Awesome guitar player jumps with passion in studio

She couldn’t believe it. They were actually here. She had been anticipating this concert for weeks, and now she could barely contain her excitement.

When she bought the tickets she had an option, offered only to a select number of fans, to purchase the backstage pass. This entitled her to actually go back stage and meet him. She had been a fan forever. His particular brand of country music resonated with her deep down in her soul. It didn’t matter what it cost, she was buying the opportunity to actually meet him back stage.

And now the time had come. All the imagining, all the wondering what she would say, all the fantasizing about what he might say, was about to end. She and her husband were now being escorted back stage to the inner sanctum to meet the Man…

In retrospect as she relayed the story it was a bit of a blur. It was a kaleidoscope of hopes, dreams, and expectations colliding with reality to produce a great experience and, now, a cherished memory. She did share one aspect of their discussion that she found very poignant:

“I asked him what it was like to sing the same songs night after night, week after week, year after year – how do you stay motivated?”

He replied very simply by spinning around and pointing to a large sign on the far side of his dressing room:

“Every night is opening night.”

His philosophy, which has served him well in his music career, is that he must treat every night like it is opening night. Like he is walking onto that stage for the first time. Like he is singing his hit songs for the first time. Like this is the first time his fans are hearing this amazing song that they are going to fall in love with.

We’ve all looked at the life of a rock star at some point in time and wondered what it would be like. Perhaps you dreamed of this kind of stardom when you were a teenager. Think of it though, you are singing the same material over and over again. I think one of the laudable traits of an exceptional performer is the ability to infuse every performance with incredible energy even though they may personally be sick and tired of doing the same material repeatedly.

To treat every night like it’s opening night.

How can you bring that kind of commitment to your leadership?

Are there aspects of your work, of your leadership, that you feel like you have been doing the same thing over and over again? Perhaps you have done everything you can to inject creativity and innovation into your duties, but there are some of them that you need to keep repeating.

I have no doubt there are “hits” that you “sing” – or have sung – as part of your leadership that may feel stale to you, but are not to your team and your customers. Have you settled into a half-hearted mediocrity that has led to lackluster results? Have you become the tired performer who has lost the thrill of the performance and has now become mechanized and stale?

We can learn a great deal from my friend’s country music star. We need to remind ourselves regularly that every night is opening night. Or perhaps more accurately, every day is opening day. We can choose to give the same degree of passion, the same engagement, the same enthusiasm, the same wholeheartedness to today’s challenges that we did when we first put on our leadership mantle.

Zig Ziglar said that “attitude determines altitude”. We are no different than rock stars: we can choose to bring our wholehearted passion and engagement to every day, every performance, or we can choose not to. It is simply a choice – it is an attitude. And, our choice – our attitude – will determine how high we fly.

You can be a passionate performer, a hit maker, or a washed-up has been half-heartedly showing up to smaller and smaller engagements. The choice is yours.

Bring it! Be all in, all there and go all out. Treat every night like it’s opening night, and you will be a leadership rock star.