How to get the right players in your band
Creating your perfect work team is like assembling a band, says S. Chris Edmonds, and sometimes you have to set some of them free.
Some of you know that I’m a musician on the side. I’ve been playing professionally for 25 years, from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Austin to Denver. Those bands played clubs, parties, corporate events, weddings and even a few festivals through the years.
Most bands — like many workplaces — are not fully functional. There’s frequent drama, frustration, back-stabbing and worse.
I refused to work in drama-ridden bands. Just as I help leaders sustain purposeful, positive, productive work environments, I couldn’t help myself. I applied our culture change process to the bands I was in! I facilitated discussions with everyone — players, sound pros, even roadies — to clarify our servant purpose, values and behaviors that helped ensure people were respectful to each other AND delivered on their performance requirements.