What is Your Leadership Capacity?

I was 30,000 feet in the air, somewhere over Nebraska or Colorado, when I first heard this story on a podcast. I do not remember the context or the reason the speaker was sharing this story. What I do know is that I heard it through the lens of leadership, and it had a profound impact on me. 

The story was about one of my favorite bands, U2. They not only write great music while embracing their platform to speak on issues of social justice, but they are also known to put on concerts that are a true experience for all attending. At a U2 concert, fans are known to stand through the event while singing along at the top of their lungs. At some concerts you watch a band perform, but at a U2 concert, the band serves more as a conductor inviting all to join the show.   

The story I heard went something like this: in the late ‘90s U2 was on tour but they quickly realized that things were not going well. People were sitting in their seats and talking to their friends rather than participating in the concert experience. The band could feel the shift and they knew it had to be addressed. Instead of creating a checklist to assess the sound quality, the stage design, or their use of video screens, they took a different approach. The band members went back to their hotel, they found an empty room in the basement, and they decided to play through every song of the tour in that room alone. Four incredibly talented musicians with just their instruments; no sound system, no stage, no adoring fans. They did this because they knew that whatever happened between them, there in that private space, would be amplified on the larger stage. In other words, what happened behind closed doors is how people would experience the rest of the tour. 

As I imagine this moment, I picture that the room is dark and musty. There are cement block walls and an unfinished cracked concrete floor. The room is full of cleaning supplies and catering carts stacked with dishes from another era. The dated fluorescent lights flick on and off and boxes of once valued table centerpieces line the room. There is nothing exciting or respectable about this space, but this is where they needed to go to take it all down to the studs and rebuild. The alchemy doesn’t happen on the main stage, it happens in the basement when no one else is watching.   

I strongly believe that your personal growth capacity IS your leadership capacity. This means that leaders must be willing to recognize when things could and should be better. When our people are not having the experience they signed up for, we must be willing to go alone to the basement to do the hard work of unpacking our own leadership and rethinking the impact that we have on others. We need to wrestle with hard questions and commit to growing and changing in ways that will best serve those around us.  

I have worked with too many leaders who love the leadership spotlight but hate the dark, musty basement. But like any seed, we grow in the dark. The basement is where we go to become better leaders. Breaking it all down and putting it all back together doesn’t happen in the public eye with thousands cheering you on. We must be willing to do this hard work behind closed doors, outside of the leadership spotlight. We owe this to our people. Successfully leading on a large stage in the public eye means committing to time spent alone in the dark.   

What work do you need to do on yourself today so others can enjoy a better experience of you tomorrow?   

Carve out some time this week to step out of the leadership spotlight and walk down to the basement. Good things grow in the dark. Your people will thank you.  

If you enjoyed this post, please use the social media icons below to share or tweet this blog so others may also benefit.