Notes on Directing: A Great Book for Any Boss

I just picked-up Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair, which is based on a little handbook written by the late and great director Frank Hauser and Russell Reich. This book has been out awhile, and I guess I missed it, but once I started reading it, I was inspired.  Perhaps 20 or 30 of the lessons are pertinent only to directing plays, but the rest are fantastically useful for anyone who leads people up-close and face to face -- in short anyone who is a boss. to give you just a taste, here is #26, one of the longer ones:

 
26. You perform most of the day

As general, very important note.

As a director, you are there to explain things to people and to tell them what to do (even if it means telling them that they can do whatever they want). Speak clearly. Speak Briefly. Guard against the director's first great vice - rabbiting on, making the same point again and again, getting laughs from your inimitable (and interminable) anecdotes, wasting time.

And guard against the the second great vice, the idiot fill-in phrases: "You know," "I mean," "Sort of...," "Kind of...," "Er, er um...."  These are bad enough in ordinary conversation; coming from someone who may be giving instructions for up to three hours a day, they can be a justification for homicide.

Comments

[Patti]

Loved your book "The No Asshole Rule" and thank you for your blog posts!

In my line of work I find it interesting the number of leaders and managers who have no idea the extent of the skills they could gain. I would love to see a research paper that highlights the stats for the number of leaders who think they are great in comparison to the number of those same leader's employees who think they are not. By my experience, the employees want better bosses, but the bosses have no idea!

Have a good weekend, Bob!

[Allison O'Neill]

Sounds similar-ish to my book "The Boss Benchmark" which is 35 ways bosses can be fab :)

[Greg]

Interesting. I read that showmanship is a vital part of leadership...your post on this book feeds into that.