I help people in the emotional issues of management. To illustrate what I do, let’s begin with a quick story of my sordid musical past:
When I was a student bass player, I followed all the many instructions I was given, including all the exercises in method books. I was exceptionally diligent and obedient to all these systems and methods, and eagerly listened to everyone’s advice. And I was rewarded with good grades for doing so.
But despite getting approval from teachers and getting good grades, in the end, the actual bass playing did not get any better. Quite vexing.
So one day I asked someone who was a real star at playing the violin how I could get better. He said, “Justin, you need to slow down and think in terms of fundamentals. If you have complete and total command of the scales and arpeggios, you won’t have to learn any particular piece, because you will be able to read and play it perfectly on site, just like you can read a book you have never read before.”
This seemed logical. So I set about mastering the fundamentals. And once I did that, he was right, 98% of the time, I could sight-read anything. This was a true watershed moment for me.I had made the leap. I had transformed. And I no longer belonged in that old process-worshipping mechanical culture.
This is not a commonly understood concept, as it conflicts with most industrial era training, and many people have never made such a leap– not even people in “the arts.” When most people hear an orchestra like the Boston Pops, they always overlay a presumption that it took the orchestra weeks of arduous practice to play the notes so accurately. Not so. They sound just as good when they sight-read a new piece. They are a group of people who have “transformed” into being able to do this complex task just as easily as you chew gum (which, by the way, is actually very complicated).
So when I talk about being a “management coach,” I am not about the standard practices that are espoused all over. The idea is to “transform” — to have command of the fundamentals so you can do it right now, on the fly, perfect the first time every time, with minimal effort. It’s an ideal, and it’s not perfect– it never is in any case– but we all know people who just seem to just “have it” and make it look easy. This is true of some conductors, it is true of some social dancers . . . and it is true of some managers. They have “made the leap.”
So of course you can continue to read all those books about management theory and all the systems and studies (which risk your getting bogged down in complexity), or you can get down to the fundamentals. Mimicry and obedience, even to the best system, is ultimately second rate. Truly effective managing is about having a solid grasp of the basic truths of how people react given situations, and, given those universal attributes, choosing the optimal method for achieve a desired result within that framework . . . and not doing anything else.
As I learned as a young bass player, there is great power in knowing the fundamental truths. Granted, there is an up-front investment, as it takes a while to sort them out from the noise and chaff of popular dogma. But if you have command of those fundamentals, ideally, you can sight-manage anything. I help people move towards these transformed states, mostly by just transforming myself first. Amazingly, in all things, the most effective methods are the ones that require the least amount of effort.
(c) Justin Locke
