What Senior Management can learn from professional actors

Developing professionalism in any field will propel you forward. A large proportion of senior management and CEOs lack the authentic pursuit for professionalism that makes a person great instead of only good. Professionalism includes ongoing struggle to attain a better performance than yesterday. The path of professionalism is tough. But isn’t that what senior management is all about? Culture of professionalism in management is easily spotted by looking at the performance and actions of organizations that they run.

I will borrow 3 points and some quotes from an excellent book by Mark Brandon. This book is for teaching actors to develop professionalism in acting. But it reminds us what it means to be a professional, no matter which field of endeavor you are in.

Focus and Drive

What has carried me through from the very beginning is a clarity of direction. When I set my sights on what I want, I go full force, with patience, perseverance and passion… Demi Moore

In most cases, life as a senior executive is just a couple of stops before hell. But focus, good habits and a desire to learn will help to reduce stress and improve your performance and focus immediately. Lets take an example of a real life executive with a made up name, Jim. Jim works very long hours and juggles 8 things. He knows that the most important part of his job is to ensure that the existing cost structure (SGA+R&D) for the organization are controlled. From his calendar you can see that he is only devoting 15% of his time to this issue and most of it is being handled by his reports. His calendar is always under the control of his assistant. I don’t see 'clarity of direction' here, I don’t see passion and I don’t see full force in these actions.

What you have to have inside you …is a burning desire to be an actor. In this business you have to be driven… Ben Kingsley

Power of habit

Demands on an executives are never-ending. Devote regular, even if small, amount of time on long-term improvements in yourself and in your organization. Small regular increments add up to magic.

As a young electronics engineer in a high tech firm, I had a colleague who was a mechanical engineer who would catch me often over coffee to explain to him various electronics parts of the system. In a few months, he could intelligently converse with senior management about this complex system - he had overcome the hurdle to a promotion in predominantly an electronics firm.

Watch out for "sort of" and "kind of" …stuff - unmask classical myths

We’re all so cloaked in unfounded opinions and unexamined information, it’s a wonder that we register on film at all. Absolute, nonjudgmental attentiveness is what unlocks the spirit and allows it(reality) to be seen…. Debra Winger

As an executive you are surrounded by people of sometimes questionable motivations. Some of them are very good at politics and at making you feel good. Question the information you receive. Short circuit your managerial structure and talk to ‘people on the line’ You will be surprised often. If an assignment is worth doing, it is worth doing well and worth doing personally. Do not delegate things that you should be doing. Never let the spark of learning extinguish.

At the beginning, it was all about becoming a student, for me, and pushing myself, and not ever pretending to know something I didn’t know about….It really had to do with my wanting to push he envelope….to know how far can I go? Tom Cruise

Further Information

Ideas and material have been heavily borrowed from “Winning Auditions” - by Mark Brandon ISBN 0879103167