STING: A SERVANT LEADER

by Herb Rubenstein
CEO, Herb Rubenstein Consulting

Introduction

Sting, the rock star, has put together world class bands throughout his career. Recently, Sting and his band had a concert scheduled in San Diego, California. Bob Hughes, President of Compass Radio, and CEO of K-PRI - FM, arranged an interview with Sting for his radio station.

In preparation for the interview Bob Hughes attended the Sting rehearsal scheduled the afternoon before the concert. Hughes, an accomplished musician in his own right, had heard Sting play many times and knew Sting’s music and great musical talent.

During the rehearsal, Sting raised his hand and stopped the band. He said, “Something is not right. The song doesn’t sound right. Let’s go around and let me know what you think is wrong. Each member of the band then explained why the song was not being played well and made suggestions for how to make it sound better.

After all of the other members of the band gave their ideas and suggestions, Sting then said what he thought was not right with how the song was being played. There was no further discussion about what anyone else said, but everyone got to say what they thought was not right about how the song was being played.

The band immediately jumped back into the song and it sounded great. Rehearsal ended and Bob Hughes went up to Sting to start his interview.

The Interview

Bob began his interview by telling Sting that he noticed that Sting had stopped the band and asked each member what he thought was going wrong with the song. Bob, then said, “Sting, it is obvious that a person of your musical talent knew exactly what was going wrong with the song and you knew exactly how each member of the band should change the way he was playing to improve the song, including yourself. Yet, you stopped, took the time and asked each member of the band to tell what they thought was wrong with how the song was being played and how they thought the band could improve the way it was playing the song.” Bob, then asked, “Why did you do this? Most band leaders of your stature would have just told the members of the band what to do to improve the music.”

Sting said, "We have the best musicians in the world in our band. I would be a fool not to ask every member of the band for their views on how we sounded and for their ideas on how we could sound even better. When you ask each member for their views and suggestions, you can expect them to play better than if you just tell them what to do.” Sting also said that he never thought he had all of the answers to make his music the best it could be and always asked all of his band members to share their ideas for improvement on a regular basis.

Servant-Leadership

Sting’s answers demonstrate the key principles of servant-leadership. The “leader” using the servant-leader model seeks to lead by consensus and always solicits the views of everyone in the group. Sting treated every member of the group as a “leader.” Sting, knows that people directly involved in crafting a solution, perform better in implementing that solution than those who are given a solution created solely by the leader and just told what to do by the leader.

Conclusion

Bob Hughes knew something “different” was going on when Sting asked every member of the band to participate as a leader in making the song better. No wonder Sting is able to attract the best musicians in the world to his band. Sting’s music is listened to all over the world. Sting proves every day that servant-leadership works in the music world. Sting may seem to an unlikely model for servant-leadership. However, his deeds speak volumes about how leaders in the music industry and in other industries can produce better results by using servant-leader principles.

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