‍

In this episode of 5 Minutes With Andy, CEO Andy Freed previews a core leadership lesson from his book Lead Like the Boss: The Bruce Springsteen Framework for Elevating Your Leadership—revealing what leaders can learn about communication from Bruce Springsteen’s most important concert instrument.

‍

Andy discusses:

• How the “think, feel, do” process sets the stage for effective communication.
• Why putting yourself in your audience’s shoes is key to making your message resonate.
• Ways to create moments that your audience will remember—and act on.

‍

Like what you hear? Follow 5 Minutes With Andy for more leadership insights.

‍

‍

Hi. Welcome to Five Minutes With Andy. My name is Andy Freed. I'm the CEO of Virtual, Incorporated. For the last 25 years, we've been helping organizations that are forming, growing, and changing as they make their mark on the world.

‍

When I'm not doing that and helping organizations make their mark on the world, I'd like to spend the rest of my time just following Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band all around the world.

‍

I've been to about 90 concerts in all different countries, in all different cities, and I want to keep going and watch as many times as I can. And I'm so delighted today that I have the most important instrument from Bruce Springsteen's concert tours here, and I can show you that I'm able to use it just as well as Bruce can.

‍

And this is that instrument, a pen. Because before Bruce goes on stage, before he does any show, he sits backstage, pulls out a sheet of paper, pulls out an instrument just like this one, a pen, and he starts writing out longhand what the setlist is going to be.

‍

Now for Bruce, the setlist isn't just a list of songs.

‍

The setlist is his way of thinking about what's the audience going to think, feel, and do over the course of the next 3.5 hours of his performance? What are they going to think? Are they going to be listening to new material? Are they going to understand that he's got the energy that he did 30 years ago, or 50 years ago when Born to Run came out?

‍

What are they going to feel? Are there going to be moments of emotion? Are there moments where they're experiencing joy? Or maybe moments where they’re being more reflective. What are they going to do? Are there going to be times that he points the microphone toward the audience and has them sing along? Are there going to be moments that he knows that they're going to clap along, are there going to be moments that he goes out into the audience and evokes a reaction?

‍

All of that starts with the setlist. Now, for organizations, it's the same thing. When you're thinking about delivering a message, when you're thinking about communicating, it doesn't mean going and open up PowerPoint and spitting out slides. It doesn't mean just grabbing a microphone and starting to talk in a podcast, because who would do that? What it means is making sure that you sat down and thought about, what do you want the audience to think, feel, and do?

‍

What do you want them to come away with? Because for me, communication isn't about what I'm saying, it's about what the listener is hearing and what they come away with and what their takeaway is. It's putting yourself in their shoes in the audience and knowing that this is what I want them to hear and in doing that, it's understanding what are they bringing to the performance?

‍

What is it that you need to do to make sure that they take that away? Are they nervous? Do I have to put them at ease before they can hear the message. Are they curious? Do I have to make sure I'm answering some questions before they do? Thinking about that and making sure you have a plan for that, that's what makes communication so much more successful. And that's what means that you have to have the forethought, it means that you have to have the planning in order to communicate effectively. If you do that, you might not turn yourself into a rock star, but you might be able to turn yourself into a rock star of leadership, somebody who's able to really communicate, somebody who's able to really get a following and turn those people from listeners to followers and to even fans, people who are able to take your message forward and sing that message to others.

‍

But it starts not by grabbing the microphone. It starts by grabbing the pen, sitting down, and thinking about what you're going to say. I'm Andy Freed, and this has been Five Minutes With Andy.

‍

Thanks for joining me today. If you enjoyed this, make sure you like or subscribe and join us again.

‍