From Xander's & my 2015 trip to New Orleans 

As the owner of 2 companies— Valutivity for business consulting, The Consulting Arts for the arts—I’m continuously seeking natural intersections between them. Inflection points in learning for one domain can boost them both. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (JazzFest) http://www.nojazzfest.com/ uncovered some of these inflection points for me.

The actions of key leaders in Jazz performance entertainment highlighted a focus on humility and vision that can be a model for business leaders.

The more talented the leader, the more mentors one needs.

In his interview at the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, Carlos Santana was quick to point out musicians who had preceded him and praise their contributions to the genre. For example, after noting that “[t]here's a lot of music that's hollow, shallow, and unnecessary,” Santana spent nearly his entire session highlighting others’ seminal works.

NEXT STEPS Any person interested in music should listen to these pillars of Jazz:

🎸 Guitar – In Santana’s opinion, Mel Brown’s “18 Pounds of Uncut Chittlin’s” is the “rawest, ugliest guitar you'd play if you could.” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCmdCUasTRY. John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush and Peter Green (founder of Fleetwood Mac) are key influencers, as well.

🥁 Drums - Chris Columbo received a mention for his stick-work.

🎹 Organ – Johnny “Hammond” Smith in George Gershwin’s "Summertime.” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzY_xknmnsc\

🎷 Saxophone – Santana’s favorite Wayne Shorter quote is that “[y]ou have to think slower to play faster, and you have to think faster to play slower.”

Leaders deliver high value with gracious humility.

Branford Marsalis started his concert indicating that he would not waste too much time talking at the beginning in order to give us all the music he could in a short amount of time he had (the very definition of what the audience valued). Also, he symbolically steped to the back of the stage during the portions of the songs when the pianist (the incomparable Joey Calderazzo; sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkQcwPoxKO8) and bassist who played their solos. Classy.

Incidentally, the Branford Marsalis Quartet’s set was easily my favorite of all the acts I saw in my 2 days at the event.

NEXT STEPS

How humble would your coworkers consider you to be? Your clients and customers?

Are you a mentor, and do you have a mentor yourself?

Leaders place more focus on making the world a better place than on money

Jazz breeds singers who envision how their work can inspire a better world. Think Louis Armstrong, of “What a Wonderful World” fame.

Or Alexey Marti, who in his JazzFest interview commented that a better world would be “like I grew up. Everybody sang. Everybody played an instrument. Everybody danced. Everybody said ‘hi’ when you met someone on the street.”

In another interview, Carlos Santana suggested,

“May the heavens open up and give you awareness that you are filled w/ your own light.”

(Curious, I searched to see what he might mean by that “light”—and it turns out that he is often quoted as using phrase such as “child of God,” or, more specifically, “I am a beam of light that comes from the mind of God.” Link: http://latinoleaders.com/the-conscious-revolution-of-carlos-santana/).

NEXT STEPS: How can your company—your industry—could make the world a better place? Is your beam of light shining?