header
"Everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of human freedoms
to choose one's own attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

Get Leadership Notes by Email

Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations

Word count this issue: 302

Estimated reading time:  1:45 minutes

 

We were watching Season 2 on Sense8 on Netflix a couple of weeks ago and an episode ended with the amazing Mozart’s Requiem in Dm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart) It is a stunning piece of work. I’ve been listening to it during walks and am listening to it now.

 

It has got me thinking about 2 things for us all as leaders.

  1. We all have the potential to be a Mozart; our brains are all unique so there will never be another Mozart in the same way, but believe it or not, the biggest barrier for each of us is fear of our own potential. Just imagine what the world would look like if each of us were working towards our own full potential. I need to be clear here, full potential is about creativity, possibility and growth, not about material success, getting the right grades, buying the right car. Your potential is yours to achieve, it is not to be prescribed by extrinsic forces. 
  2. This piece of music was completed posthumously. Mozart died leaving about 1/3 completed and the rest sketched out on scraps of paper. His widow, Constance, brought a couple of other composers in to help finish the work. In that sense, this amazing piece is a team effort. As much as we like to think that success is the result of individual effort, it is more often the result of collaboration and partnership. Especially in these VUCA (volatile, uncertain complex and ambiguous) times, we are at our best when we work together.

 

May this week then be one of exploring potential and working together to make the world a better place.