3 Practices CEOs Should Adopt from this Rock Star

One of the great success stories of our time is the rock band U2.  When the band began in 1976, its musical skills left much to be desired. More than three decades later, U2 has received a remarkable 22 Grammy awards, more than any band in history.  In addition, the band surpassed the Rolling Stones’ record for the highest revenue grossing concert tour. How did this transformation happen?

Like all great groups, leadership makes the difference.  Bono is U2’s leader, lead singer and lyricist. His leadership approach can be described in one sentence: Bono communicates an inspiring vision and lives it, values people, and gives them a voice.  CEOs would be wise to follow Bono’s example. 

Communicate an Inspiring Vision and Live It

U2’s vision is to improve the world through its music and influence. Bono calls it “the spark” and he feels it sets U2 apart from many other bands. U2’s songs address themes the band members believe are important to promote such as human rights and social justice.  Bono has described himself as a traveling salesman of ideas within songs.

He lives the vision, too.  Bono and his wife Ali are philanthropists who help the poor, particularly in Africa. 

Value People

Bono values people.  He encourages and affirms his fellow band members.  He expresses appreciation for their talents and describes them as being essential to U2’s success. 

Ask his fellow band members and they’ll tell you Bono has had their back during times of trial. When drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. lost his mom in a car accident a short time after the band was formed, Bono was there to support him.  Having lost his own mother, Bono shared Larry’s pain. Later, when U2 was offered its first recording contract with the condition that it replace Larry with a more conventional drummer, Bono told the record company executive to “shove it.” 

When lead guitar player “the Edge” went through divorce, Bono and the guys were there to support him.  When bass player Adam Clayton showed up to one concert so stoned he couldn’t perform, Bono and the other members were likely tempted to throw him overboard for letting them down.  Instead, they had someone step in to cover for him and they went on to help Adam overcome the drug and alcohol addiction he had developed.

Unlike many bands where the megastar takes most of the economic profits, Bono splits profits equally among the four band members and their long-time manager. This also shows that Bono values his fellow band members and manager.  I’m not saying CEOs should split their company’s economic profits equally with others.  Just recognize that taking too much of the profits works against motivating the people you lead.

Give People a Voice

Bono gives his fellow band members a voice in decision-making. The members of U2 argue relentlessly over their music, which reflects their passion for excellence. Bono has stated that this approach is frustrating at times and it takes longer to make decisions but that he believes it is necessary to achieve excellence.

Connection, Community and Unity

The result of Bono’s leadership is that the band members feel a strong sense of connection, community and unity.  Bono describes U2 as a tight-knit family.  He has said that “people with a strong sense of family and community…are always very strong people.”   The commitment to support one another extends beyond the four members of the band.  The members of U2 are part of a larger community that includes their families, crew members and collaborators. Many of them have known each other for decades.

The members of U2 feel connected to their leader and they have his back as well.  The most vivid example of this came when U2 campaigned during the 1980s for the observance of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America. Bono received a death threat that warned him not to sing the song “Pride (In the Name of Love),” a song about the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., at an upcoming concert.  Bono described in an interview that as he sang the song, he closed his eyes.  At the end of a verse when he opened his eyes Bono discovered Adam Clayton literally standing in front of him to shield him from potential harm. 

Now don’t get carried away and expect the people you lead will take a bullet for you.  That said, just imagine what an organization of loyal, committed and connected employees could accomplish. 

By following Bono’s leadership practices, CEOs can unite their organizations and motivate their members. Doing so will increase the trust, cooperation and esprit de corps necessary to produce sustainable superior performance.

by Michael Lee Stallard is co-founder and president of the leadership training, consulting and coaching firm E Pluribus Partners, and the primary author of Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity (Thomas Nelson).

http://www.foxbusiness.com

'Flash Of Colour'

'Flash of Colour'

'It was a penniless city, dull and grey. But for me, as a kid, it was David Bowie and then Johnny Lydon that gave this flash of colour...'

North Side Story tells the story of U2's earliest days in Dublin. Commissioned from the Hot Press team in Ireland, it covers the formative years from 1978 to 1983, from the first single, 'U23', to the live album, Under A Blood Red Sky. 

Below, in our latest edited extracts, Gavin Friday, recalls Dublin in the 1970's and how The Virgin Prunes grew up with U2.

North Side Story is available with a 2014 U2.com subscription. At 274 pages, this heavyweight book of rare photos, original interviews, diaries, letters and profiles comes with 'North & South Of The River, Wandering In U2's Dublin', a poster-size map charting U2's Dublin. 

'Dublin in 1978 was a grey, dull, miserable place. It was recession all the way. But you don’t think about things like that when you’re a kid. You don’t know that this is heavy – which it was.

