“Composer of the Week” is a frequent choice for morning dog walks and this past week Donald Mcleod highlighted George Gershwin.
I learned Gershwin started as a “song plugger” for a music publisher, playing piano requests for customers or promoting the latest tune from the publisher’s catalog — at $15/week!
By playing what the publisher wanted to push and what the public passing by wanted to hear, Gershwin learned what makes for a good – and successful – song.
This experience certainly informed his songwriting sensibilities – let alone improving his technical form and composition.
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Much the same is true in business when successful leaders share their progression from the mailroom through the ranks, learning hands-on about the company’s operations.
I had a friend who started as a chemist in an oil company’s lube lab which served him well when later managing its product line — he had a deep understanding of not only the product development process but also the chemical makeup and what differentiated the company’s offering from competitors.
My own experience was to take what management was “pushing” (strategy, KPIs); along with understanding what business unit leaders wanted to have (controls, reporting); and, what other employees requested to ease their everyday tasks (automation, simplified workflows) to compose solutions that appealed to all (consensus building!) and satisfied requirements (a hit!).