Culture that brings out the BEST in people

When I studied at the school of music in Belfast, I had two piano teachers over a 7 year period. The first was a man called Tom Davidson. He was a fantastic performer who used to mesmerise me with his brilliance. But as a teacher, he wasn’t the greatest. He’d come into the lesson smoking a cigarette - and would continue smoking throughout the entire lesson! And as for his temper....well, that was extremely short. I was on the receiving end of many a telling off (although in fairness, I wasn’t the best of students!). Tom didn’t do compliments either. If his response to a performance was ‘Errrm....not bad’, that meant it must have been excellent! As time went on, I actually grew to like the old man – but the truth is, his lack of encouragement didn’t do a lot for my confidence.

Tom unfortunately died. So I was sent to a new piano teacher called Rita Goldsmith. She wasn’t the best pianist in the world, certainly not nearly as good as Tom - but an outstanding teacher. She was encouraging – and her ethos was very different from Tom’s. Whereas Tom was a perfectionist who would go ballistic over every note that wasn’t played correctly – Rita took the encouraging approach. She used to say ‘If you play a wrong note, make it THE most wonderful wrong note that has ever been played!’ She allowed for failure – and gave her students the confidence to make mistakes. She’d say ‘If you make a mistake...don’t EVER stop. Keep playing. Do it with a bit of pizzazz and no-one will ever notice!’ It wasn’t that she was encouraging mistakes – she was encouraging confidence! And the result was that her students tended to make far fewer mistakes because they stopped being self conscious of always getting it wrong! That was an atmosphere in which I thrived – and loved!

If we REALLY want people to succeed, then we do well to remember that this will not happen in a culture that’s critical and mean spirited. That kind of environment just draws out the insecurities people already have and accentuates the negative. Real leadership is about having the courage to define a culture that brings out the best in people. It allows for mistakes – whilst journeying with them to see them get better.

Out of both my piano teachers, it's interesting that it was the less gifted of the two who helped me most. She wasn’t the best musician in the world. But that wasn’t the point. Her job was not to impress me week after week with her performances – but to help me get better. And that’s what true greatness is...or as Mark Twain put it ‘Great people are those who make others feel that they too can become great’