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Quincy Jones
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Ken Chapman, Ph.D.
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.
His friends call
him Cue and he has become a legend in the entertainment industry. He has
worked with the best in the business, starting in the be-bop era, Duke
Ellington, Count Basie Lionel Hampton, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah
Vaughn, and Miles Davis, and the list goes on. He produced the best selling
single of all time, “We Are the World.” He produced the best-selling album of
all time, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” He has been nominated for more Grammy
awards than any other person and as of today, he has won a total of
twenty-seven. The person I am talking about is Quincy Jones.
Quincy Jones was born
in 1933 in Chicago and spent his first decade in one of the city’s roughest
neighborhoods. By his own admission, Jones says that he and his brother got
into a lot of trouble in those early days. Then his family moved to
Bremerton, Washington. Soon afterward, Jones discovered his love for music.
At age eleven, he decided that he wanted to play an instrument, so he started
with percussion. Even back then, he showed signs of a quality that would mark
him as a professional — his adaptability.
He began staying after
school and trying out a variety of other instruments. He tried the clarinet
and violin, but ultimately, he was attracted to brass, so he tried out all the
brass instruments — baritone, French horn, sousaphone, and trombone. Finally,
he landed on the trumpet and he excelled. By age fourteen, he had his first
paying job as a musician. As a teenager, he became friends with Ray Charles,
who is just a few years older than he. Jones began to compose music and learn
how to do arrangements. And when the best bands and singers came through
Seattle, he either went to hear them play or played with them. At age
eighteen, he was on the road touring with Lionel Hampton.
Jones has always
displayed a strong hunger to learn, which he calls an “obsessive curiosity”
and an amazing adaptability. Through the years, he has easily transitioned
from musician to arranger to band leader. In the 1950’s, he worked with many
of the greatest jazz performers. In 1957, when he thought he could use more
education, he moved to Paris and studied under Madia Boulanger, who had
tutored Aaron Copeland and Leonard Bernstein. At that time, Jones took a
position with Mercury Records to make ends meet. That is where he learned the
business side of the music industry. He was so good at it that in 1964, the
company made him a vice president. He was the first African American to hold
an executive position in a major record company. It was also in the 60’s that
Jones decided to tackle a new challenge — scoring movies. He has gone on to
write music for more than thirty movies and numerous television shows.
Throughout his career,
Jones has worked with the best singers and musicians in the world. Because he
spent so much time in the jazz community, when he worked with Michael Jackson
in 1982, some of his colleagues accused him of selling out. Jones thought
that this accusation was ridiculous. His flexibility and creativity have
served Jones well. They have not only enabled him to work with all kinds of
musicians from Latin to pop and from jazz to rap, but they have also made it
possible for him to bring the best out of any person he works with. He adapts
to the person and the situation to create a win for everyone. “Everyone has a
different way of relating to people,” observed Jones. “I take everybody
one-on-one and I’m happy I do because I have some great relationships that
transcend show business.
Jones has learned that
team work and personal rigidity just do not mix very well. If you and I want
to work well with others and be a good team player, we have to be willing to
adapt ourselves to our team. Harvard Business School professor, Rosabeth Moss
Canther observed, “Individuals who will succeed and flourish will also be
masters of change, adept at reorienting their own and others activities in
untried directions to bring about higher levels of achievement.” Team players
who exhibit adaptability have certain characteristics, among those are the
following:
(1) Teachable.
Adaptable people place a high priority on breaking new ground. They are
highly teachable. Consider Quincy Jones and you see someone who is always
learning. His belief is that if a person works hard and becomes highly
skilled in one area, he can transfer that ability to new endeavors. That
approach can work for anyone who is teachable. On the other hand, unteachable
people have a difficult time with change and as a result, they rarely adapt
well.
(2) Emotionally
secure. Another characteristic of adaptable people is security. People who
are not emotionally secure see almost everything as a threat, particularly new
things. They meet with rigidity or suspicion the addition of another talented
person to the team, an alteration in their position or title, or a change in
the way things are done. Secure people are not made nervous by change
itself. They evaluate a new situation or a change and their responsibilities
based on its merit.
(3) Service minded.
People who are focused on themselves are less likely to make changes for the
team than people focused on serving others. Educator and college president,
Horace Mann stated, “Doing nothing for others is the undoing of oneself.” If
your goal is to serve the team, adapting to accomplish that goal is not
difficult.
Quincy Jones has used
his adaptability to branch out into other industries. He broke into film
making when he produced the Color Purple. Then he took on television,
producing several hit shows, including the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. To Jones,
being able to change and adjust is not a big thing, it is just who he is.
Jones has never been afraid of a new idea, a new team, or a new industry.
Challenges have been no problem to him because he chooses to be adaptable.
We, too, must learn to
choose adaptability. We have to be willing to ask ourselves, how are we doing
when it comes to adaptability? If improving the team requires us to change
the way we do things, how do we react? Are we supportive or would we rather
do things the way they have always been done? If someone with greater talent
in our current area joins the team, would we be willing to take on a different
role? Or if a key player in another team is having a problem, are we willing
to change positions to help out? The key to being a team player is being
willing to adapt ourselves to the team, not an expectation that the team will
adapt to us.
The next time you face new
ideas, new team members, or new leadership, remember the example of Quincy
Jones, and consider how adaptability can help you reach your personal goals
and be a strong team player!
For more information about Ken
Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman
at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at
kchapman@leaderscode.com.
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