“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”~ Albert Einstein

Imagine. During times of less bustle and more deep thinking, come many creative ideas. How can you look at something in a totally novel way? You don’t have to be a scientist, artist or inventor. Simply encourage your natural curiosity when examining nature, a thing, or solving a dilemma. What or who spurs you on? Schools and businesses transitioned to virtual working even if they hadn’t done this before. Entrepreneurs are considering how to offer services digitally rather than in person. How can you envision something in a new light?

In the final piece of the series on Berry Gordy, leadership role model, he was a deep thinker who wasn’t a scientist, artist or inventor, however what he was – was a visionary. He saw people, process and potential frontiers in new creative ways. How? In the way he produced the Motown artists and songs and the way he was able to change to stay relevant through time.

Visionary

Before Gordy started Motown, he failed at owning a record store, and had worked on the assembly line at Ford.  He creatively combined the vision from the two into his music label, which he saw as an assembly line for musical artists and songs: artist>producers>arrangers>dance instructors>new star.  The raw material was the talented vocalist or group. Next, the producer was introduced to engage the talent with the song they would be recording.  After that the arranger worked with the talent, musicians, and their producer to make the arrangement of the music work best for the vocalist(s) and the song. Once the music worked, dance instructors were brought in to teach the talent to entertain the audience for the live version. And, after production was done, you still had to polish to ensure the excellence, like in quality control in manufacturing. Mix all that together and you have a finished product.

Like the artist assembly line, the songs also had a formula which came from both Gordy’s intuition and analysis of which songs were selling: the intuition was based on human behavior and emotion. With the popular music Gordy was producing, he intuited that if you didn’t get a listener in the first 8 bars of a song, you had to go back to the drawing board because it wouldn’t sell. The first 8 bars were equivalent to the first 10 seconds of a song. He had seen certain recordings fail that he thought would be a hit, once he reworked them with that solid gold formula, they sold.

Bigger picture, the true visionary, understood for Motown to stay relevant and stick around, it and he had to innovate or stagnate. Gordy always had an appreciation for the next thing. He saw what others couldn’t see. Gordy kept up with the times in sound, content and marketing the music, then moving from music to television to movies. The record company grew to an entertainment conglomerate.

 

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”  ~ Albert Einstein

You as a Visionary

The amazing 30-year-old Gordy who started and led Motown – a true leader, he was, and still is. Consider almost otherworldly, his label’s music made it not only across the globe, but one of his artists, The Supremes, was even played in space when the US first walked on the moon.

How can you learn from Berry Gordy?  Can he spur something in you, like he did in me: to look at and examine his thought process, his why for inclusion https://susangoldbergleadership.com/like-music-to-your-ears/ and his deep calling to see people’s potential as his way to give and succeed https://susangoldbergleadership.com/build-me-up-buttercup/. You can be a visionary and a leader. https://susangoldbergleadership.com/what-are-the-key-qualities/ It’s all up to you.  You can take his lessons and interpret them for you and your team. Or your creativity can be motivated by his. How are you going to take that next step?

Do you want to talk about Gordy’s leadership and how you can apply it to your situation? Would you like to be a better leader? Or perhaps a direct report(s) needs finer tuning to be truly terrific but you don’t have the bandwidth or mindset to offer it? (You recognize this because you’ve been in their position and appreciate how you could have used training to grow). If you’d like to create a training and development plan for you or your direct report that offers like Motown’s example increased productivity, more satisfied team members thereby increased retention, let’s talk. Contact me at Susan@SusanGoldbergLeadership.com