The Leadership Anthem

How Listening Like a Musician Creates Strong Performances

Stephen J. Kohler

Find the music in your leadership and create a culture of performance

Drawing on the principles of music, The Leadership Anthem is a creative and instructive approach for business leaders on how to successfully lead in a world filled with disruption. Seasoned executive and musician Stephen Kohler blends his talents from these diverse worlds to create a new vision for transformational leadership. Like the power of your favorite song, The Leadership Anthem inspires leaders of all levels to love the art of driving team culture and performance.

Drawing on years in boardrooms, as an executive coach, and as a musician, Kohler takes you on a lyrical journey of replacing the top-down corporate structure with his Ensemble Model, a valuable team approach for future-looking workplaces. Pairing unique stories from the musical trenches with case studies, Kohler’s fresh perspective is both creative and illuminating. Leaders will connect with the music-filled take on skills like active listening, collaboration, and agility—and learn how to lead from rehearsal to the big stage.


Reviews

“You will find an abundance of material in this book that is relevant to your life and leadership.”

“I appreciate The Leadership Anthem’s Ensemble Model for its ability to clearly demonstrate that all roles are critical and each one of us is a leader serving in different capacities. As an executive, this allows me to lean into people’s strengths and contributions. It stands in opposition to strict hierarchical leadership models that have leaders only at the top, forcing key players into roles that often don’t allow them to lead at their best.”

“Stephen Kohler has a singular sensibility matched with an openness and inquisitive curiosity. It is this same sensibility that is the bedrock of The Leadership Anthem—an approach that Kohler challenges us to adopt to gain a fresh perspective on leadership that, while initially counterintuitive, ultimately makes perfect sense. As a producer, I reveled in the book’s extended musical metaphors and found myself gaining new insights into music alongside the book’s profound leadership lessons. Among musicians, roles are often seen as horizontally interconnected, with no one role overshadowing another. Kohler’s Ensemble Model translates this harmonious dynamic into the workplace, providing a blueprint for collaborative leadership. Whether you see yourself as a Composer, Conductor, Performer, Producer, or Fan, you will find inspiration, encouragement, and motivation within the pages of The Leadership Anthem.”


Stephen Kohler is the founder and CEO of Audira, an executive coaching and leadership development firm that uses musicianship as a lens for leadership. Kohler has enjoyed twenty-five years in a successful corporate career, earned an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, is a two-time TEDx speaker, and is a performing singer-songwriter featured on major streaming platforms.


ISBN 978-1-77458-538-2
$17.95 CAD $21.95 USD
Published January 8, 2025
5.5 × 8.5 166 Pages
PAPERBACK, EBOOK, AUDIOBOOK