In my leadership work, I have group skills and strategies into the four areas above. First, Foundations give the leader the clarity to know how to lead the team because the final result in clear; second, build and maintain effective relationship to assist in getting to the vision; next, develop effective systems allowing each team member to excel and to work together efficiently; and finally, create balance in work, in life, and between work in life.
The format for 2010 consists of interviews with Christian leaders from many different types of leadership styles and perspectives - some pastors, some musicians, some lay leaders, some Christian business professional, and more. This month’s edition of Monday Morning Email's “Leadership Tools” is an interview with Marshall White, Founder, Unity Performing Arts Foundation (UPAF) in Ft Wayne, Indiana.
Marshall White's work ethic, focus, consistency, and dedication to the lives of young people display his deepest desire to see them achieve at the highest level of excellence. He has realized his divine purpose on the planet, which is to lead, equip, develop, nurture and empower these young lives to one day lead our country, and make a meaningful difference in the world. His guiding philosophy is that "life is a gift from God given to us to choose what we will do with it; become a positive asset or a negative liability." He has unquestionably chosen the former, drawing on his own formidable talents, determination, and many years of experience to inspire children, youth and adults to reach their fullest potential.
The following interview is summarized below. If you would like to listen to the interview or download it for future listening click here.
INTRODUCTION
Hugh Ballou: Marshall White, we are recording for this session of Monday morning email leadership tools, and this is for the December 2010 issue of leadership tools on the Creator magazine's website. Marshall White is my guest today, and Marshall White has done some amazing work, in especially the area of the arts in community work in Fort Wayne.
Marshall White: How you doing Hugh?
Ballou: would you, would you give us a little background for people that don't know Marshall White? A little bit about your background, personally, and, what you've done there at Fort Wayne.
White: Well, first of all thank you Hugh, for having me on, and thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my story, with the listening audience. First of all, I'm a born and raised native of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Been here all of my life, and just stuck back up in, I guess in the area of right above Indianapolis. And a lot of people probably never heard of Fort Wayne, Indiana, but it's the second largest city in the state of Indiana. And I have been in music since I was 9 years old, been playing for the church since I was 13. And I was music director at 17 and resigned at 32. And went on to start a consultant business in which I traveled to go abroad to work with churches and schools to help enhance their music programs.
And then later on in my life. I started an arts organization that was focused on developing kids. Young people in the area of leadership, artistry, and character, and using the art forms that were not traditional art form, and tag that art form names the Soulful Art Forms. Creating a curriculum and an educational structure for mainstream music to be studied by young people and their generation. And that arts organization is called Unity Performing Arts Foundation.
And, it's 10-year celebration now. This year and these young people have accomplished some great things under the umbrella of the Unity Performing Arts Foundation. And that’s this is an overview of my life. For the last 52 years [laugh].
Ballou: Oh, you're just a young fellow. My goodness. You're very modest. I've seen, I've seen videos of some of the really young folks. I think saw a 9 year old girl delivering a speech at a formal banquet that she had written in your writing class and, and speaking as you had taught folks to present themselves and I could have sworn she was a graduate of Harvard. What eloquence! She didn't look at a single note. She spoke to the subjects, and she was very, very effective. And I understand that's typical of your graduates. And I also, you're very modest about the accomplishments that you have championed there.You went to China in July of 2010 and participated in the World Choir Games with 400 other choirs, what was the result of that competition?
White: Well, for our first appearance at the world choir games. We were met with an enormous amount of victory and favor. The choir performed in 2 categories. “Popular Choral Music” category and “Gospel and Spiritual” category. We won gold medals in both categories and the world grand champion title in the gospel and spiritual category. Which gave us an incredible amount of stature in the choral community abroad. Throughout the world and the kids gained an impeccable reputation from choirs all over the world after that presentation. And that reputation is growing now. Just recently we received, last week, a congressional record from the Senate celebrating the kids' success and then a recommendation letter has been sent to the White House for the kids to perform there. So, that was an enormous accomplishment. And in the way we've worked, actually we got the invitation in December, raised the money in 5 months to go to the World Choir games in July. A little over $450,000 was raised. And we took 101 people to China.
FOUNDATIONS
Ballou: Amazing, amazing. So I think people now know why I've invited you to be on this call. You, you are a visionary leader, and you have impacted a lot of people's lives because of this vision. So, there are four areas that I have defined in leadership. I teach on those in my leadership tools edition of Monday Morning Email. The first of those four categories is Foundations. As a conductor we need to know the score. As a leader, we have to champion the vision and have the skills. So, in terms of advice for our audiences of those who plan and lead worship ministries - they're musicians and they're pastors, reading this and listening to this. So, in terms of the Foundation area, with the vision and your skill set, what would you like to share with our readers?
