The Final Score: Aligning Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm in Your Business

By William Stieber PhD

It’s time to grab your baton and lead your organization by implementing effective leadership strategies.

William Stieber, PhD, an internationally recognized leadership development trainer, educator, professor, and business consultant, shares a blueprint that will help you drive meaningful change at your organization. But progress can only begin after you answer questions such as:

• How are you benchmarking external forces?
• How would you characterize your distinct sound to your customers?
• What changes in the organization need to be made to ensure alignment?
• Are there improvement opportunities in your processes that merit review and change?

Asking questions like these are a key first step in applying tips to preserve harmony and ensure your department or organization is operating with a similar focus and maintaining a rhythm to sustain profits, customer satisfaction, and employee retention.

Stieber also shares guidance on retaining best-in-class employees, assessing organizational vulnerabilities, and establishing a workplace culture where learning and teamwork is valued.

As a musician, it can be tough to play high notes while staying in tune, and organizations face the same challenge—especially after achieving some initial success. Get the insights and strategic guidance you need to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment with The Final Score.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532038242

William Stieber PhD

William Stieber, PhD, is an internationally recognized leadership development trainer, educator, professor, and organizational improvement and business consultant who has helped some of America’s top companies improve business operations. He earned a BS from Pennsylvania State University, a MBA in management from LaSalle University and a PhD from Temple University. He is also the author of Teaming for Improvement and numerous articles and book chapters on leadership and change management. He lives with his wife, Loretta, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They have two adult children.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 William Stieber, PhD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3825-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3824-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017919327

iUniverse rev. date: 04/16/2018

To my family: Loretta, Jeff, Michael, Michelle, and Olive

And many professional colleagues for their inspiration

Contents

Prelude

Section – Intensify the Melody

Is it the Right Key? – Melodic Meditation #1

A Distinctive Sound – Melodic Meditation #2

Ensuring the Right Dynamics – Melodic Meditation #3

Creating a Pleasing Sound – Melodic Meditation #4

Maintaining Intonation – Melodic Meditation #5

Understanding the Audience – Melodic Meditation #6

Staying in Tune, Minimizing Dissonance –

Melodic Meditation #7

Hitting the High Notes to Success – Melodic Meditation #8

Capturing the Right Voice – Melodic Meditation #9

Section – Design the Harmony

Rhapsody of Sustainability – Harmonic Hint #1

Everyone under the Same Direction – Harmonic Hint #2

The Beat of Continuous Improvement – Harmonic Hint #3

Do You Have the Right Accompaniment? –

Harmonic Hint #4

Concert Manners – Harmonic Hint #5

Blending the Ensembles – Harmonic Hint #6

Section – Accelerate the Rhythm

Inserting the Movement – Rhythmic Reflection #1

Executing Allegro and Minimizing Adagio – Rhythmic Reflection #2

Optimizing the Pieces – Rhythmic Reflection #3

Tremolo of Excitement – Rhythmic Reflection #4

Allowing for Improvisation – Rhythmic Reflection #5

Creating the Fanfare – Rhythmic Reflection #6

Dancing the Jig – Rhythmic Reflection #7

Critiquing the Performance – Rhythmic Reflection #8

Handling the Crescendo and Decrescendo – Rhythmic Reflection #9

Orchestrating Leadership– Rhythmic Reflection #10

Section – The Final Curtain

PRELUDE

I WAS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL when I was first struck with the beauty and excitement of music. I learned how to play the clarinet and played Ravel’s Bolero in my early tryouts for a chair in the orchestra. I was stricken with the music bug and later learned how to sing a cappella, to play tenor saxophone, and also what I consider today a respectable bass guitar. In fact, learning music helped defray some of my expenses while attending college. I played in a wedding band, which generated enough income to motivate me to return home several times in my two final years of undergraduate school to play gigs.

As I progressed in the areas of organizational development during my career in leadership development, process improvement, and organizational systems design—and in supporting clients in my own business for the past two decades—I could not help but make connections to my experiences in music.

Developing a sound organization is similar to developing, arranging, and executing a superb musical score. In fact, I even use the terms melody, harmony, and rhythm