Why it’s easier to have impact when you are not the front man.
I spent the early years of my career mixing sound for concerts. One thing you learn early when you are around bands is that the “front man” gets all the credit.
Never mind that the Stones wouldn’t be the Stones without Keith Richards and Ian Stewart, Mick Jagger is always at the front of the publicity shots. And while Maroon 5 could have written a song called, “Moves Like Charlie Watts,” they didn’t.
As kids, we watch epic movies and always picture ourselves as the hero (or heroine) and never the sidekick. Maybe that’s why kids rarely ask for a Robin action figure without asking for Batman, first.
It’s the nature of front men to be more “in demand.”
We prefer them.
Even in business.
Elon Musk might just be my favorite front man
Elon Musk is in the news almost daily. He’s been interviewed by everyone from 60 Minutes to GQ. To be fair, Mr. Musk is a great front man. He has innovative ideas, a larger-than-life persona, and the Tesla S is a work of art.
Our business culture celebrates the front man. The Elon Musk. The Mark Zuckerberg. The Larry Pages and Sergey Brins. And to be fair, they’ve accomplished incredible things.
But people don’t do great things all by themselves.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he breaks the myth of the lone genius. He shares the people, time and experiences that crafted individuals to make them great. But it isn’t just that behind every hero and heroine are the people who made their accomplishments possible. It’s that being “self-made” isn’t possible. Genius always seems to be running away from or running toward something by building on the work of others. It’s rarely crafted solo in a lounge chair at a beach resort.
Just looking at media feeds and magazine covers, it makes sense why leaders and business want to chase “front man” status. We want to be known for making thing happen, and as one of my business partners says, “People have to know what you’ve designed if you ever want the chance to design another one.”
But I keep finding that if I want to have real impact, chasing “front man” status is counterproductive.
There is a better play.
Remember the story of Helen Keller?
Both blind and deaf from the age of two, Helen Keller went on to become a prolific author and activist who campaigned ardently for human rights causes.
The thing about Helen Keller is that in her early years she was a problem child, running wild in a family who had no hope of connecting with her. It was the teacher, Anne Sullivan, who broke through to unlock that connection. You might remember the scene from the movie, The Miracle Worker, when Keller finally understands that the symbol for water is connected with the actual water her teacher is running over her hands. It opens the door for language. At that breakthrough, Keller becomes a voracious learner picking up the signs so that she can reconnect with the world.
Keller received many accolades in her lifetime, including being listed in Gallup’s Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. She is frequently quoted in books and on inspirational Instagram posts.
Anne Sullivan’s name is less widely known.
And while it makes for an inspirational movie, I can’t help but wonder about all of the time Sullivan put in that wasn’t dramatically shortened in a movie sequence.
After all, I’m not sure how long I would have hung in there dealing with a “problem child.” Maybe she stayed because she had limited employment options, but my guess is that she hung in there because something in her gut told her it was important. She wanted to make a little girl’s life better, and she got up each day and worked at it even when she wasn’t guaranteed an outcome. And she stayed for decades.
Model the Sullivan instead of the Musk.
I’ve learned over the years — mostly by failing at things — that I get better outcomes when I focus on a mission outside of myself.
Author Dan Pink in his New York Times bestseller, Drive, writes:
“Many psychologists and economists have found that the correlation between money and happiness is weak — that past a certain (and quite modest) level, a larger pile of cash doesn’t bring people a higher level of satisfaction.” Pink goes on to cite research that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much they earn. “In particular, spending money on other people (buying flowers for your spouse rather than a bauble for yourself) or on a cause (donating to a religious institution rather than going for an expensive haircut) can actually increase our subjective well-being.”
This principal of focusing on others is key when it comes to creating success.
Being the Sullivan — as opposed to chasing front man status — is commonly the place where we have the highest possibility of both achieving success and making a difference. We get to decide where to have grit. Who or what organization we are going to empower. We can be the person of influence who makes things possible.
If my formula for success includes the condition that I be the front man, my odds of achieving my desired outcome fall dramatically. Conversely, when I pour into others without regard for who gets credit, great things happen.
I’ve learned the Rolling Stones don’t have it all figured out. You can actually get what you want. You just have to focus on helping others get what they want to get there.
//Connect with Craig Janssen at Idibri.com.
