Take one champion-step-dancing mom and a fiddle-playing dad from
the Canadian heartland. Add eleven brothers and sisters, eight of whom have
more talent than most living human beings, and what do you get? A musical
phenomenon called Leahy.
I was lucky enough to catch the opening concert of their 2009
Christmas Tour, and they provided a fascinating glimpse into their amazing
world of self-evidently effective self-management.
If you can, watch this clip before continuing:
A few (okay, ten) observations about what makes Leahy so great,
and how they relate to self-management in organizations:
1. History and Culture. Leahy (the family’s last name), the band,
consists of eight of the eleven Leahy siblings. Before the siblings come
onstage, the disembodied voices of their mom and dad are broadcast to the audience.
Consisting of random memories of past Christmases on their Ontario cattle
ranch, the parents' musings were a cultural touchstone, infusing their
performance with power and meaning. They even brought an old couch onstage to
recreate the times spent playing music all night long in their family living
room—a significant cultural artifact reinforcing their connectedness to the
past.
2. Mission. The implicit mission of the band is to share their own
obvious joy in playing music with other people. Clear, simple and coherent.
There is no doubt that every Leahy sibling supports that mission
wholeheartedly and joyfully. Their website says it best: “Leahy (LAY-he):
noun, verb, adjective. A family. A musical group of brothers and sisters, a
sound, a style of music, a way of life, a volcanic explosion of talent and
energy, intense emotion, and feral passion.”
3. Leadership. Donnell, the oldest brother, serves as the emcee
and appears to be the chief orchestrator. But those roles do not preclude
leadership revolving to the others during the course of the evening. In fact,
on any particular song, there may be anywhere from two to eight siblings on
the stage performing. They come and go as the needs of the concert dictate,
without direction. On singing numbers, the lead singer (usually one of the
sisters) takes the reins of leadership, exhorting the band as well as the
audience to join in. Leadership in Leahy, during a performance, appears to
rotate to the brother or sister with the most “expertise” on a particular
song.
4. Strategy and Process. Discussing the approach to constructing a
Christmas concert for 2009, Donnell described conversations with his siblings
to collect and incorporate their input on how the concert should flow. There
is a clear strategy required to put together a concert series. And there is a
“business process”, formal or informal, for gathering ideas and executing the
strategy. Example: the couch idea came from sister Denise, who insisted on it
as a reminder of Christmases past.
5. Collaboration. The siblings demonstrate obvious care and
concern—and appreciation--for each other and each other’s gifts, reflected in
the collaborative process used to construct their concerts. It would be hard
to imagine one of the siblings trying to be a “boss”, directing his or her
own brothers and sisters what, where, when and how to practice and perform.
Just wouldn’t work.
6. Individual Virtuosity and Execution. Each sibling seems to play
multiple instruments, in addition to step dancing (the sisters do most of the
singing, however). They are individually recognized as some of the finest
individual musicians in the world. Erin, the piano player, is ambidextrous
and can play the fiddle upside-down. Amazing, world-class talent, clearly
based on tons of practice and hard work. As individuals, they clearly shoot
for perfection.
7. Teamwork. Leahy is a wonderful example of the whole being
greater than the sum of the parts. As individuals, they are world-class
virtuosos. Playing and dancing together—in perfect synchronicity--as members
of a family who obviously love each other, they create magic. Check out the
finale to the video link above.
8. Mentorship. The siblings have an intentional effort to bring
along the “next Leahy generation”. To that end, they brought out the
six-year-old son of the drummer, Frank, to perform a complex step dance. The
young man’s performance was absolutely perfect, triggering a standing
ovation. The encouragement of his seven aunts and uncles (and father) was
obvious in their broad smiles. It wouldn't have mattered to anyone if he'd made
a mistake, since he was obviously shooting for perfection--and got
it.
9. Real-Time Feedback, Empowerment. Several times during the
performance, a stagehand would dart onto to the stage to adjust a piece of
sound equipment, even though the audience could hear no obvious sound glitch.
To Leahy, however, there had to be a reason for the adjustments—and they have
much higher performance standards than the average concertgoer. Given their
level of virtuosity and synchronicity, it seems likely that they have
empowered their road crew to deal with perceived glitches in real time. No
one needed to be told what to adjust and how to adjust it. They just did what
the situation required, on their own.
10. Flat Organization. The band’s name speaks for itself: Leahy.
Each sibling is biologically and musically a Leahy, so no band member
necessarily stands out above the rest—a quintessential flat organization.
Since it would be massively counterproductive to make decisions lacking
consensus support (all members are needed to create a full sound), it’s
likely that whatever decision-making processes Leahy employs are highly
effective in achieving buy-in and focusing group effort.
I encourage you to check out this remarkable family at www.leahymusic.com. Even
better, see them live.