White: Well, I grew up in the church era of music, and I had an unorthodox view on how music was presented in the church. And it got me, a lot of, I guess I would say, unusual opportunities because I view the music in the church as one would view music in the world. And so I put the same amount of energy and professionalism and focus in presenting music in the church at the same level artists would do in, in secular music. And that got our church choir program high recognition with great opportunities with orchestras and in the community. We were the first African American choir to perform on the stage with an orchestra. It's called a Gospel Night At The Pops, in Fort Wayne. It was a historical concert. Actually was the first in the state of Indiana ever to be done. That was in 1984. And it just, snow balled from there, to singing with Sandy Patty, and Bill Gaither, and other artists - Josh Grobin, and, the list goes on, because I approached the music with a more professional focus, in making sure it was polished a nd presented in an excellent way. I think that foundation is important. Most people tend to look at church music as something as oh, this is something we can do just to exercise our gifts and our talents. But we don't need to really actually perform in an excellent manor. Well I beg to differ. I think you need to set the precedent and the foundation on the outset of a ministry so that the people who give and become a part of the ministry their gifts and talents are developed and improved and not just used. And the church tends to have a mentality where we just use what comes. We don't develop what comes. And that to me is the wrong approach for music in the church.
If you are hoping to develop an inspired, excellence among people, as they present whatever they're going to present unto God. So, that foundation is very important for the leadership. The leadership must have a mentality that doesn't accommodate mediocrity. And that must trickle down into the singers and the people that they work with. And that takes a mentality, a mindset that calls for a lot of hard work and a lot of focus and a lot of dedication on improving your own skill sets. And, I think that's necessary to be done outside of the realm of which you're comfortable with. And a lot of musicians and directors only tread in the area of music that they are comfortable with. That to me limits your skill sets and it also limits the people you work with. So set a foundation where there's versatility, diversity, and a sense of a standard that's placed that this is the way we do it and this is how we go about it. And once that's set people who know you and work with you will always remember you for setting that precedent with them.
RELATIONSHIPS
Ballou: That is awesome, that is awesome. Now, we've got a variety of people we work with and my second area of leadership is relationships and I've always taught that a very important part of ministry is Relationships. An important part of music making is relationship. An important part of leadership is music making. So those all go together, especially in the church. So, you deal with people who've got awesome talent and, and have developed talent. You deal with people that are probably nothing but potential. So talk about the relationship piece. You've got this vision. You've captured the, eloquently the vision of excellence in what we do. talk about how to inspire people, how to build relationships to make that all happen.
White: Well, I think Hugh, and I come from several perspectives, and one of my major perspectives, again, is the church. From the educational perspective, I’ve not moved in those circles as much. But I do have some experience in teaching in the schools, elementary, middle school, high school, and in the college level. And one of the things I've seen in the artistic community among musicians, directors, and singers - both church and community-wise is that we are so separate. We're so dispersed and we're so cliquish and I don't know if that's because again, once again we are all focused on our conformability what we are comfortable and whom we are comfortable with. And I think that the thing that we miss as musicians and as music leaders and music carriers, is that we possess the gift that's by far the most powerful force on the face of the earth. It is so powerful that God has chosen to continue using it once the world has come to an end.
So it will be utilized in heaven. When preaching and teaching and other, areas of ministry are disbanded music will still continue. That tells you right there the importance of music. And it should, to me, it should, whenever you are a musician or you’re a person of music or you have a gift of music you automatically become a person of relationship because you have a force and a gift that to me, brings people to you. Draws people together. It unifies people. And it amazes me how we are all so separate. And we are all in our different worlds. And we all have our different conferences and conventions. And music programs that really only communicate to US and not to the world as a whole. And that's one of the reasons why I thought that World Choir Games was a great concept because the music choice is very vast. It's very vast and it's accommodating to all different styles and all different approaches in music. And I believe building relationships among people who study classical, people who study jazz, people who study gospel, people who study other soulful art forms like R & B and hip-hop, and other. I think building those types of relationships help to enhance all of us musically and artistically.
And the students that we work with benefit from that. But if we're not familiar with a certain art form, we either put it down or we take away from its value. And I don't believe that that's what music was meant for. So, even in the vision that I have brought forth, it is demanded that I go out and establish relationships even outside of my culture, outside of my environment, my comfortable zone, in order to make sure that this vision is communicated throughout the community.
