Becoming a Trusted Scene Partner
4 minute read
What if becoming a better leader meant learning to inhabit a character that isn’t quite you – yet? That’s the question Melissa Jones Briggs, Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, explores as a contributor to The Arts of Leading: Perspectives from the Humanities and the Liberal Arts, edited by Edward Brooks and Michael Lamb.
Drawing on her background as a coach, actor and academic, Jones Briggs reflects on what rehearsal, character and storytelling can teach leaders about trust, presence and inclusion – and why the theatre might be one of the most honest classrooms for anyone serious about leading well.
Read an adapted excerpt from The Arts of Leading.
Never Miss A Story
How does a character in acting differ from the character we choose to maintain for our working selves?
The difference is imaginary. How we act on our values and concerns reveals our character – on stage and in life. Both processes are about choice, commitment and responsibility in action. And both impact others and are subject to their perception.
An actor’s process is rooted in imaginary circumstances; ours, in real-world ones. In acting, these are called ‘givens’ – specific environmental, historical and situational conditions that influence motivation and action.
The artist applies this mosaic of choices to their role and shows up as themselves in those imaginary circumstances. This involves embodying many decisions – physical, vocal, motivational – that scene partners experience and audiences observe.
For our working selves, there is no ‘as if’. The doing of work and relationships requires us to examine and re-examine how we perceive, think, feel and act. Our job is showing up as ourselves in our roles.
Social psychologist Deborah Gruenfeld describes leadership as a part you play in someone else’s story. We all show up with our bodies, our voices, our motivations and values in the very real ‘givens’ of our organisations and communities.
“The doing of work and relationships requires us to examine and re-examine how we perceive, think, feel and act. Our job is showing up as ourselves in our roles.”
What is it about the physical and the active that transforms how leaders engage?
And don’t forget rehearsal! Workshop rehearsals are so useful too.
Great corporate workshops support next-level growth and engagement. Great teachers design their classes as learning experiences – engaging people across multiple modalities: with each other, with instructors, with the material.
Many practices that helped us learn and grow as children – often rooted in play – drop away when we approach work. Physical and active engagement transforms leadership because it kicks us into a different gear. One that’s more playful, but more human too.
“How we act on our values and concerns reveals our character – on stage and in life. Both processes are about choice, commitment and responsibility in action.”
As we collaborate from our little boxes, it can be hard to feel the fullness of our humanity – or recognise it in others,
Leadership is physical. Theatre professor and business coach Kay Kostopoulos reminds her senior leader clients that speaking is a physical act. We are all humans with bodies. Our intellect is articulated physically.
What does the art of ‘uncovering’ make possible?
We do our best work when we trust our people and feel trusted. Especially when the stakes are high.
Leaders must create a culture of psychological safety. That means using power to deepen trust.
Covering is when people hide stigmatised aspects of identity to conform. It can be psychologically costly. Where it’s safe to uncover, leaders should. Share more of yourself. Expand the range of what leadership looks like.
Start with story. A small disclosure is enough to build trust. Try asking your team to tell the story of their name. You start.
