In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality . . . → Read More: Play it Again. And Again. And Again.]]> Share/Bookmark

Ideas are easy. Consistency is hard.

I think that one of the reasons I return to that epigram so often is because of my music training. The business world has much to learn from the musical world.

In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality matters, but at least in the worlds of jazz and classical music, you won’t get a lick if you can’t perform.

I heard an interview with Paul Simon a few weeks ago. Simon made a comment about having some great material in his head for another recording, but he had put it all on hold because he was on tour now. The interviewer asked, clearly perplexed, if that meant he just stopped writing, if he just put his creativity on hold. Simon response was that he was a professional. He didn’t sit around waiting for inspiration. He had a job to do, and when it came time to write, he would write.

Paul Simon has, among a crazy wealth of other abilities, solid writing chops. It is his craft, and he practices it.

That’s the way it is. So close your copy of 10 New Laws of Success I Just Discovered or any book with the words new, secret, laws, or success in the title, and start acting like a musician.

Practice your Craft

Business is an art and a craft. Practice it. Learn the fundamental rules of finance, social sciences/psychology, operations & logistics, communication and information theory. Understand the real laws of cause and effect that are the constants of your world much as the laws of acoustics, theory, and rhythm are the constants of a musician’s world. Study, study, study.

Then then practice. Practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts, no magical ‘laws’, no real silver bullets. The 10,000 hours that Gladwell writes about in Outliers won’t be ignored. Honour them or you will get nowhere.

Do you have to love what you do? Of course. Who wants to do something for ten thousand hours that they don’t love? But if you want to excel at it, if you want to make a living at it, it becomes a labour of love. The love must come first, but the system, the labour, the practice cannot be ignored. And if you want to be successful as a business owner, it is the practice of business that you must focus on. Not what got you into the business: baking or sales or mechanics or construction. The business itself is now your craft.

In music school, I spent 1,000’s of hours in study cubicles and Wenger practice studios. In the cubicles we were mastering the theoretical fundamentals of our art. In the tiny practice modules we were all practicing the performance of that art. And in the middle of all those hours, what struck me was not how hard I was working, it was what I heard when I took a break in the common area: the sounds of pianos, voices, trombones, trumpets, violins, double basses, percussion… heard faintly through the almost-soundproof doors of the other Wenger studios. The same scales, the same passages, the same failures and triumphs over and over and over again. The relentless patterns of the search for mastery.

I just don’t hear enough of that in the world of business.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

One key quality is agency. Agency is the degree to which you are in control, the degree to which you are a creator of the reality around you. Agentic qualities are those that increase your control of your environment.

A research article (What Is Important on the Job? Differences Across Gender, Perspective, and Job Level) by Mark Frame and his team, in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology looked . . . → Read More: Not-so-secret Agency]]> Share/Bookmark

Leading others, whether it is to work with you, work for you, to buy your products, or buy into your ideas, requires you to bring certain qualities to the table.

One key quality is agency. Agency is the degree to which you are in control, the degree to which you are a creator of the reality around you. Agentic qualities are those that increase your control of your environment.

A research article (What Is Important on the Job? Differences Across Gender, Perspective, and Job Level) by Mark Frame and his team, in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology looked at the role of gender in assigning value to agentic versus communal qualities in the workplace. Read the article to get all the details, but I took one point away: that the importance of agentic qualities was rated more necessary as roles increased in authority and responsibility (C roles like CEO, CFO, COO).

Agentic qualities include assertiveness, independence, confidence, and self-efficacy.

The ability to communicate these qualities is as important as having them. This is for two reasons:

1. Just having agency is not enough. Your team must see and believe you have it as well. You might feel like you have what it takes to manage or control a process, to make a positive difference, and you might in fact truly have it, but if your team doesn’t believe it, you will be leading a group of one.
2. Agency, like so many things in life, is strengthened by ‘doing it’. The more you communicate agency, the more you acquire it. Whether you look at it as ‘operating at the growing edge’ or ‘fake it ‘til you make it’, your agentic qualities strengthen when you  broadcast them.

Whether it is in a team meeting, in a sales conversation with a potential customer, or an interview for a job or promotion, your ability to communicate your sense of agency is critical. Influence, authority, confidence, and leadership all require agentic qualities. People will follow you and trust you to the extent they believe you have a positive vision, and the agency to realize that vision. Without that agency, you are just a dreamer.

So how do you communicate agency? Here is a short list of don’ts and do’s.

Don’t

• Go on and on. Whenever possible, listen more than you speak. When you listen, listen with your whole body. When you do speak, get to the point.
• Justify yourself. Make your point and stop. People who explain or provide endless back stories sometimes send the message that they don’t believe in what they are saying, or that they don’t trust their listeners to understand.
• Use small, nervous motions. This is cultural, but even if you are used to talking with your hands, keep your movements deliberate. A lot of movement of your hands, feet, and facial expressions conveys nervousness.
• Be negative or sarcastic. Criticism is sometimes valid and even useful. But [pullthis]we don’t follow critics. We follow leaders who convince us of positive alternatives. [/pullthis]Sarcasm is always petty. [pullshow] It betrays a tendency to take things personally, and a habit of building yourself up by tearing others down.

Do

• Come from where it matters. Passionate, positive people are magnets. All the tips and tricks in the world won’t help you if you don’t truly believe what you are communicating. If it doesn’t get you out of bed in the morning, it’s not going to get others out of their chairs.
• Do your homework and speak with conviction. Combining passion with real knowledge is a knock-out combination.
• Relax. Take a deep breath. Drop your shoulders. The hallmark of peak performances in the arts and in sports is a mind and body free of the inhibiting forces of stress. If you want to come across as truly in control and in the groove, do one thing: take a deep breath, relax your face and shoulders, and then step into the spotlight!
• Pitch your voice. Before you speak (do this before turning on the mic or picking up the phone) hum a low note to yourself. This drops your voice down into a lower register that is consistently associated with authority and control.
• Slow down. Move with intention and slow down your rate of speech. Human beings read hurried movements or speech as a lack of confidence.

These aren’t just public speaking tips. These are ways of being in the world that are as important as anything else you bring to the table: your education, your plans and preparation, and the long hours of work. As Frame’s article shows, middle management requires us to draw on communal, consensus-building, detail-oriented approaches. But if you are looking for wide-spread influence, authority, and leadership at the top, you need to draw on and exhibit well defined agentic qualities.

I develop communication skills that yield measurable results. To book a workshop or seminar, write to me at clemens@clemensrettich.com