And that's the reason why today we can brag and boast about the diversity in our program, because I took an approach that I'm not going to just be a black musician to communicate just to black singers. I thought that would be very narrow minded. So the vision communicates to black kids, white kids, Hispanic kids bi-racial kids, African kids, and the leader has to communicate that. If the leader does not appear to be someone who loves people, who reaches out to people? Who likes to listen and appreciate all styles of music, then you're going to be someone who's in your own corner, your own environment. And I think that, that we're living in a society today that that is hurting us terribly, and it's hurting our kids. And so those relationships building are to me so important to presenting a unique artistic platform.
SYSTEMS
Ballou: Wow, that took me time to process that one. There's so much richness in that. Now, you have such a, profound vision. You have invested, in relationships with people. The next area is systems. You and I know if we have a bad rehearsal, and we let notes slide and we let mediocrity reign, we're goanna have a bad performance so we establish really effective rehearsal systems where we rehearse for excellence. I think that standard applies generally in any organization where we are a leader. So you got the vision clearly articulated. You've built the relationships with the right people. Now you're gonna create systems in order to put this put this in effect. What words do you want to share about Systems that you found to be helpful?
White: Well, I established that in the outset of, starting Unity Performing Arts, when we started the first artistic program, the youth choral program, which was the Voices of Unity Youth Choir, what's important is that, from my background, especially in the area that I live in the Fort Wayne area. The Fort Wayne area is the artistic community is predominately European. And it has always been that way. And we have a population that's 70 percent minority - African-American. And what I've I noticed is that a lot of times what that means is at the arts community in the African-American community is in a very private environment. And a lot of times it's so private that the mainstream educational artistic community doesn't have a clue where it’s at.
And I usually go to these schools, and I speak to the teachers. And they talk about they can't get minorities involved in the arts, and they can't get minorities involved in the band, and in the orchestra, in the choir. And in some cases, right in the middle of an inner city school community they can't even get kids involved in the programs. Well, one of the things that I always say to them, is that, have you checked out really where the arts are being performed and learned in the African-American Community? And most of them go “no”.
And I say, well, have you ever been to the church? And they say, no. I say, well, that's where the mecca, of the arts is. And the kids, the kids are, learning dance, and drama, and choir, choir, and instrumental. And all of those things are being demonstrated right there in the heart of the inner city churches.
But a lot of cases there's no system and no structure in those programs because most of them don't have adequate instructors and teachers who really are apt to teach, proper systems and structure in an organized fashion. So, one of the most important things was to do at view path was to establish an artistic platform that had systems and structure that gave some sense of discipline, organization and responsibility - all of the necessary components and essentials to expose a kid to a structured artistic platform. And so, we put a number of systems in place. Even from the technology stand point, we have very sophisticated data systems that manage and track every student who comes into the program from attendance to finance, to participation, they're accomplishments, infractions, we track their grades, their academics we track their behavior at home, behavior at school. We track their accomplishments at home school. We track we, we actually stay close to this child even all the way through college. And we track everything in college - their grades, and their accomplishments in college - and once tat kid is grown and gotten married we even have that in the system that the child is married and the child has children. So, I think these types of systems are really, in a lot of cases foreign to the arts community because most of the art community are looking for people to perform - it's similar to the sports community and once those kids are gone, they're gone, and it's over with. Well UPAF has established a system where once you join our program, we're connected to you from the beginning, all the way til you've graduated from college, and gone on and started your family. And that demands a great system in place.
The other thing is that, the system that we established in rehearsals, in order to insure a very powerful, presentation, is that, the kids learn about the 4 P's - Preparation, practice, performance and Presentation. They learned that whatever you practice you will perform. That's what I've taught them. So if you practice lethargic, lazy if you practice approaching the material with no passion and no heart, that's what, that's exactly the way you're going to perform it. I also teach them what you learned, you practice. What you practice, you master, and what you master you pass on. And, and those are the principles.
