By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help broaden your problem-solving perspective. Reading time: 3:56.

Are you a special agent –an operative-in your organization? The most effective business leaders think of themselves as operatives –a.k.a. Opera-tives- with a well-honed affinity for the power of the opera. With their operative power, they more productively confront adversaries and solve problems. Sometimes against overwhelming odds.

Madam Butterfly

Consider these business lessons from the world of the opera:

Is conformity undermining your business success? Then think like Richard Wagner who gave his customers something different. He opened his opera Tannhauser with a ballet that surprised the audience that had become accustomed to a ballet in Act II.

• Are you pigeon-holing some talented people in your company just because they’re not from the “right background”? Then think of Italian-born Jean Baptiste Lully and German-born Giacomo Meyerbeer. They were not from what people said was “the right French background” yet they became two of France’s most important opera composers. Continue reading →