As teenagers, the Northside of Dublin was primarily where we hung out. There was this invisible Berlin Wall at O’Connell Street, so Northsiders never really ventured Southside. But punk rock changed that. It created this scene where you’d have to go to show off your clothes or hang out in Advance Records on South King Street. So it was then we started going Southside – and also because gigs were happening over that side of the city.

The way I remember it, there was incredible violence in Dublin at the time. I mean, I chose to dress quite flamboyantly from an early age so the amount of beatings I got was incredible, even going down to the bus, never mind when I was in the city centre. It wasn’t just punk rockers or people like that. It was like this sort of time-bomb waiting to go off, like the younger generation had had enough of this old Ireland. It felt like this wasteland. Gangs of bootboys: they weren’t as stylish as the skinheads in their Dr. Martens and their tight jeans; these were just yobs, you know? I remember going to a U2 gig in the Baggot Inn, and this crowd that called themselves the Black Catholics came and started throwing stuff at the stage. I think Bono jumped down and went for them. But I would usually get the hidings. I can’t fight. Verbally I can set a house on fire, but it was always Bono and Guggi that defended me.

And there was no money. I’m talking about no money. To go in and see gigs there was always a toss up, ‘Will we walk in and see The Ramones and then we’ll have money to get a bottle of beer and a bag of chips – or do you get the bus?’ It was a penniless city, dull and grey but for me, as a kid, it was David Bowie and then Johnny Lydon that gave this flash of colour.  And we joined that club very quickly and then we hung out in town a lot more. 

Trinity College became a  big
 centre for us because Dik Evans, who is The Edge’s brother, was lead guitarist
 in The Virgin Prunes, and he had accommodation there. So that became like our hangout: if you missed the bus home there would be six or seven of us sleeping on the floor in Dik’s room. The Buttery in Trinity was quite a vibrant place for gigs. So Trinity was our HQ along with the Coffee Inn. That was a very big meet and greet place, it’s where everyone gathered, and it would be like six slices of bread and chips between four. That’d fill you up. 

To tell the truth, I was
 a little bit more advanced than the punks who hung out at Advance Records. A good friend of mine – ‘Tommy the bottle of milk’
 we called him – ran the Virgin Prunes fan club. We had a fan club before we even played a gig! His Dad worked in the BNI, which operated the ship route between here and England, so I used to go over on day trips to Liverpool. We’d have a shopping list for all me mates so we’d go over and come back with a load of records as well as getting cool trousers that you couldn’t get in Dublin. 

There was another quirky thing that very few people know about. At one stage, early on, U2 had a residency in this really bad hotel in Sutton Cross, and they had to do a two-hour set, where they were doing some of their new songs and some covers. And Bono used to be bolloxed and sweating and he’d say, ‘Gav, will you go up?’ and I’d do two Ramones songs, or whatever, with U2 backing me. That was the first time I got up on stage.

Now, the first gig The Virgin Prunes played was in a disco in early ‘78, and the backing band was all of U2, plus Dik and me and Guggi. There was no Strongman. No one else. And to camouflage them - I had worked in Dublin Meat Packers  - I covered their heads with this sort of sheep’s carcass netting and put white coats on them: they looked like something from Devo. We played a 22 minute version of ‘Satisfaction’, really slowly, just to provoke everyone. It was after that gig Dik joined us and we got our own bass player and drummer – and that was the real genesis of The Virgin Prunes...'

http://www.u2.com

Bono: 'Our best work may be yet to come'

Dublin frontman vows band can still make hits regardless of how old they are

Bono has insisted that U2 aren’t too old to continue to rock the world – and their best music is still to come.

The Dublin frontman vowed the group have the ability to bring out better tunes than Sunday Bloody Sunday and Pride In The Name Of Love regardless of how old they are.

He said: “Looking as a rock ‘n’ roll band, there’s no-one – no band – who has done their best work who has been around for 30 years.

“So we’re going to see, but that’s not true for film makers, that’s not true of a novelist, that’s not true of a poet. So why should that be true of a rock ‘n’ roll band?

“And I’m humbled that in our little post-punk combo from the northside of Dublin, to think that maybe our best work might be to come even if the odds are against us.”

He will be hoping to prove this when U2 bring out their new album in April, which goes back to their initial roots.

But Bono admitted that he isn’t completely “of sound mind” and uses song writing to fill emptiness within him.

He said: “I think it’s often emptiness, a void, and the attempt to fill the void is art and the artist is the person making up for absence.

“If you were completely of sound mind you would not need 70,000 people a night screaming, ‘I love you’ to feel normal. It’s the god shaped hole, I think, somebody called it once.”

And Bono claimed that how good his family life is often affects how easily he can write tunes.

He told CNN: “Performing for me comes on like a twitch, really. I have no choice. The song writing piece is different. It comes out in two ways.