We help him to understand the importance of a consistent presentation. It takes work at home. And we helped him developed a work ethic, so that that happens. And a lot of times, when you're talking about a 7, 8, 9, 10 year old kid, talking about work ethics, they don't really hear that until high school. Well, not so in our program. Kids learn, what a work ethic is at the age of 7. They learn what commitment is at the age of 7. They learn what dedication is. They learn what focus is. And yesterday, in their life lesson, they learned, the difference between being busy, and the difference, in being productively active. And these are principles that you help establish - systems for performing on a consistent basis in any place in any fashion. So these kids actually can sing in front of anyone, any time, no matter what the size of the audience, no matter who the artist is with the same sense of confidence and the same professionalism, every time. It's simply because the system in place at practice is excellence and nothing less. And that's established early. And those systems have to be promoted and perpetuated by the leadership on a consistent basis. The leader cannot come into the rehearsal standing or in front of a group with anything lacking if he wants to maintain or she wants to maintain that sense of presentation. Once those systems are in place and the kids buy into it, then all of a sudden now you have an environment that says, no that's not right. The environment now begins to shape how kids present. And that to me is the most incredible thing. Once the kids begin to judge - instead of judge, I'll use the word assess and evaluate each other, and themselves. You've established now a very incredible environment, because you've got the kids studying themselves. And that to me is, is what a system does for a great artistic program.
Ballou: Oh that's brilliant, that's brilliant. You've created a culture of excellence and peer accountability, and, and you've created a process...
White: Right, absolutely. When you establish an environment were the participants become, the instructors - that’s incredible.
Ballou: As you know, I teach Transformational leadership, and one of the fundamental principles that makes it work is, you just nailed. You model what you want to see. You're prepared. You strive for excellence. You model excellence. You model the high standard yourself and commitment yourself. That's what people will do. No matter what you say, they're going to do what you do. So, that's a fundamental piece. And that’s huge. You were speaking about the records keeping and the tracking and the standards for community group, all of that, every bit of that, applies to the church.
White: Absolutely. Everything, yes.
Ballou: In the most quantifiable results we have aren't immediately measurable in ministry. Like in your program. Exactly like your program. Your, your kids excel in college. They excel in life. But then you planted the seeds, when they're 7, and forward.
White: Right. Absolutely.
Well you know what I find out, is that the most difficult thing is in ministry and it gets to that point as well as in education, what happens is that contentment, familiarity sets in, and it breeds contentment and people begin to lax and begin to display a sense of, “now I'm just going to maintain. I'm not going to improve. I'm not going to enhance. I'm just going to maintain what's here.” And that's in in the ministry. I've seen it also in education where the kids suffer because they have a choir director or a choir teacher or music teacher who no longer wants to improve themselves. And so the kids don't get better. They don't learn better. They don't learn more, and they're not prepared for the next level in their artistic experience. And that's unfortunate, but that happens a lot in the arena that we're in.
Ballou: It happens in school and in church. I see that. And we think we've arrived, but you know, it's a constant learning experience.
White: Yes. Yes. Well, I think that that's something that, you know, it's comfortable to be at a point where you don't grow anymore. And, it's also comfortable not understanding and learning other people, and other styles, and other ways. Because, you know, I don't want to learn that because I don't want to learn any more. I don't have time to learn more. And that's, that mindset, unfortunately is bad for our young people because the society that's producing the type of young people today is pretty frightening. And our kids our becoming so, I would say numb when it comes to challenging and producing excellence. A lot of them are going, what the heck, you know?
Ballou: Absolutely. And you, you nailed it, as far as, we don't go for excellence, because, we don’t have the time.
White: Right.
BALANCE
Ballou: And my last area is balance. Balance means you create a space in your calendar for planning, for thinking, for Sabbath. You know, the rest is important in music. Well, a rest is important in life too. It's not just an absent of sound. It's a punctuation. So, in balancing the whole person, Marshall White, balancing work and personal life, or balancing multiple priorities. There's a number of perspectives here. So, share with us something about balance in your leadership style.
White: You know the word balance to me is the capacity to juggle more than one thing. And I think once as a musician you, especially if you're blessed with the left-brain capacity [laugh] along with the right brain. [laugh] If you're blessed with the ability to use the left brain which a lot of musicians have it but they don't use it. musicians sometime are stereotyped as people who are artistic but not organized, artistic but don't follow through, artistic but don’t return calls, don't return emails. They're artistic but they don't focus on the fine print. They don't deal with the methodical areas. They're not detailed. They don't want to sit down and take care of the business side. And that's the stereotype. When you mention you're a musician, the first thing people start thinking is, are you know you just, you're just a musician. If you've been blessed with both left-brain and right brain functions now, you become not just a musician, but also a monster. [laugh]. Somebody who has the capacity to do both sides of the business, and, the artistic side. Balance is just being able to juggle that. But, I think most of us don't suffer from a balance problem. I think we suffer from an alignment problem.
