Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2017 - Public - 67

mentee relationship throughout your career
is equally important.
What I found particularly interestingwas Stein's inclusion of a quote from the
text, Why Should Anyone be Led by You? by
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (published
by Harvard Business Review, 2016). The
authors write, there are "no universal leadership characteristics. The traits that work
for one leader may not work for another.
Leaders need to discover and deploy their
personal leadership assets."
She also shares advice from another
leader: "In knowing what you stand for, you
can differentiate yourself from the competition. You have to figure out how you're
different from other leaders. What differentiates your organization from another
organization?" Stein adds another leader's
advice: "In knowing what you stand for, you
must also have the courage of your convictions." She also quotes Chris Anderson
of Fortune magazine: "Conviction comes
about when the possible future that you
see aligns with a deeply held view of how
the world should be. The greater clarity you
have of a possible future and how passionate your view is of the desirability of that
future, the greater your conviction will be."
Stein includes a section on collaborative leadership, a style that those of us in the
production fields of theatre should know
works. She writes, "The ability to collaborate is essential to leadership." She adds
that "a collaborative leader has the ability
to enlist followers... To the extent that you
can be followed by people who work for
you, by people who are on the board-the
extent to which people will get things done
for you and you are able to work together-
is critical to successful leadership."
In a chapter on leadership culture,
Stein quotes organizational theorists Terrance E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy: "An
organizational culture guides behaviors of
its members and affects everything from
who gets hired and promoted to what decisions are made. In strong organizational
cultures, there is little uncertainty because
there are clear-cut structures and value or
belief systems." Later, Stein writes that "a
leadership culture must demand that it be

collaborative. And the organizational cultures that don't work are those places that
allow their cultures to be siloed." In another
of Stein's inclusive and collaborative moments, she shares that respecting staff input
is a core value at Ford's Theatre. Core staff
are involved in the season selection process,
for example.
Other chapters cover the leader's vision, the leader's style and interpersonal
skill, strategic leadership priorities (important in this chapter is the section on leaders
budgeting for professional development for
staff at all levels), leading the decision-making process ("It's really important to be inclusive and to get everyone's opinion before
making a decision. However, at the end of
the day, you're the boss, and you're the one
who can make the final decision"), leading
transparent communication (to paraphrase,
we don't all have to agree but we must re-

S u m m e r 2 0 1 7

spect each other's viewpoints), measuring
success, leading change, and what it means
to be a performing arts leader.
Stein has created an important resource in this text. It is useful as a reference
text (How did these leaders confront this
topic?), it is useful as an academic text, and
it is useful to have on the shelf for access
when you need a pep talk. It is that important.
Shan R. Ayers, MFA is a retired professor of
theatre and is now a freelance designer. Ayers
is a member of the USITT Board of Directors.

theatre design

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