The poet Shelley was right when he said that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” But we take it one step further and say that legislators, in the sense of leaders and managers, are the unacknowledged poets of the world. The emotional and intellectual work that an artist does when he or she makes a sculpture, painting, or a piece of music is identical to what goes on in a leader’s mind as they shape the course of a company or institution.
If that seems far fetched, consider some of the similarities. Traditionally recognized artists and leaders both work with an audience in mind. They are necessarily visible and therefore vulnerable. They can do their job only after establishing trust and engagement, and the core of what they do is to create shared experiences meant to change how people think. Leaders and artists have the task of transforming vision into reality, often imperfectly but always persistently. They have no choice but to make full and creative use of whatever resources are available, and they get their best results when they work from the deepest, most authentic part of themselves. And unless leaders and artists inspire people, they cannot hope to succeed.
In Every Leader is an Artist, we take the lives of some great artists and their work and show how they illuminate and elevate the task of leadership. Here’s just one example of what we mean.
The works of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir don’t inspire outrage today, but in the Paris of the late 1800s, they did. Renoir’s plump, happy Parisians pushing strollers and having brunch were offensive to the art-conscious elite of the belle époque. Yet today, Renoir is an icon of artistic genius. The reason is best summed up in a single quality: authenticity.
When he painted a couple on the dance floor or a woman reclining in a field, Renoir painted what he saw, not what his patron class was accustomed to seeing. In his own way, Renoir didn’t pull any punches. The art historian Quentin Bell says: “[Renoir] painted frankly, and to his contemporaries his frankness seemed like brutality. He told the truth at a time when it was customary to tell lies.”
And just like anybody who has sat for a portrait that turned out to be accurate, the Parisian bourgeois weren’t very happy about it. But their discomfort is our benefit. Because Renoir had an authentic relationship with his subjects, he still has an authentic relationship with us, his viewers, more than a century later. Underneath all the refrigerator magnets, mugs, and posters of Renoir’s work is a recognition that his vision still matters to us. If he had not taken risks, if he had painted only what his patrons wanted to see, we wouldn’t care today.
Authenticity is not the easiest way forward, but without it any artist-leader has no hope of forming a real relationship with those he or she hopes to inspire. And real, durable relationships are leadership’s fundamental currency.
When leaders are diligently in touch with who they are and what they see, problems will still be hard to solve, but will never be a cause for self-doubt. When the people we work with every day can be sure of who we are and where we are coming from, it’s an immensely powerful thing.