And alignment, if you look at the difference between the two, if you, if you buy a set of great tires. You have four tires. You balance those tires the car is smooth when you drive it. But, what happens is when you let the wheel go it starts going to the left or the right. You have this smooth ride but you can't let the wheel go. The moment you let the wheel go it sways to a direction that causes the vehicle to move, either left or right. That's an alignment problem. An alignment problem is when you have many things in your life, but they, instead of being, I would say laid out in front of you in a horizontal fashion from left to right, they're vertically lined and behind each other. So, the only thing you see is the first thing in front. And that's where you put all your attention. So, if the first thing in front happens to be your music, you don't see your wife, you don't see your children. You can' see'em. You don't see God. You don't see friends. You don't see rest, and you just see what's in front of you. But, if you align those items horizontally from left to right, you can see each one of them. Now it's a matter of putting priority in place. Now, which ones should be upfront?
And, and I think what you learn that your calling to, to the music environment has the capacity to consume you you then have to ask yourself a question. How many other important factors are a part of my life? Am I married? Do I have children? Do I have a relationship with God? Do I need to, myself, have some time to prepare myself and to work on my own personal development? Yes. Then you start lining those things up and I think and that happened to me when I got consumed with this vision, around 2007, I literally almost lost my wife, because I was so overwhelmed with making this thing happen, till I was neglecting my family. And, so, I went into this sabbatical where I reestablished and went to counseling for about a year, a business counselor and a personal councilor, to help me understand the importance of aligning my life and not. I mean I was doing a good balance. I was juggling everything. I was meeting all the deadlines. I was still going to dinner and I was doing all of those things. But there was no priority in my life. And so once I established that sense of alignment, I was able to place UPAF at a certain area, God, my wife, my children, UPAF and then things happened totally different. Life changed dramatically because now I wasn't consuming myself with something and then ignoring other things and so what I would suggest is there are 4 areas that a leader has to develop the physical dimension, the mental dimension, dimension or psychological dimension, the emotional dimension and the spiritual dimension. And each of these areas of your being has to be developed and worked on a daily basis. Physically you have to exercise. You have to take care of yourself. You have to eat right. You have to make sure that you are physically prepared to do what you need to do. And then mentally you have to have your mind in order, your thought pattern in order, in order to be able to feed your mindset consistently so you can see a greater picture, outside of yourself. Emotionally you got to be able to handle all the different changes that come in your life and deal with the ups and the downs, and the ins and the outs and be ready to be filled with energy, in spite of, and work in spite of. Sometimes people get emotionally drained, and they can't even function. Well, those areas have to be developed, so you can even function, when your emotional life is in shambles. Then the spiritual dimension is something that I believe that that cultivates and nurtures the relationships. That culturing and cultivating that relationship with the creator, with your Divine Guide helps you to manage everything else in your life. So, it is important that you have good alignment along with the balance so that you can be effective in every area that God has given you to be a leader in. And, always growing artistically, always growing spiritually, always growing occupationally, and personally growing as a person. I read a lot. A study a lot of people's material. I'm always reading and learning other people’s philosophies and theories on how to do things and passing it down to my students. So, that is a very important factor. And I think the alignment theory is something that most musicians and directors ought to adhere to.
Ballou: Well, Marshall, you're certainly an inspiration to me and it's good to have this inspiration on a Monday morning when I've got the whole, the whole week ahead of me. So, it's kind of gotten my mind on a good track today. And there's no doubt why you've been so successful here. As a parting piece, is there some piece of wisdom you'd like to leave with folks as a closing tip or just a thought?
White: Well, I would like to just say I believe that the music that God has given us, the music gift that he's given us. He's given it to us to break the walls and tear the walls down. All of the walls that separates us, all of the walls that causes us to become, I would say, in our own little hamlets, and causes us to judge, and to overlook, put down, neglect, dismiss we have the gift to obliterate all of those things and as musicians, as directors, as singers, I would hope to see, in the coming years, that more of us respectful of what we bring to the table, and I hope to also see that there is an incredible, inspiration given to our kids to reach forth, and to pursue excellence and to learn, to love everybody, and to learn to get along with everybody. I believe that that's what our communities are missing, our society is missing, and our country, and our world is missing. And, I hope and, that our program can continue to encourage people and young people to make a difference and also to be that difference. It can also be that difference.
Ballou: Marshall White, thank you for sharing today. I'm blessed. Have a great day.
White: Thank you, Hugh.
