Jan
31
2008
Terry Woodruff, Steve Sweitzer and Blue Note owner Richard King recently formed a production company, Thumper Entertainment, to hold major events in Columbia, including another free blues festival some time later this year if it can raise sufficient funds.
This is a great idea. I applaud Terry, Steve and Richard for taking the risk to develop this festival into an annual traditional that will benefit the area for years to come. Last year’s festival was a phenomal success, even more successful than the planners and sponsors had hoped.
With these three heavy-hitters behind future efforts for this festival along with other major events, Columbia is sure to earn its place on the entertainment map.
Jan
20
2008
Reading a colleague’s blog, I ran across the following:
A symphony conductor is usually a good musician, but seldom a world-class performer. The most effective university deans are often not the best professors. The ability to lead … to Engage Others and to Turn Them On … rarely coincides with being at the tip-top of the … Individual Performance Heap.Which is not to say that leaders shouldn’t have a fingertip familiarity with their particular line of business. But the factors that make you good at the “people stuff” and the “inspirational stuff” and the “profit-making stuff” are quite distinct from the factors that vault you to the Pinnacle of Individual Mastery.
In business, alas, it’s all too common to promote the “best” practitioner to the job of leading other practitioners. The best trainer becomes head of the training department. The best account manager becomes head of the sales department. And so on. Tellingly, that’s not how things work in … True Talent Enterprises.
So why do we go that route in business? Beats me. Gross stupidity? Maybe. But more likely: a refusal to see that leadership is … a discrete, limited, special quality.
A sentiment I’ve long understood, but I’ve not come across any better vocabulary for it.
SOURCE: Re-Imagine! (2003), pg. 321 | Tom Peters
