listened to / watched that have struck a chord. Today, I thought I’d share ten things in the latter category which have helped to shape my views on the kind of leader I’d like to be.
None of the below are arts specific resources. You might find some of the more commercial language jarring, there can be whole sections or episodes that feel irrelevant (e.g. why making all your employees shareholders is a great motivating tool). There are many ways in which the arts are unique as a sector - but also, quite a lot of ways that we’re not. I love taking a peek into different kinds of organisations and finding out how the people who run them do things - I think the more we’re able to emerge from the bubble of our own sector to learn from others, the better.
The list I’ve included below isn’t made up of leadership guides or ‘how tos’ - it’s a collection of things that have given me pause for thought, and have provoked ideas or reflections on my own organisations and leadership. I hope some of them might chime with you - and, if you felt like posting a comment with any other valuable leadership resources that you’ve encountered, I’d love to hear about them too.
1. Anything and everything by Seth Godin
Most people that I’ve worked with will be aware that I am a huge Seth Godin fan. I talk about him a lot - arguably too much - but it’s because I’ve gained so much from his work. He writes a daily blog - that’s right: daily. I’m not sure exactly when he started it, but I first subscribed ten years ago and I read it every single day because it is filled with wisdom and fascinating ideas. He also has a podcast called Akimbo which features him talking about a topic in longer form.
It’s quite hard to describe exactly what Seth Godin’s subject area is, but if forced to sum it up, I’d say it focuses on how individuals and organisations can do good work. He has lots to say about how to be an effective freelancer or entrepreneur, how to serve customers well, and how to lead. In that last category, this blog post Erosion fundamentally shifted how I thought about leadership, and this podcast episode that I listened to recently, Aravind, reminded me of how essential good managers are if we want to get anything done.
2. The Fearless Organisation by Amy C. Edmondson
In this book, Amy Edmondson writes brilliantly about creating psychological safety in the workplace. There’s more understanding about why this is necessary now than there was when Edmonson was first writing about it, but it’s still hugely useful to walk through why psychological safety is so important - and in particular, dispel the myth that putting time and energy into creating this kind of environment is not a distraction from high performance, but necessary for it. Here’s a tiny quote to give you a taster:
“I would like to suggest a few simple, uncommon, powerful phrases that anyone can utter to make the workplace feel just a tiny bit more psychologically safe:
I don’t know.
I need help.
I made a mistake.
I’m sorry.”
3. Legacy by James Kerr
I think there are so many interesting leadership lessons that our sector can learn from sport, and this book is a great example. James Kerr spent a vast amount of time with New Zealand’s All Blacks (one of the most successful sporting teams in the world) to work out what makes them so good. I have zero interest in rugby but found lots of fascinating insights here, because, fundamentally, it’s not a book about rugby - it’s a book about culture. Fair warning - there’s a quote on the back from Piers Morgan saying how good he thinks it is - please don’t let that put you off, but perhaps do some judicious hand positioning when reading it on the tube.
4. Eat Sleep Work Repeat by Bruce Daisley
I first heard about Legacy on the podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat, created by Bruce Daisley, who thinks, writes and speaks a lot about leadership and workplace culture. Alongside lots of interesting interviews with leaders, writers and thinkers, there are also episodes where Bruce and his co-hosts Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook chat about the latest research and trends in workplace culture, which I find really useful in keeping up to date with new ideas and thinking - most recently, they’ve spoken a lot about hybrid working, which feels incredibly relevant to many organisations, particularly those that are non-venue based. This episode, Helping the accidental manager struck a chord, and is a good companion-listen to the Seth Godin episode mentioned above.
5. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
This is not specifically a leadership resource, but it is a book that I think all leaders should read. It was a huge part of my education on the concepts of structural racism, white privilege, and intersectionality - it also provides an excellent and very concise summary of why racism against white people is not a thing, which I have utilised in more than one conversation with people who think that it is.
When the book came out, I remember listening to Eddo-Lodge doing an interview with, as I recall, an unnecessarily combative interviewer. The interviewer said something along the lines of: ‘well, what do you expect us to do?’. The essence of Eddo-Lodge’s reply was that it is each person’s responsibility to think about what their spheres of influence are, and what they can do within them to make change. If you’re a leader, then you have a big sphere of influence right in front of you, and a corresponding responsibility to make change within it.
6. Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed
Matthew Syed was, for many years, the English number one table tennis player but has since made his way, via sport punditry, to writing books that are, broadly, about high performance. In Rebel Ideas, Syed talks about the importance of cognitive diversity - in essence, how bringing together different people with different perspectives creates better solutions and ideas. There are lots of really interesting examples, including a great first chapter on the CIA.
7. Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies
There are many psychological tests out there that might be more or less helpful in telling you things about yourself or your leadership style. I’ve done a wide variety over the years - one where you end up as a colour, one where you come out with a four letter code, various ones where you come out as a personality type like ‘activist’ or ‘creator’. I always find them vaguely interesting, but Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies is the only one that’s really stuck with me.
Rubin divides people into four groups, dependent upon how they respond to internal expectations (for example, a new year’s resolution to go to the gym three times a week) and external expectations (you’ve been told you need to hand in a piece of work / report / design by a specific date). You’re either someone who responds well to both (an upholder), someone who responds well to one not the other (a questioner or an obliger, depending on which way round) or someone who doesn’t respond well to either (a rebel). When I heard Rubin speak on a podcast, she emphasised that our tendency isn’t fixed - that as we go through life, and gain more experiences, we might shift from one bracket to another.
For me, understanding where I fit within this quadrant, and thinking about where different team members might sit, is really useful in a work context. Obligers need deadlines. Rebels need some freedom. Upholders sometimes need saving from themselves if they are seeking to meet an internal expectation (like achieving inbox zero every Friday) that is clearly unrealistic. Questioners need to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing and how it fits into the big picture. I can think of people I’ve managed who fit into all of these categories, and each requires something slightly different to support them in doing their best work.
8. In Good Company by Otegha Uwagba
This is a brilliant podcast (sadly no longer producing new episodes) by journalist and writer Otegha Uwagba, who interviews a whole range of people about different topics, many of which bear relevance to leading and the workplace. There are several about money (on which she’s also written a book, currently on my ever growing list of things I want to read), a great discussion with Pandora Sykes about ambition and success, and an interview with writer Sarah Jaffe about the ‘labour-of-love myth’ (i.e. some work isn’t really work and should be done out of passion for the vocation). Arts sector - sound familiar?
9. The Five Dysfunctions of the Team by Patrick Lencioni
I think it’s fair to say that Patrick Lencioni is not the greatest writer on the planet. The prose in this book is incredibly clunky and features a fictional cast of characters (the titular dysfunctional team) that are led by their new CEO on a journey to discover exactly why nothing’s working and how to put it right. Before you throw it out of the window in frustration after cheesy sentence upon cheesy sentence, grit your teeth and push through, because the overall model that Lencioni is describing is really useful (indeed, there’s a helpful summary without the frame of the ‘story’ at the back of the book, which you can skip to if you’re really desperate). If you’re in a situation where your organisation or department is an unhappy place to be, chances are, one or more of these five dysfunctions is present.
10. Originals & WorkLife by Adam Grant
Adam Grant describes himself as an organisational psychologist who wants to find out how to make work not suck. His podcast WorkLife is one of the biggest out there, featuring interviews with some high-flying celebrities (Dolly Parton, anyone?) but also episodes on how to make meetings better, why having proper downtime on weekends and holidays is so important, and how workplaces can better support people with disabilities.
Grant’s written a number of books, and I really enjoyed his first, Originals. There’s lots of interesting insights and case studies in there, but the thing that really stuck with me is the concept that people who might be classed as original thinkers (including many artists and creatives) don’t necessarily have better ideas - they have more ideas. By generating volume, you vastly increase the chances that within them, there’ll be something incredible. Not only does this have implications for how we approach solving problems, but it also challenges the thinking that great ideas spring fully formed from the mind of a genius. You get great ideas by making space for lots of different ones first.
Listed above are only a tiny fraction of the leadership resources available in the world - tons of different articles, books, podcasts, blogs and websites suggesting better ways to do things, or how using this technique or that approach could transform yourself or your organisation. No leadership resource is ever going to do that on its own, and if it claims it is, I’d suggest leaving well alone. But in the sea of writing and opinions and advice, I’ve been lucky enough to find, washed up on the beach, little golden pieces of treasure from the brains of the people I’ve mentioned above, that I’ve pocketed and kept close to hand, ready for when I need them. I hope some of these are of use to you too - tools for the toolkit that can help us get better at what we do.