I recently attended a Taraf de Caliu performance with my father. This folk music ensemble performs several songs inspired by Romani traditions, all very similar to the ones we heard growing up in Artari, Romania. My father was born and lived in the village of Artari until we moved to Bucharest when I was nine years old.
Both the music and the performance were outstanding. All of this took place in an improvised garden with a mixed audience, ranging from young kids to elders dressed up as though attending a concert at the Atheneum. The ecstatic atmosphere lasted nearly four hours. After four rounds of “Bis” enthusiastically shouted by the public, the concert finally ended at midnight. Only then did my father agree to go home, when he was certain that it was indeed the end.
This experience exceeded my expectations, which made me think more about what actually differentiates this band from other groups that sound similar. What inspires the diverse public to dance, laugh, and cry for hours on end on some improvised chairs? The answer is: art, traditions, emotions, and a whole mix of factors that have a combined value to generate this outcome. However, I also saw outstanding leadership in action. Caliu, the band’s violinist and main performer, leads everything. To include everyone in his performance, he directs the band, leads the tempo, provokes awe in spectators, smiles kindly, and plays the violin. He is super humble, seldom speaks, and has the most vivid eyes I have ever seen. Caliu undeniably inspires others through his talent, his dedication to music, and his commitment to the audience. He leads through humble excellence.
I spent a lot of time reflecting on leadership edge, a concept I have been searching for more and more recently. It is something that distinguishes leaders from one another, not via differences in how well they perform but rather by the uniqueness of their leadership styles. In the leadership course I took at Oxford University at the beginning of 2023, I was required to consider my own competitive edge in leadership. Initially, it wasn’t obvious to me. As required by the course, I conducted a 360-degree feedback collection from colleagues to discover my leadership characteristics. All of these people mentioned quality relationships. Then, other elements of my leadership edge appeared, such as naturally empowering others, encouraging people to do their best, recognizing people’s high potential, and delivering according to high standards. I summarized this as excellence while building quality relationships. At the time, this was the closest idea I had to what I would consider my leadership edge.
Having built a retail business in my early twenties, I was aware of my strong need to satisfy my clients as well as the results that would validate me. However, I had no knowledge of sales, team-building, or business development. On top of everything else, I was shy. It might be hard to tell, but I am an educated extrovert who has intentionally learned how to initiate conversations, be surrounded by people, and feel socially comfortable (a story I might come back to later).
Thus, as an inexperienced professional with a more introverted personality, it was quite challenging for me to network and attract new clients, especially when those clients were big retail chains. I’m confident that I was transparent with them, stating the obvious—that I was just at the beginning of my path and had a strong drive to make my company the top supplier in their industry. I did not know exactly how, but I was willing to learn fast, work hard, and forge long-term relationships.
I am sure many laughed looking at the younger and inexperienced version of me. But for me, it was priceless that some of them believed in me enough to offer me the opportunity to ramp up and start to deliver exactly what I promised.
I’ve worked with many significant accounts throughout the years. I decided to bet everything on establishing trusting relationships and creating value in my business. Sometimes I chose to prioritize these intentions ahead of immediate outcomes. Moreover, I repeatedly agreed to pay far more than the budgets we had agreed upon just to support a promotion that needed a push. In my opinion, it demonstrated that we were trusted partners in both good and bad situations.
The category manager of one of my clients called me last week. After 13 years, he was switching to a different category within the company and wanted to personally call to inform me before sending the official message. We are the supplier he had the longest-standing relationship with, and he wanted to honor that. It is true that both parties benefited from this long-term connection. I put a lot of effort into growing our relationship, including personally meeting this client during my short visits to Romania while studying my MBA and working in London. No matter how my life changed, I remained largely present in our professional connection.
After this phone call, I smiled for a while as I recalled some challenges of the past 13 years. These obstacles included staying up until 5AM to label products that had come from China too late for a next-day promotion and carrying bags of footwear samples in order to have a product selection that would make the upcoming collection successful. I grinned as I thought back to my conclusion on leadership edge and my motivation to perform in accordance with high standards, always putting the quality of the relationship first.
Good leadership can be observed anywhere. I invite you to find this inspiration around you. I also encourage you to attend a Taraf de Caliu concert. At the end of the concert I previously mentioned, my father remarked that it was obvious that every musician in the band was giving it their best. And Caliu was well aware of when to push them or celebrate their performance.
How do you identify the leadership edge in unexpected situations in your life?
And how would you think of your own leadership edge?