I'm not a fan of rap or rappers. I've got a number of issues with this genre of music, and the individuals who perform it. These issues exist on a lot of levels. As fate would have it, however, I recently received a revelation that let me know that I needed to have a better understanding of this music and the people who make it. I’m the father of a teen. As you might have already guessed, he listens to rap. The revelation occurred when my namesake was given a school assignment to write a report about who he thought was the person of the year. To my surprise he didn't choose his father or even the president of the United States as his subject. His candidate for the person of the year was Waka Flocka Flame, a rapper. Upon hearing his choice I immediately did a Google search to find out who in the world was Waka Flocka. To my dismay, the images were not ones that I hoped my son would aspire to emulate, and the lyrics of Waka's music were, in my opinion, crude at best.
After seeing these images and reading the offensive lyrics, I picked up my son's iPod and started listening to the numerous rap songs that he had accumulated in his iTunes library. The more I listened, the more I came to the realization that this genre actually contained themes that could be of great educational value to many of us "educated" and "sophisticated" corporate leaders. Now clearly a discussion about rap and corporate America requires much more time and space than a blog allows for, but there were three basic lessons that I took away from the experience that revolve around communicating who you are and what you stand for, providing clear expectations and "keeping it 100."
Communicating who you are and what you stand for
Rappers spend a lot of time rhyming about who they are, where they come from and what they are about. It often comes across in a profane and misogynistic manner, but after listening to a rap song you can't help but be crystal clear about the kind of person you are dealing with. This knowledge provides insight on how you might approach them, what things you should say and definitely what things you probably should not to say to the musician in question. How often do corporate leaders fail to let their direct reports know what they stand for or what their pet peeves are? Without this knowledge, employees are left guessing how "not to piss the boss off." Providing employees with a direct and unfiltered message about who you are as a leader and person, along with what in your eyes is an acceptable or un-acceptable way to interact with you, gives the employee a better opportunity to interact with you in a way that is more likely to foster a successful relationship.
Providing Clear Expectations
Rappers like to explain what will happen to you if you interact with them in a certain way. They also love to talk about how they expect you to respond to different stimulus. This discussion takes place over hip hop beats whenever the rapper rhymes about the consequences of not returning the money that you owe them or when they elaborate about what they expect from a woman that they buy a drink. The language might not be artful, but the expectations are clear and unmistakable. Corporate leaders can learn a lot from this. How often do projects go awry because team members are not clear on performance expectations or the consequences of not meeting deadlines will have on the organization? Providing clear expectations to those whom they interact with is a strength of a good rapper.
"Keeping it 100"
"Keeping it 100" is one of the newer rap terminologies. It means giving it your all, doing your best. When a rapper tells you he or she is "keeping it 100" you'd better believe that they are tenacious in their approach and that the task has their full attention. As corporate leaders how often do we give the tasks assigned to us our full attention? Do we "keep it 100" when we have one-on-one sessions with our direct reports or are we only giving them half of our attention because we're thinking about our next meeting or a deadline that we must meet. When we are required to focus on tasks that we don't like are we "keeping it 100" or are we down at about thirty? "Keeping it 100" should be the goal of any corporate leader. Moving the organizations and individuals that we lead toward their full potential can only happen when the leaders give those individuals and those organizations their full attention.
Summing it up
Like I said, I'm not a fan of rap music or those who make it, but if listening to rap will help corporate leaders communicate who they are and what they stand for, provide clear expectations and give employees their full attention, then I'm down to keep it 100.
