Dear Friends and Supporters,
Over the weekend I watched a video entitled Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician within featuring Kenny Werner, a jazz pianist who authored a book by the same title. Werner discusses the ways our minds get in the way of our creative pursuits. While the focus is on music and musicians, I found several parallels to the work of education. For example, Werner discusses how difficult we make our own work/art by doubting ourselves, caring about external approval, and second-guessing our instincts. His premise is that players are much better when they actively free themselves of such judgments, and I would argue that based on our experiences, leaders are not much different. That is not to say that leaders do not need to work strategically in highly political contexts. They do. However, they do not benefit from their self-doubt, working against their own internal wisdom, or from looking for personal approval from the various stakeholders in their work. So what does this mean for a disciplined leadership practice (in the sense of daily rehearsing leadership through exercises and performance—which we facilitate for folks both in pre-service and on the job)? Are there parallels in Werner’s stance on practicing music?
Werner describes two common extremes of practicing: (1) standard, the routine of going through exercises that have very little to do with performance for the same amount of time every day and (2) daily procrastination. He defines mastery as when something becomes effortless and talks about how to narrowly identify the skills musicians need to develop in order for their playing to be effortless. The narrow identification of the skills of music, tempo, intonation (playing in tune), articulation (“attacking” the note, short or long, hard, soft, or slurred together), finger dexterity, allows players to practice the precise skills they need until they are effortless. I see many parallels here to the inquiry work—the identification of literacy and numeracy sub-skills and the precision with which educators need to engage students in practicing those sub-skills until they can apply them effortlessly. I also see parallels to how we hone in on the sub-skills embedded in the leadership competencies (through our matrix and Leadership Performance Planning Worksheet).
Happy fall,
Sandra