7 Unorthodox (But Very Effective) Roles For The Virtuoso Leader

The other night I thoroughly enjoyed a holiday play at the Portland Repertory Theater, and marveled at the ability of the actors to take on multiple (and quite dissimilar) roles during the course of the production.

There was a cool kind of virtuosity on display, and it made me think about how leaders sometimes need to do the same thing in the workplace; that is, assume different “roles” to keep the team on the path to success.

Some of these roles are obvious  – a teacher, for instance – and some are a bit unorthodox, but certainly necessary.

Here are seven of them you might not have considered:

1. Plumber – What’s a leader have to do with being a plumber, you ask?  Plenty.  Plumbers deal with water pressure all the time, and they know how to use safety valves to make sure that pressure doesn’t cause a disaster.  So it goes for the leader  – their teammates face a lot of pressure, and the leader must function as that safety valve, providing a safe outlet to release all that tension & anxiety.
2. Physicist – I bet you didn’t think the famous equation E=MC²  applies to the workplace, did you?  The energy that a business needs to thrive can only be generated by a critical  “mass” of teammates all pushing forward in the same direction. (My only regret is that I didn’t put on a lab coat when I made this argument to my staff.)
3. Chocolatier – Every leader needs a little Willie Wonka in them, pushing the envelope on the generation of “pure imagination” – the out of the box ideas that really make a business soar.  It also doesn’t hurt to bring in a few morsels of the real thing into the board room now and then….
4. Interior Designer - Decision-making is like picking paint colors, so we all need a little interior design savvy; that is, using the process of elimination to your advantage (i.e. figuring out the “colors” you don’t want before you figure out which ones you want to put on the wall).  This design savvy can also be utilized to pick comfortable chairs for the board room (goodness, I’ve sat in so many bad ones over the years!)
5. Den Mother – It’s not all strategy, process, execution and profits.  Sometimes our teammates just need to be fed, or warmed, or patted on the back.  We need to make sure they’re on time, and appropriately dressed.  It’s just caring for their well-being – that’s the Den Mother side of us that has to come out.  I just regret I never learned how to bake cookies.
6. Wedding Singer – Do NOT underestimate the power of breaking out into song at some, unexpected moment.  I’ve made more breakthroughs after a rousing chorus of “Bennie and the Jets” than after a nuts-and-bolts stump speech about profit margins.    Things like this grab attention – no matter how bad, or good, the performance is.   Although staying in key doesn’t hurt.
7. Pharmacist -  Leaders have to dispense a little medicine every now and then, but like a really good pharmacist, it’s all about the proper dosage.   Take the simple sentence, “You did a good job”, for example.   That’s a wonder drug, if used correctly, but watch out for the overdose.

Here’s a bonus, seasonal favorite:  Santa Claus.   Be good to your teammates and reward them for their hard work this year.  Just be careful with spiking the holiday punch at the office party. 

Lead well!