For over fifty years, I have loved the arts. It was not until college that I discovered classical music. I have always loved popular music and broadway music. That is probably why I still retain my old 45’s, long play phonograph records, eight track tapes, tapes, CDs and many other musical forms. In college, I was a disk jockey and fell in love with all kinds of folk music. As I have grown older, it is country and western music. I love theater and my wife and I have attended plays and musicals for the past fifty years. My wife has been an actor in community theater. I have friends in theater. We have visited art museums all over the world. All of these cultural activities have enriched me and enriched my leadership work. In the last few weeks, I had the opportunity to blend my leadership and arts interests in briefly working with a Florida theater that is redefining itself for the 21st century.
My experience with this theater and my friendship for over 60 years with Carole Kleinberg of Sarasota, Florida who continues to work with theaters as an actor, director and administratively as an artistic director has led me to work with Carole on blending my interests in leadership with my interest in the Arts. Simply, our idea is to train leaders and Board members from any business and cultural sector on expanding leadership skills through the use of improvisation and theater games. In my toolkit, Tool 3-“To Get” and Tool 5–” The Public Health Machine” are two examples of theater games of relevance to leadership. I have tested these two tools with a number of groups who found them of use in understanding how participants can clarify how these practices enhance their understanding of their personal leadership practice. It does appear that leadership development using the other arts will also be possible.
Why leadership and the Arts?
- Use of the tools of the Arts will strengthen the mental models under which leaders work.
- Theater arts allow leaders the opportunity to test leadership principles and practices in life-like social situations.
- Music provides the chance to see how leaders function with music in the background and how music affects leadership performance.
- Communication strategies and techniques can be improved.
- The Arts provide innovative approaches to conflict resolution strategies, problem-solving, decision-making, and team-building.
- Theater games will be useful in emergency preparedness and response practices.
- Coaching opportunities are possible in theater arts scenarios.
The Arts offer leaders innovative and creative ways to enhance their leadership skills.
Rowitz On Leadership 