CIO leadership lessons from the music stage – diginomica

Shelves heave with leadership tuition titles, but for three London-based digital leaders, the greatest lesson is on stage as a musician. Playing in front of crowds of up to 2,000 music fans is a test of creativity, planning, talent, team building, and customer satisfaction. 
On stage with diginomica tonight, we have Special Kinda Madness, featuring Ian Mcketty, CIO at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Pulling Muscles, starring Ian Cohen, CPIO at Accacium Group in his last role, and Magic Queen and its star drummer Eugi Bartolo, interim CPTO at Sifted, a Financial Times backed business. Special Kinda Madness and Magic Queen, as their names suggest, are tribute acts to the great bands of these CIO’s youth, namely Madness, The Specials and Queen. Pulling Muscles is an established group of professional and semi-professional music veterans ploughing the covers circuit. 
For all three digital leaders, music has been instrumental in their lives. McKetty picked up a guitar as a student, Cohen aged just 15, and Bartolo began tapping out a rhythm as a youngster in Italy. Their technology leadership careers have spanned major organizations in the media, third sector, recruitment, transportation, insurance, banking, and universities. 
Music is soul food; none of these articles would come together without the melodies and thought-provoking lyrics of David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and a host of blues artists. But what does playing music mean to these digital leaders? McKetty of Kew Gardens says: 
It is my safety valve.
And his peers who tuned in for a group debate we hosted agreed, Cohen adds: 
It is interesting that you mention the safety valve. Up to my 30s, I kept work and the band completely separate as the only way I could handle much of the day job was because I had music as the release.
Fast forward to a successful career as a CIO with organizations such as Addison Lee and Accacium Group, and Cohen is much more sanguine about the blurring of the lines between his two lives. 
I guess that up to my mid to late 30s, I was learning how to become a leader, and I was acquiring all the stuff that got me to be a CIO, so work and music were separate. When I became one, I didn’t mind blurring the lines.
McKetty went through a similar experience: 
Colleagues are keen to attend our gigs, and it’s you outside of the normal box.
All three agree that as communication is such a vital tenet of leadership, being seen in one of the ultimate forums for communication helps the day job. The conversation then takes a geek turn, all three are speaking from their home offices with their drums and guitars, which are hung behind them. 
Guitars and amps are compared as stories of how they came to own them, instruments they want to play or have enjoyed jamming on. The passion is infectious, and as with all creative outlets, the instruments of that creativity or activity are as much part of the fun as the act itself, Cohen says: 
We talk music jargon like our teams do techno-babble.
Marshall DSL 40 geekiness aside, all three digital leaders are customer-focused technology leaders, and their careers have led them to organizations and roles that are about customer impact. Could this be because they are leaders and musicians? Cohen, who made the observation, says: 
I haven’t done an MBA or loads of tech qualifications. I have learned by doing – because I listen to smart people and try things. For some reason, I can see shapes and patterns in business and can build and blend teams as a result. It’s the same with music –  I can’t sight read music, but I’ve always been able to hear things and play by ear or see shapes and patterns on the fretboard and that allows me to play music.
McKetty agrees:
The pattern thing hits home; I have no formal training in music; I play by ear. I remember the shape my hand makes.
Asked if the day job of being a leader has shaped their musical careers, Bartolo says music and bands need decent and consistent decision-making, and as a digital leader, he is happy to do that, adding that his fellow band members rely on that. For Cohen, being a leader and a musician is about knowing your strengths and bringing those to both. This, he says, creates harmonies. 
None of the three is the band frontman, yet they are for technology at their employers. The leadership skills of being a CIO benefit their bands, as Bartolo says: 
When it comes to negotiations with agencies or if the band members need bringing together, then leadership skills are vital.
They agree that there are often cross-overs, and like the day job, a band is a collective of different talents, just as a technology team or leadership board is. It is when there are difficulties that the CIO role really benefits these musicians and their bands, as Bartolo says:
When you are managing a crisis such as an amp blows, the skin of a drum splits, or a string breaks, you carry on with no disruption, at least from the public’s perception. For me, that is something that makes me thrive.
Cohen adds: 
There are things you can control. I can control my amp and my pedal boards, but when you are on stage, and it is not your PA or someone is doing the mix, then you have to rely on them as we do our technology suppliers at work.
Venue sound engineers can make the difference between a successful or failed concert, and all three have used their extensive knowledge of working with infrastructure, software, and system integration partners to ensure they get the most from venue staff. McKetty adds: 
Relationships matter, and if you don’t make an effort to get that right, you can get into a lot of bother.
We are also super reliant on each other, so the art of the compromise is key. We are all different, and our backgrounds are very different too, and on stage, you have to make it work. So you barter, cajole, and steer.
McKetty’s final point is key: being a leader is also about being part of a team, and all three use their skills of being leaders and team members within their bands. Just as within IT and the business, they all say how important it is to create the right environment for everyone in the band. Bartolo says: 
At the end of the day, you have a show to deliver, and there are people there paying to see you, so you have to buckle up and do the best you can.
McKetty adds:
To an extent, playing the music is the easiest bit.
Technology has to work. Music must delight, lift our spirits, tell a story, and entertain. Digital leaders are increasingly in front of the customer base of their organizations, and these three musical CIOs have played important venues and to major crowds. Delighting music fans is central to why they play, as Cohen says: 
You do a Joe Jackson or a Steely Dan song, and everyone is up having a great time, and we love that.
Bartolo adds: 
They are watching you and you want to deliver an experience to them.
As McKetty says, this is the reason:
You live for those moments when it all clicks and you feed off that energy.
Though all three bands play the music of their (and the author’s youth), they are seeing younger generations tune into tribute acts, as McKetty has observed: 
We are seeing a lot of youngsters coming, and they are in the whole get up; they know the words, they know the moves.
Bartolo is seeing the same as younger generations discover Queen: 
I, too, am seeing quite a few younger faces; I think some of it is the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.
It may have been said during the discussion that it is good news that the next generation is discovering “decent music.” 
Orchestration is a word bandied about in leadership talk. To be in a band is to be in a team that is committed to creativity and meeting the demands of a very discerning audience. 
Standing in front of your audience (customers) and exposing your abilities is easier said than done, and these three digital leaders should be applauded – they may then reappear for an encore. 
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