Hello, everyone. Welcome to the unleash your leadership podcast. For the past few weeks you have heard from great leaders on their views about leadership, how they show up as leaders. And. The world of AI and how it's changing and how it impacts leadership. Today's episode is a little bit different. I'm going to talk about leadership of course, but from a different angle.
Today. We are going to talk about the leadership lessons that improv can tell us or give us.
Improv is really a. Improvisation. And it's short for improvisation and it's a theatrical technique. And so a lot of plays, or a lot of skits are done using the improv technique. So a few weeks ago, I went and did a foundational series of classes in improv. And it was a lot of fun. For those of you don't know much about me, I.
I do have a certificate in theatrical acting. And my first paycheck was from an acting gig. So I've always been drawn to. That creative side of the world. I was thinking about improv since a long time. And finally, I got a chance to take it. So here's the thing while it was a total blast. If you have never thought about improv,
I recommend it to everyone. It's a great way to farm community. There is so much laughter I have not laughed so much in such a long time. I mean. Hey, you know, you're improvising, you're making mistakes. You're coming up with just random. Things that you would never say in most professional settings.
And so it's just great to just let loose and not think about, , how is this going to look. There's of course, a lot of tips and tricks there, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but I totally, totally enjoyed it. And I recommend that you. Take some classes. , if you have the opportunity.
It's , just read to build confidence, build spontaneity. The reason I went in was one because it was a little bit close to the creative side of theater. And I wanted to do that, second is. That it really helps with building spontaneity and being comfortable with spontaneity.
And of course there is a lot of leadership lessons that we can get out of improv. So today's episode is focused on that. So, what are these leadership lessons? How can improv teaches about leadership? Well, let's get started . , when you do improv, there's a few different exercises in quotation marks and these exercises somehow help you build your improv technique.
These are also tied into those leadership lessons. The first one, and you might have heard of this one is the yes. And. So the yes, and is a great technique and a great lesson. For leadership or for any teams out there? If you are in a team. You need to know the yes and Mantra. What I mean by that is, think about you in a team setting, maybe you all are discussing some ideas about a new product or a new feature or something else.
Oftentimes when we are in a discussion. Each person is thinking about how can I come up with a better idea? Or how can I say, oh, my idea is better. And maybe it's better than your idea. The yes, and really is the idea of building upon every person's idea. It is not about saying my idea's better than yours or negating the other person's idea.
But really helping you move forward. By saying yes. And it. Really leads to a lot of innovation because when you keep going yes. And it actually leads to better and better ideas. So I want you to think about ESN and I can give you a couple more examples. But first I wanted to start off with the real personal experience with this.
I did hear about yes. And a few years ago, this was way before improv. . It wasn't the context of when managers or leaders or somebody in a position of power you're working with the team. Oftentimes what you see people pick up, pick on that. And the wheat to make others feel heard and valued and that their ideas and views matter.
It, even if you have a different idea or if you have something in your head, that's better. instead of , but say yes. And. So, this is really, really. Important. Is. When you try to respond to an idea or respond to something somebody has said instead of, starting with buck start with a yes. And so a gree, the idea.
Add on more or call out something that you wanted to call it because when you see a, but it automatically has a reaction. Think about how many times and try to notice this. Somebody says, but. And it's like, oh, that I, , whatever I said is , was maybe wrong. It was not a great idea. Oh, why did I say it? And so this other person is going to go into this whole self.
Doubt. In their head, and this is exactly what would happen to me. So I had a person I would be in the meeting. I would share my ideas and every time. This person would always want to be the last person to say something. So they will obviously, but. XYZ. And every time that happened, it almost felt like it was a rejection of my idea.
. I would feel, why am I feeling this way? And sometimes it was the, but. And that night did see somebody else. Do it a little bit better at the say yes. And how about this? Or yes. And what I like about that is ABC. And what about this other thing? So now you're building upon the thing.
You're not rejecting. You're not negating the other person's views. Are the ideas and that is how you innovate better. So if you're in a meeting you're discussing, I really encourage you in, especially as leaders be it that you were an IC leader or a leader who also holds a management position. I really, really encourage you to think about yes. And.
Have conversations, encourage your team to do it, but model it yourself and you will see a huge difference. And. The way it comes up in improv is that's how you build a story, because what if you said, but not the audio is going to say, oh, what happened here? And so it puts a full stop to the stories, just like it would put a full stop to your innovation or to the ideas. I mean, think about this. If you keep saying
Keep. The other person keeps feeling rejected. They're going to stop giving you ideas, and eventually you're not going to have enough diverse ideas. So, this has, has a huge impact on teams and organizations. And this is really, really critical in terms off how you exhibit leaderships and how you lead your teams through innovation.
The second thing I want to talk about, which is a lesson I learned from improv is there are no mistakes, only opportunities. Every time an improv, sometimes we would make mistake. We would play these games as well. Where you're supposed to remember some name, we have given somebody or some number, and of course, , if you make a mistake, you just like do woo and throw your arms up and celebrate and shake it off and then do it again.
. This idea is that you celebrate the mistakes. You are normalizing that it's okay to feel. We're going to start again and we're going to do it right the next time.
So I encourage you to think about. Mistakes as opportunities.
This will really change the way you work with your team and how your teams. Peek that extra initiative. Take that extra step. Maybe they become proactive. Because they are not afraid to fail because they know that you are going to help them. Move on from that mistake or that failure. You say, okay. That's okay.