“Despair and attempt to put things right that have been wrong or joy, just ebullience, you know, it’s just overflowing – my cup overflowed.

“When things are going very well in my life or in our family, the things are good, I write naturally. I just can’t stop writing. And – but also when I’m in a hole, I’m in a corner, I try to write myself out of it.”

And Bono admitted that despite his human rights work he finds political songs can be some of the dullest things going.

He said: “They can often be very, very boring. And we’ve written some good ones. They have to come from the place.

“If you set yourself a task to write a song, I don’t know how ever great the song will be. The great songs kind of write you.

“Often, I might be sitting here with you and I might say this is really on my mind. I’m very concerned about what’s going on in this geography. You would think I would write a song about it.

“It’s not like that. There’s a whole other thing going on in my personal life, there’s a whole other thing going on in my unconscious and it is what is going to come out.”

http://www.irishmirror.ie

Bono and The Edge At "Ordinary Love" Party

Bono, Naomie Harris and The Edge

Bono and The Edge paid tribute to Nelson Mandela on Monday night at an intimate gathering honoring the duo at the Sunset Marquis.

'Mandela' Screening: U2, Filmmakers Talk Creating Original Song 'Ordinary Love'
Bono wrote the song "Ordinary Love" -- U2's first song in three years -- for The Weinstein Co.'s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba as the former South African president, who died last month at age 95.

The song is about two people trying to stay together while dealing with personal and political struggles. Bono said that when he was writing the song, he was inspired by the love letters that Mandela sent to his wife, Winnie, while he was imprisoned on Robben Island. Mandela producer Anant Singh sent the letters to the singer.

"It didn’t feel appropriate to write an anthem for this movie," Bono said. "We found a theme of common decency that inspired us, and it’s a plea for a common decency in a marriage."

U2 also had a close relationship with Mandela and performed at anti-apartheid shows early in their career.

Among those turning out for Monday's event were director Jim Sheridan, Mandela star Naomie Harris and music industry veterans Alexandre Desplat, David Foster, Mike Stoller, Rod McKuen, Mark McKenzie, Brian Tyler and songwriter Diane Warren.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

AIDS: Bono thanks US for bipartisan leadership

AIDS: Bono and the Edge accepted the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Visionary Award this week on behalf of U2 with a speech on the power of activism and American bipartisan leadership in delivering more antiretroviral treatment to AIDS patients. This is the first time the award was given to someone other than a filmmaker, and Bono took the opportunity to speak about his band’s advocacy work. The following is a transcript of his entire speech, which Bono delivered at the awards gala on Saturday night. 

I guess this is an award for not shutting up and sticking to what you’re good at. This is kind of an award for being a pain in the arse, isn’t it? That’s what this is. And we do understand that people find it insufferable when artists stray out of their box, but for a lot of us in this room, that is the definition being an artist, straying out of your box.

It is worth mentioning that more people live off their imaginations in California than any other place in the world. No other geography comes close. People around here like to ask questions about the real as well as the imaginary world, and this, of course, is the start of being annoying. Demanding answers is when you upgrade to the proper pain in the arse status of the activist, although some people here have managed to do the activist thing without being annoying.

I am of course thinking of Jane Fonda. How could you not? I’m thinking of Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice.” Steve McQueen has challenged intolerance his entire career. Idris Elba, Naomie Harris were activists long before they took on the giant lives of the Mandelas. Julia Roberts, before she took on “Erin Brockovich,” she was an activist and is an activist, and an extraordinary movie star, the definition of, I would say. And we’d like to pause for a minute to consider our Chairman, Tom Hanks, and his stigma-defying, game-changing role in “Philadelphia.” And what Matthew McConaughey has done again now in “Dallas Buyers Club.” Extraordinary performances.

HIV/AIDS has stolen so many lives in this country. 650,000 to be exact, and 23 million lives outside of this country. What people like Harvey Weinstein and groups like amfAR did for the domestic AIDS problem, ONE and RED and many others are trying to do for the global AIDS crisis. Our one simple belief is that where you live should not decide whether you live.

Now our leader in this campaign lost a son to the disease. His name was Nelson Mandela, the greatest activist of them all. His genius was a refusal to hate, not because he hadn’t experienced rage, but because he thought love would do a better job. His cleverness was to put aside tribalism and partisanship, the kind of partisanship, I think you’ll agree, that has betrayed this great nation and the great American idea at the heart of it, even in the last couple of years.

It’s ironic that by following an African’s example, American and European AIDS activists like ONE were successful in encouraging Democrats and Republicans here in the US to put aside their differences and work together on what is turning out to be the largest health intervention in the history of medicine. Thank you, America.

