A night at the theatre

Last night, I let my daughter talk me into taking the family to go see "Phantom of the Opera."  My youngest daughter has seen the movie, listened to the soundtrack countless times, and read the book (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux), I think (I can't remember exactly - my response "It was a book!?!?!?").  She had always wanted to see the musical on stage, but until last night she had not been able to do so.  Therefore, our family (minus a daughter who had returned to college) all saw the musical for the first time together.  It was really quite an enjoyable experience.

I actually used to go see musicals fairly often as a child - my parents took my sister and I to see Oklahoma!, Camelot, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, Show Boat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Stephen Foster Story, South Pacific, and many more at a place called "Starlight Musicals"in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I mention this as I reflect that for the past several years, I have heard concerns about how children in the United States lag behind children from other countries in science and mathematics.  I fully understand and agree that in order to be competitive in today's global environment, we as a nation need to narrow the gap in the so-called STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).  Our educational system needs to do better.  However, I am also reminded (yet again - please see my previous blog post, September 7, 2016) that subjects such as Literature, Art, Music, Drama, History, and Philosophy matter too. 

The Abbe Faria, one of the characters in one of my favorite novels, "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, teaches the main character, Edmond Dantes, "everything he knows" during their imprisonment.  He teaches Dantes mathematics, economics, physics, but also history, philosophy, and "three or four modern languages."  The Abbe tells Dantes, "...to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned.  Memory makes the one, philosophy the other."  He seems to paraphrase the Greek philosopher, Socrates here, who defined wisdom as knowing what you don't know rather than knowing everything ("The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing."). 

I believe that leaders need to broaden their horizon.  I see nothing wrong with being a "Jack of all trades, but the Master of none" here - some leadership gurus have referred to this as a "T-shaped" leaders, i.e. leaders who are deep in knowledge and skills for one particular area of focus (usually the discipline in which they lead) but well-versed in a broad range of knowledge and skills (expert in one area, highly competent in a number of areas).  Leaders should be well read in a variety of subjects - a broad knowledge base acquired through a professional reading program (focusing on subjects outside the leader's traditional area of expertise) has been scientifically proven to improve memory, increase creativity, reduce stress, develop verbal and non-verbal skills, and increase compassion. 

We, as leaders, need more exposure to the arts and humanities - my visit to the theatre last night once again emphasized that to me, and for that, I guess I owe my daughter a simple, "Thank you."