Every Leader Needs a Soundtrack
How Music Shapes Leadership, Identity, and the Courage to Embrace New Seasons
I sing. Well enough not to shatter glass nor scare mice.
From my first time singing the medley "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam and I am a Promise" at church to this moment, when faced with challenges, those songs come as alive as my eight-year-old self did. I have sung and listened my way back to my magnificence innumerable times.
Throughout my personal and professional journey, I can be led with perfect accuracy to milestone moments at the hearing of a melody. A song can transport me back to a childhood memory, a leadership challenge, a moment of heartbreak, a hard-earned victory, or a season of tremendous growth.
Which leads me to a question:
Sing a New Song
The phrase "new song" appears nine times in the Bible-seven times in the Old Testament and twice in the New Testament. Scripture repeatedly invites us to sing a new song. Perhaps that is because God understands something leaders often forget:
Every new season requires a new soundtrack.
Music has always been more than entertainment. It is identity, resilience, memory, and vision set to melody.
The evolution of African slave songs into spirituals and eventually into many modern American music genres is one of the most significant cultural contributions in world history. Long before music became an industry, it was a survival strategy for enslaved Africans. Songs carried hope when circumstances offered little reason for optimism. They preserved faith, community, history, and cultural identity.
In 1871, students from Fisk University formed the Fisk Jubilee Singers to raise funds for their struggling institution. In doing so, they introduced African American spirituals to audiences across America and Europe, preserving a musical tradition that might otherwise have been lost.
As an educator, I cannot help but admire the vision behind that effort. It was fundraising, certainly. But it was also cultural preservation, leadership, and strategic planning at its finest. The leaders at Fisk University understood that education is not only about preserving knowledge. It is also about preserving identity.
That lesson resonates deeply with me and with the philosophy behind The MAGNIFICENCE™ Framework.
People who lose their stories risk losing their sense of self. Music helps us remember who we are, where we came from, and what we value. It reminds us of our resilience when life becomes difficult and our purpose when the path becomes unclear.
Today, I am encouraged by a soundtrack of positive friends, family members, and songs that keep me grounded in faith, hope, gratitude, and purpose. I intentionally gravitate toward music and environments that help me remain in "Magnificence Mode" because that is the version of myself that can continue making a positive difference in others' lives despite the inevitable challenges that accompany growth and transition.
My playlist is wonderfully eclectic.
I groove to gospel favorites such as Shirley Caesar's "He'll Do It Again." I appreciate love ballads, "Die With a Smile" by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, and "Then You Look at Me" by Celine Dion. I enjoy R&B, the music of Xania Monet, and, as a proud Trinbagonian, I require a healthy dose of soca-from Machel Montano's "Gih Dem Performance", Full Extreme's We Jamming Still, and of course Kes' " Cocoa Tea to name a few, each with one goal to bring me back to myself.
Every song tells a story.
Every melody carries a memory.
Every season has a soundtrack.
If Scripture repeatedly calls us to sing a new song, perhaps it is because throughout history people have used music to remember who they were, survive what they endured, and imagine what could be.
Great leaders do the same.
They honor the songs that brought them this far while finding the courage to sing a new one for the future.
So I will leave you with the same question I asked at the beginning:
What's in your soundtrack?
Are you singing songs of past defeats?
Or are you singing songs of future hopes, possibilities, and dreams?
Whatever season you find yourself in, may you have the courage to embrace the new song that awaits you.
