Leadership and the guitar

I have always loved playing the guitar. As I dusted off my acoustic one this last week, an idea came to mind: there are parallels between playing the guitar and exercising leadership. Isn't leadership, much like a guitarist in sync with their melody, an art woven into our actions?

Picture a guitarist so into their music that the line between them and the guitar blurs. Similarly, transformative leadership means leading the team with a purpose, creating a symphony of productivity.

When I am playing the guitar, if I am really playing it, I am one with the instrument. I am not an observer commenting on how it should be played. I am not passing judgement, or even evaluating whether I am playing well. I am simply playing.

The same is true of leadership. When it is being exercised, the leader doesn't observe their own leadership. They are driven by a bigger purpose, oblivious to the commentary of the observers around them. They no longer care about what other people might say. In that sense, they become transparent. They are simply following their vision of excellence.

I'll end with a quote that has stayed with me for more than a decade. It is as pertinent to leadership as it is to living:

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both."
James A. Michener