We learned something. Let's shake it off and move on. And it is really important for people and teams to feel safe, to feel. Because the number one thing, we all fear. Is failure. And there are so many good lessons that you can learn out of a failure. It is a much better teacher than success. So here this.
Failure is a much better teacher than success. And that's how you move forward. So it's okay to fail. It's important to learn from those mistakes, but Hey, let's shake it off. Move on. So there are no mistakes, only opportunities.
The third thing I want to talk about here as a lesson. On leadership from improv that I have gotten. And that is important to understand is your job as a leader or, , an artist and improv is to make others look good. Being a leader, especially where you're responsible for people and organizations.
Is to make your team, make your organization look good. It is somewhat of a selfless type of work. A leader is not just about themselves. There is so much responsibility in terms of the people you lead, how you lead them, how they see you leading and what do they get out of it?
So an improv the way this generally comes across as. Whatever the other person is saying, you want to have to make them look good. And what is it? You don't want to put down the other person because that's, if you think about being in an audience, that's going to make you this uncomfortable.
If you were to see something where so one artist is putting down the other artist, it's , Hey, that was not your line or , that seems like a totally bad idea. If you say something like that. That's going to feel uncomfortable. And that is what happens even in real life, in the work setting.
Where, if you make somebody look bad. It's not just reflects on them. It also reflects on you as a leader. So, for example, I give an improv example and there's that happened. Someone is like, oh, we're going to receive a gift. As we were playing this game at somebody else to give you an imaginary gift and you have to be thankful for the gift and you have to ,
Say some nice things. And the person sitting next to me was supposed to give me the gift. They said, oh, here's a bag of poop. And the image of reaction on my face was disgust and , Ooh, you . No, that's what I said. And so the thing was like, no, no, it's a gift. You're going to accept it as it is. Now. Of course, this is not representative of real life. Improv obviously goes and imagines a lot more.
I hope you get the point is that you want to listen to the other person. And you want to react to them in a way that's accepting of what they have to see. So, when we talk about your job is to make the other person look. You you listen. And you respond to instead of, reacting. You want to respond to them in a way that's accepting of what they're saying.
Of course in practice. That doesn't mean that if something. Bad is happening or you have to give them some
constructive feedback that you don't do that. But the idea is that you want to still do that in a way that. In front of others, it makes them look good. Or you do that privately. What do you want to be able to not react, but respond after having listened to them and being accepting? And so that is what, , I had to accept the gift, irrespective of the fact Courtney put something disgusting.
So that's, that's the third one I have for you. The final one here that I have, which is move the story forward. That's what happens in improv is you want, don't want to get stuck. You want to move forward. You want to get to some place. We may not know what that places it, because improv of course is improv. It's supposed to be spontaneous.
However you want to be able to move it forward. So you want to add on something to what somebody else has said in a way that moves the overall story forward. And so the lesson that I take and can be applied to leadership is that. You want to be able to move your team forward? You want to be able to move your organization forward.
You want to be able to move your products? Forward. And that is really important. And of course. Once again, there's this component of it is not just about you. It is about the entire ecosystem around you. And so your actions are important in how you move the story forward. So what's on you is your own actions that will help you move that story forward.
And it could be your own story in some ways. But it is really about the other person's story. So this could translate into personal development for somebody on your team. How do you move their story forward? Their one character in your. In your improve arena. And then there is the, oh, the cumulative set of people that you are working with and how do you help them move forward?
I'm sure there are a lot more lessons, but these were the few that I had for you today. What did you think? What have you applied in your own work life or personal life? This of course also applies to personal life. Actually. I've been using it a lot. Especially when I'm brainstorming or discussing something with my spouse or my friends.
We talked about the yes and.
I feel like that is really important, especially because, , like I was saying, just like a lot of the other filler words, but can be a filler word . How many times have you heard, but as the starting word of a sentence, And some art has become that.
You start like that. Personally, I also have that habit and I've been very consciously trying to work on it. So sometimes you will hear me say, but, and then I'll go into. So it's something that you have to be very cognizant of. You have to develop a lot of self-awareness about, and that's how I am.
Trying to, especially with the yes, and doing it and trying to improve myself. And.. In the process, help others to feel more, heard, more valued. And move the discussion forward in a constructive way. So I encourage you all to try some of these things out. If you're a leader, let me know how you are. I've been trying to.
Use these lessons or plan to use these lessons? I would love to hear from you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. This was a different one. It was a little bit playful. And.
We all have to play sometimes and we have to play in a way that is important. And so if I were to pick a fifth lesson on improv, It's that it's okay to be playful. You have to enjoy the process. You may not get the whole perfect skit at the end of the day. But you have to enjoy the process of getting there. And that's what work-life is about, especially because you want to be able to enjoy your work. You want to be able to enjoy the company of the people that you're working with.
It has to be meaningful for you. So I encourage you all the time to just , find that meaning and find that purpose and play along the way. Because that is really, really important too. Staying connected to your work, to having joy in your work and for longterm success.
I wish you all the best for trying these lessons out and whatever. endevours, you're taking. If you have questions, I would love to hear from you. If you have thoughts, ideas, additions on topics that you want to hear about in the future. Just reach out to me. I will see you next time. On another episode, take care.
