Product
How Meahana WorksActivitiesCatalog
Resources
AI Session DesignerVideosBlog Posts
ServicesPricing
Book A DemoLogin

Business is Like Jazz, Not Karaoke

Posted on 
June 28, 2023

What does it mean to be a successful business leader?

In my experience, most people look to a prescribed pathway to describe what success means. They’ll point to a specific company or leader and say, “That’s what success looks like.”

Having a pathway or prescribed curriculum for “success” feels good. It’s comfortable. Yet in my years of research with technology and business leaders, I’ve found that the most successful people inside companies–the leaders who are driving the highest performance among people–are not necessarily the ones who are imitating others and following what others are doing.

Instead, the successful ones are Business Artists. 

You might even say they are a bit stubborn. Why? Because they challenged the status quo. They create in cycles. They have creative minds. They’re inspiring to work for. 

Business Artists know themselves, and they know how to flex their own innate human strengths.

These are the kinds of leaders who are on a call with a customer, and when they are finished, one of their team members looks at them in awe and says, “How did you do that? How did you connect with that customer? Why did you share that story or know where to take that conversation?”

Then they will shrug their shoulders and say, “I don’t know. I was improvising. I was in a state of flow. I wasn’t playing a memorized track or reading a script.”

To put it in musical terms, what they’re really saying is, “I wasn’t reading from the sheet music. I was going with the flow. I was playing jazz.”

Contrast this with karaoke, the popular practice of singing along to a pre-defined track. There’s no room for improvisation or creativity because the whole song is laid out for you. Everybody knows where you’re going.

The Only Way Forward

Technology has taken us to a certain point where we are no longer acting as human beings. We’ve lost our sense of empathy. We’ve lost our fulfillment from creating. We’ve lost our ability to be critical of our other artistic endeavors. 

Instead, we judge. We have become a world of critics. All you have to do to see for yourself is to look at any social media platform. No matter which ones you use, you always have the ability to show your approval by “liking” something, responding with an icon that shows your emotion, or commenting. 

Today it seems we spend much more energy judging and commenting than we do actually creating.

I love applying the analogy of music to business. Music is a big part of how I express myself creatively.

I got into music when I was young and started understanding that I could play music just like everybody else by reading sheet music. But it didn’t really work for me. I memorized how to play songs and all of a sudden, I could play as written and impress people. 

I began to understand that music is not only for the gifted few who can read music, but for everyone. There is a fundamental humanity in music that connects with your emotional core. 

Why have we lost this humanity, this creativity and artistry, in business today?

Midjourney - picture a suit-clad businessperson stepping through a portal from a grayscale corporate world into a world bursting with color and creativity. As they cross the threshold, their attire transforms into that of a jazz musician, complete with a gleaming saxophone in hand.  --v 5 --ar 16:9 --q 2 --chaos 80

Through this blog, my newsletter, my upcoming book, and through Meahana, my goal is to help business leaders expand their creative potential and become more effective leaders. 

However, it won’t happy by accident. There’s no magical “creativity fairy” that shows up one day and sprinkles pixie dust around. In today’s chaotic world, the only way forward is through creative thinking and innovation. 

We must learn to go with the flow, to approach business like jazz. The karaoke approach to business doesn’t work any longer. 

But rather, than being depressed about this, I see it as an incredible opportunity to rise to the occasion, to become the leaders we’re meant to be. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure. There’s no better time to be a Business Artist.

Come join the Business Artist movement!

‍

‍

Tagged:
Business Artist
Adam Boggs
Chief Executive Officer
view All Posts

Featured Posts

Meeting
The Office Mandate Nobody's Talking About: Fix Meetings Before Forcing Attendance
Meeting
Why Method Matters More Than Meeting Agenda
Why We Need Smart Meetings: A Case for Smarter, Not Fewer, Meetings
Meeting
Outnumbered by AI Notetakers
Meeting
The $37 Billion Question: What Type of Meeting Are You Running?
Meeting
From Chaos to Clarity: Leading Collaborative Decision-Making with Intention
Meeting
Transforming Panel Discussions: From Boring to Brilliant
Meaningful Meeting Takeaways
Workshop
The Whiteboard Conundrum: Are Digital Collaboration Tools Failing to Deliver on their Promise?
Meeting
Navigating Hybrid Meetings: A Practical Solution with Meahana
Meeting
Move Beyond Endless Brainstorming to Decisive Outcomes
Workshop
What Really is a Workshop? (Work+Shop)
Workshop
Facilitation and the Artist Journey
Workshop
The Rise of Canva and the Software 'Augmentation Era'
Workshop
Business is Like Jazz, Not Karaoke
Workshop
Future of Workshop Design: Meahana's No-Code Approach and Content Partnerships Empower Facilitators
The Hidden Cost of Misalignment: $2 Trillion in Failed Projects and How to Fix It
Meeting
Meetings: The Silent Killer of Productivity (And How to Fight Back)
Top 10 ways to crush your transformation and change initiatives
AI vs HI (Human Intelligence)
Exploring the Reasons We Are Drawn to Create
Three Kinds of Courage Every Business Artist Needs
Embracing Your Health and Wellness as a Business Artist
The Tension Between Creativity and Conformity
The Blueprint for Successful Selling: Trust, Collaboration, and Teamwork
Co-Opetition: Partnering with Competitors for Mutual Success
Three Visions for Business Artists
Business is All About Challenging the Status Quo
Are You Making Time to Create?
Two Most Important Skills for Sellers and Business Artists
7 Tips for Better Storytelling in Business
Business Artists Redefine What is Possible
Storytelling and Getting Out of Your Own Way
Is Your Creative Flow Blocked?
Curiosity & Constraints in the Life of Business Artists
4 Surprising Examples of Business Artists
Why Every Business Artist Must Learn to Think in Stories
Has Apple Become the World’s Biggest Cover Band
Avoiding the Path of Least Resistance
Yellow Brick Road of Innovation
The Real Meaning of Human Resources
Business is the Story of Technology
Understanding Today’s Realities and Preparing for Tomorrow’s Challenges
The Biggest Danger for a Business Artist is Imitating Yourself
Workshop
At the Core of Any Great Facilitation - Content Orchestration
Workshop
Cover Bands Don’t Change the World
Just a Little of That Human Touch
WeLearn and Meahana Form Strategic Learning and Development Partnership
More Posts

You Might Also Like

Apr 4, 2025
 in 

Meahana Achieves SOC2 Type II Compliance: A Testament to Trust & Security

Feb 24, 2025
 in 
Meeting

The Office Mandate Nobody's Talking About: Fix Meetings Before Forcing Attendance

Matt Archer
Feb 17, 2025
 in 
Meeting

Why Method Matters More Than Meeting Agenda

Matt Archer

Navigation

HomeAbout UsBlog

Follow Us On LinkedIn

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/meahana

Company

TrustTerms of Serviceinfo@meahana.ioPrivacy AgreementStatus