Do a Lady Gaga

Perhaps never in a million years would I have imagined I would post the headline of "Do a Lady Gaga," on a leadership blog.     What Lady Gaga did during this past Sunday's Oscars, however, is certainly worthy of note.

She made us talk about her.   Not in a Miley-Cyrus-let-me-shock-you type of way, but in a positive "Gee, I had no idea" type of way.

A Sound of Music medley?   Lady Gaga?    Really?

She nailed it.   As a result, I, for one, have a new found appreciation for her abilities as an artist. Previously my evaluation was that she had both talent as a pop musician and a marketer;   but on Sunday she presented a side of her talent that I had no idea existed.

So the question is, do you have talents that your team does not know about?     And if you presented those talents, would your team have a new found and deeper respect for your leadership?

There were two key things that Lady Gaga did.   One:   she surprised us.   Never underestimate the value of a constructive surprise.     Don't you love it when something unexpectedly great happens?  Everybody does.   Surprise your co-workers with something they never imagined you could do, or with a positive reaction to a challenging situation, or even with a completely different take on a traditional dilemma.

Lady Gaga also added  to our perceptions of what we formerly believed she could do.   She demonstrated that she could do so much more than we had imagined and by doing so, she added dimensionality to her persona and the popular perceptions of her (and also probably added several hundred thousand additional fans in the process!)

So, show 'em what you can do.   Surprise them.  Make them talk about you.  You will have proved something to others. . .and yourself.

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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon Kindle.