In the TV show Ted Lasso, the character Dani Rojas has a catchphrase: \u201cFootball is life\u201d. I love the show Ted Lasso. And I adore Dani Rojas\u2019. But I disagree with him.<\/p>\n
If I had a catchphrase, it would be \u201cMusic is life\u201d. My mom said that when I was born, the doctor was singing to me, and I think it caught. In my earliest memories I was singing and making up songs. I sometimes still sing songs that I \u201cwrote\u201d when I was 3 or 4.<\/p>\n
When I hit Middle School, I was writing songs, starting bands, and recording music. That kept going through young adulthood when I fronted Average Joe<\/em>, a coffee-shop band that featured the infamous drummer, John Fehlen.<\/p>\n To this day, while I play guitar far less (but still have one available at arms-length) and infrequently write songs, I deeply enjoy live music and keep a running soundtrack-of-my-life through apple music and my carefully curated vinyl collection that I spin at home and at work.<\/p>\n All that to say, Jules Glanzer\u2019s The Sound of Leadership[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was a fun book for me. More than that, it was deeply impacting.<\/p>\n In various ways, it reminded me of a couple of my favorite books.<\/p>\n 1. David Byrne, the lead singer of the band Talking Heads, wrote a book called How Music Works[2]<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em> It\u2019s a fascinating and compelling journey through the inception, history, technology, philosophy, economics, and culture of music (as well as partly a Talking Heads\/David Byrne biography).<\/p>\n 2. Max DePree wrote the book Leadership Is An Art[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (and a follow-up, Leadership Jazz[4]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>). Both were the kind of short, punchy books, much like The Sound Of Leadership, <\/em>that I am often attracted to and inspired by. I just \u201cget\u201d brief, engaging books on leadership that use art as a metaphor (like Max DePree, Steven Pressfield, Austin Kleon, and now Jules Glanzer).<\/p>\n With the recent books we\u2019ve read for this class, like Bebbington, Weber, and Polanyi, I\u2019ve had to work hard to discover a thread on which to pull to write a blog post. While I enjoy reading and engaging with the deeper books, I always seem to revert to, and better put into practice, the simpler ones. The Sound Of Leadership<\/em> is such a book: Simple, clear, engaging, inspiring, and practical.<\/p>\n Here are a few nuggets (or stanzas) from this book that I just can\u2019t shake:<\/p>\n \u2022 Enrolling in God\u2019s School of Music: \u201c(God) has an affinity for selecting the least, the smallest, and the unlikeliest characters, inspiring them with a mission and vision beyond their ability, assigning them a task beyond their capacity, and along the way shaping and molding them to be the influencer he wants them to be. Like a composer, He arranges the notes of their lives, creating a melody complete with harmonic sounds that become a masterpiece for all to enjoy.\u201d (page 40). This sums up so much of my life that I think Glazner might have been reading my journals.<\/p>\n \u2022 Prelude; Sound and Leadership Theory: \u201cSound is the interface between heaven and earth\u201d (page xxvi). This sent me down a rabbit hole of my theology of sound and inspired me to start writing a sermon on why we are called to use our physical voices in worship and prayer.<\/p>\n \u2022 Listening to the Voice of One: \u201cIt was (Jesus) voice that caused Mary to recognize Him\u201d (page 33). Understanding that people can encounter evidence of resurrection but it\u2019s when they hear Jesus\u2019 voice that they are changed was profound for me (and gave me my Easter sermon for 2025).<\/p>\n \u2022 The Sound of Silence \u201cRuthlessly eliminate hurry from your life\u201d (page 116). While I\u2019ve heard this phrase attributed to Dallas Willard before (through the book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry<\/em> by John Mark Comer), it was a sobering reminder of the vital principle.<\/p>\n \u2022 Playing Your Song: \u201cHow a leader deals with a crisis creates a song that multiple stakeholders hear in their heads\u201d (page 53). In crisis I\u2019ve far too often sang the wrong song that becomes an earworm in the heads of those I lead.<\/p>\n There\u2019s so much more! But I\u2019ll have to sing those verses on another day.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t end up as a professional musician, and that\u2019s ok. I don\u2019t question the pastoral leadership calling I\u2019ve been blessed with. But I resonated so well with Glanzer\u2019s metaphor. There is so much that connects pastoring to music.<\/p>\n While I\u2019ve often thought about how sermon writing is like writing a song, I hadn\u2019t made many of the other connections found in the book between music and my current vocational calling. So, I\u2019m grateful to Glanzer for inviting me into that space, and I intend to revisit his book soon.<\/p>\n Because though I knew that music was life, I also discovered that leadership is music, which makes me a musician, again!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Jules Glanzer, The sound of Leadership: Kingdom Notes to Fine Tune Your Life and Influence <\/em>(Plano, TX: Invite Press, 2023).<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> David Byrne, How Music Works<\/em> (New York: Three River\u2019s Press, 2017).<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Max DePree, Leadership is an Art<\/em> (New York: Doubleday, 2004).<\/p>\n