Rhythm

The word rhythm is being used a lot these days in messages about leadership, because there’s something about rhythm that moves people. A great leader captures the attention and hearts of people, helping them move beyond their limitations. Likewise, a music DJ can come into a quiet room full of wallflowers, start playing a beat, and suddenly transform the room into a party-like atmosphere.  If the DJ is good, then everyone will be dancing before the night is over; if a leader has rhythm, then everyone around that leader will be moving in sync. 

Famous singer-songwriter, Johnny Cash, understood that rhythm wasn’t only about music, but repeated movements that bring joy to people’s drab environments. In his song, “Get Rhythm,” Cash sings about a shoeshine boy who uses rhythm to shake his troubles away. Here’s one verse and a chorus to help you understand his point:

A Little shoeshine boy he never gets low down
But he's got the dirtiest job in town
Bending low at the peoples feet
On the windy corner of the dirty street
Well, I asked him while he shined my shoes
How'd he keep from getting the blues
He grinned as he raised his little head
Popped a shoeshine rag and then he said
Get rhythm when you get the blues
Come on, get rhythm when you get the blues
A jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine
It'll shake all your trouble from your worried mind
Get rhythm when you get the blues 

The shoeshine boy didn’t let the job, or the environment, get him down; instead, he just kept moving, being his best—over and over again.

There’s something about rhythm that gets people moving.  It’s why music is so enticing, because the sound of repeated beats can get people snapping fingers, tapping toes, clapping hands, dancing, or singing.   How is this?

First, repetition is key to rhythm.   A beat without a repeated pattern would be nothing but a single noise that dies quickly.   A single noise can often scare people more than it inspires them; a gunshot, an explosion, an awkward crash, or one loud clap is an example of a single noise that could be scary and limit hope in any situation.  On the other hand, a repeated noise that has a pattern, such as a musical beat, can shift one’s focus away from negativity to a positive response.   When a pattern of anything good is seen or heard, then there’s hope for something good to come.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of good things that keep happening over and over?  Great leaders display a pattern of greatness that is infectious.  

This is true within any environment, such as a workplace.  Leading a team out of a negative, drab environment requires routine patterns that point towards better things to come.  The team has to see greatness repeated in order to gain trust and hope in it. If a team is only focusing on the negative situations, or the boredom they have to endure, then there’s obviously no hope for greatness—because there is no rhythm. It shouldn’t matter if the situation is beyond the leader’s control; the shoeshine boy didn’t let his situation lessen his energy to bring the best, which in turn, brought joy to every customer. 

Repetition is not always easy.  Just as rhythm takes time for people to respond, repeating a good work takes planning and practice.  This is why athletes are repetitive.   Athletes have to repeatedly lift weights, run, and practice—over and over, day by day—in order to become better.  Do they stop working after one victory? No, because winning is fun, leaving them to want it again and again.  When something is fun, not only does it gain team members, but it gains fans too, because everyone wants to join in the celebration.

Without rhythm, there is no movement.  Without movement, it’s very easy to feel stuck.  Nobody wants the feeling of being stuck, especially in their career.  It’s like being stuck in Folsom Prison and time keeps dragging on, but that train keeps a rollin’ on down to San Antone (thanks again for another song about rhythm, Mr. Cash).  

PS: A train moves by rhythm. It may be heavy and take a lot of repeated energy to first get the train moving, but once it gets moving…it’s hard to stop it. 

-Eric Bivens