You probably don’t know this, but there are now 10 million lives in the developing world saved by antiretroviral therapy, and American taxpayers have paid for about three quarters of them. Thank you, America. 7.8 million sentient souls are alive because of AIDS drugs that the United States of America paid for, and they are not just alive, but allowed to thrive, to have healthy kids, to be alive to raise those kids, to work, to contribute to their economies. And we’re at the tipping point — amazing to be able to say this — we are actually at the tipping point if we keep up the pressure.

We are within reach of declaring the first AIDS-free generation. What a thought. What a thought for this community. And it’s down to the activism of this generation, actors, directors, producers, musicians, but also students, doctors, nurses, priests, NASCAR drivers, soccer moms, CEOs, NGOs, politicians, people who just don’t normally hang out together not just hanging out together but working together. And that’s what it takes.

Edge and myself have had our mind and our values shaped by some important books and scribes, but for us, in truth, it was movies and music that kindled that fire and put our imaginations on a course to meet you tonight. So thank you to the visionaries in this room, and you all know that a vision without a promise is just a fantasy, and we’re not interested in that. Thank you and good night.

 Join the fight against extreme poverty, join ONE.

http://www.one.org

PALM SPRINGS: U2 catches film fest fever

As a fan handed Bono a copy of his band’s famous album “The Joshua Tree” to sign inside the Annenberg Theater, the U2 singer and Nobel Prize nominee smiled.

“That’s not that far from here, you know, where we took that photo,” he said Sunday afternoon, Jan. 5.

The iconic cover of the Irish rock band’s breakthrough album was shot in Joshua Tree National Park, just down the freeway from where Bono and guitarist The Edge were the biggest attraction at the 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival over the weekend.

On Saturday night, the pair accepted the Sonny Bono Visionary Award, which U2 received for its members’ humanitarian work, at the annual star-studded awards gala alongside actors such as Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

On Sunday, they appeared as part of the festival’s “Talking Pictures” program for a Q&A session after the Nelson Mandela biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” which featured the U2 song “Ordinary Love.”

Even though they were arguably the biggest stars in attendance, with more than 150 million albums sold worldwide, Bono and The Edge were impressed by the fanfare of what has grown into one of the pre-eminent film festivals in the United States.

“It was amazing,” The Edge said about the awards gala during Sunday’s Q&A session. “We’ve been kind of what we describe as ‘being on the oil rig’ for the last while. We’ve been in a recording studio working very closely with a very small group of mostly males, so to come out to such a glamorous event — the red carpet and all these beautiful ladies and their amazing dresses and the photographers and everything — it was kind of overwhelming.

“We were suddenly — ‘Oh, I remember this now,’” he said as the audience laughed.

“We don’t get out much,” Bono quipped.

The pair also talked about the name similarity between Bono (pronounced Bah-no) and former congressman, singer, Palm Springs mayor and film fest founder Sonny Bono (pronounced Boh-no).

“It’s actually very hard for me to say ‘Boh-no,’” The Edge said.

“Not in this town, The Edge,” Bono fired back with a smile.

U2’s Bono said he first met Sonny Bono in an elevator in New York, but didn’t know who he was meeting at the time.

“The door opens; he gets out, and he just turned around as the doors were closing and he goes ‘It’s Boh-no, by the way,’” Bono said.

The U2 singer’s reaction: “Who’s that dude?”

“This little old lady said, ‘That’s Sonny Bono. Who are you?’” he recalled as the crowd laughed.

More pics here. 

http://www.pe.com

ONE.org’s most popular stories of 2013

Wow, what a year 2013 has been for ONE.org and the fight against extreme poverty. You witnessed the reauthorization of the US’ key program against AIDS, PEPFAR; the launch of President Obama’s Power Africa initiative to bring reliable electricity to more than 50 million people; celebrated a major win for oil and gas transparency in the EU; and mourned the passing of our great role model Nelson Mandela.

Here's some of those events:


Bono Hits Oil Companies at CGI for Blocking Anti-Corruption Rules

ONE’s cofounder Bono took aim at the oil industry today for trying to kill new rules that would help prevent corruption by requiring oil, gas and mining companies to make public what they pay for the rights to extract natural resources in developing countries.

Bono at TED 2013: Eradicating extreme poverty doesn’t have to be a dream

On February 26th, Bono spoke at TED to show the progress in the fight against extreme poverty… and what we need to do next. Bono shares the new facts about fighting global poverty: “Forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, my usual tricks. The only thing singing today will be the facts.”

Read about the other events here.

JOIN ONE

By supporting ONE, you have the opportunity to take action to support effective, proven initiatives that are delivering results in the poorest places on the planet: protecting families from preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria, putting children in school, providing economic opportunity and stabilising communities.

Join the millions of people around the world who believe that where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live.

http://www.one.org