Our scene opens on a snowy night outside a theatre. Christmas lights and wreaths hanging from street lamps tell us it is the festive season. A man in a brown overcoat comes in from the cold, but he passes the ticket booth without paying, as he is not here to see the show. As he opens his locker and grabs his spray bottle we can see that he is a janitor, although photos stuck to the door of his locker suggests he has bigger dreams. He sings in a low soft voice as he goes about his job. The sound of his voice catches the attention of some of the other employees throughout the theatre, who stop and take a moment to enjoy his singing.
Our scene shifts to the stage, where our mystery man taps a chord on the piano before starting to mop the floor around it. It seems that he is dreaming of being on the stage and performing to an adoring audience.
We cut to a lady in a smart suit, who appears to be his manager, perhaps the manager of the theatre. She pulls out her phone and we can see that she is ordering a black tuxedo jacket from a familiar online shopping site. Her colleague nods in approval when she sees what she is doing.
The delivery van pulls up to the side door of the theatre and the woman gladly accepts a parcel from the driver. As she opens the parcel and presents the tuxedo to the janitor, we can see that other employees of the theatre are hurriedly preparing the stage for a performance. As the janitor emotionally accepts the gift a spotlight suddenly shines on the stage and a member of the staff stood on the balcony holds up a sign that simply says, "sing".
The janitor nervously approaches a microphone, which has now been set up, centre stage, and begins to sing. His voice is stunning and the whole staff team are shown sitting in the audience smiling, enjoying his performance. The lights dim at the end of his song, and our scene ends.
If this scene seems familiar it is because what I have been describing is a 90 second advertisement produced by a famous online store which was shown on TV over Christmas 2024.
I have been retelling it here not as a fan of the company in particular, although I am probably what you would call a 'moderate' user of the site.
The reason I have done this is that the story told within the advert resonated in a big way with me as a leader. Spotting potential in others and putting them in situations where they can shine is for me one of the aspects of being a leader that gives me the most pleasure, perhaps even more than personal success. It is something that I have always tried to do, as in my experience the quieter members of staff are often the ones that can have the biggest impact on the organisation, it is just that those with stronger personalities can drown them out if you are not paying attention.
Author and podcaster Brene Brown says, "I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people and processes and who has the courage to develop that potential" and she is right, it does take courage, and also trust in others, but a leader who can do this can achieve far more than one who is only concerned with their own personal achievements.
Comments
Post a Comment