When corporate leaders talk about performance they tend to be judging business success rather than new interpretations of Brecht; it’s about whether they’ve created new opportunities, inspired their teams, improved the figures and so on. But take the idea of performance back to its theatrical roots and they can find a useful new approach to how they think about their jobs, argues a professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
“So much of what’s written about leadership is written as if there’s no one else there — it’s all written about ‘me the leader’. But really leadership is a dance between you and the audience,” says Harry Davis, the school’s professor of creative management. To that end, he suggests that leaders use three personas to help them to think about their approach:
Playwright. The playwright takes everything he knows and narrows it down to a single story. He decides what tale to tell when, and how he wants to tell it.
In a business sense, the playwright is the visionary who creates the framework of a new idea. Use this persona to set your personal and business goals. There’s no need to adopt this role every day; use it when you need to clarify your vision and shape your next move. Often this will be at times of major change, such as when you are changing jobs or taking on an important new project. You may also want to use it when preparing for smaller tasks, such as meetings or presentations.
Director. “The director takes the playwright’s material, the basic structure, and says, ‘How do I make this happen given the time that I have and the audience I am facing?’ He is pragmatic, unlike the playwright. The playwright has the vision and the director makes it happen,” Professor Davis says. The director also has responsibility for marshalling the actors into their roles and creating the right environment for his performance.
The business director concentrates on planning and practicality, whether it’s deciding how to change a company’s business strategy or ensuring that everyone attending a meeting can see the overhead projector. As with the playwright, this role is most important when preparing for change.
Actor. The actor is the bridge between the playwright’s idea and the audience members; his job is to engage them. He has to decide which aspects of his persona need to be brought to the fore in a particular part; he also has to be agile and flexible to be able to adapt to different audiences and different parts.
Business people should take on this persona when thinking about how they communicate and build rapport with others. (“I am often struck by how often in meetings people don’t make eye contact with all the people in the room,” Professor Davis says.) It is also useful when thinking about what sort of characteristics they have to exhibit to successfully “play” the part in their own job.
Tapping into your personal creativity is a big part of getting this right. “If you can see the world in only one way it will limit your ability to play roles and react to different audiences effectively.”
However, when Professor Davis talks about leaders as actors playing a part, he most definitely does not mean faking it. “Good actors are honest. That’s what adds depth and connection to the role. It’s not about changing who you are. It’s about deciding which you bring to the fore.” In other words, working out which aspects of yourself are most appropriate to a particular part and which should be left waiting in the wings for a different role.
This is a particularly important skill for new managers to develop. “One thing that gets in the way of people in their career is that when they get their first job they build up technical skills and may do well, but they are working to a very small script. Then they get promoted to a role with managerial responsibility and find that they can’t approach the role in the same way. Technical skills won’t help them; they need to bring a new set of characteristics to the stage.”
