Have you watched Netflix’s recent show, 'The Greatest Night in Pop?'

It tells the story of the night that some of the biggest pop stars of the 1980’s – think Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and many more - gathered ‘top secret’ in a studio in Los Angeles to make the record and video of, We Are The World.

The song was released in March 1985 to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia, a few months after singer-songwriter Bob Geldof did the same with the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? in the UK, and went on to raise more than $60 million in humanitarian aid.

A friend recommended the show to me and I decided to spend a Sunday evening reminiscing on the ‘80’s and finding out more about this story.

I wasn’t expecting to be surprised and moved by the content.

In particular, I couldn’t help but notice the leadership that so many of the group gave to each other.

The story and how they showed up has stayed with me for several weeks.

Here are some leadership qualities I saw in the 90-minute show…

Quincy Jones – a talented American producer, songwriter, and composer – was the producer. He led a team to get in touch with the music stars to encourage them to take part.

This was a tough job as it was so hard to get all these stars into one room – their schedules were insane – so the team had to make it happen on the same night that the American Music Awards in Los Angeles were taking place as a lot of the stars were at that event.

Jones put a sign on the entrance door to the recording studio that said, LEAVE YOUR EGOS AT THE DOOR.

What a clear, direct message to encourage the singers to walk through the door with humility.

Lionel Richie was the first person to say, ‘Yes I’m in’ when called upon by fellow American singer Harry Belafonte to take action.

Sometimes it takes followership to be a leader.

Being the first person to say yes to a new idea proposed by someone else - and help make that idea happen - requires risk and trust.

Ritchie went on to have a leadership role throughout the night of the recording, noticing when the singers were tense, hungry, or needed to laugh.

Jones asked Geldof to give a short speech before the group began rehearsing.

Jones knew he needed to appeal emotionally to this group.

Geldof highlighted the gap between the lives of these successful artists and the world he’d seen in Africa - children and their parents starving to death, too weak to even swot away flies.

His words completely shifted the mood. You could see the faces of the singers change as they focused their attention and became clear on their purpose.

*You can read Geldof’s short speech at the end of this article.

Bob Dylan looks uncomfortable throughout the rehearsals. He had a different sound than the others in the group, and his way of working differed from this setup.

Nevertheless - he stayed.

What courage he showed to remain despite his discomfort.

Later, he asks Stevie Wonder to help him with his solo lines. The best leaders ask for help.

Stevie Wonder shows amazing support to Dylan, saying yes to helping him with no hesitation.

When they practice together and Dylan nails his sound, Dylan's smile transforms his face!

Jones hugs him and congratulates him showing sincere acknowledgment and Dylan is like a joyful child as he smiles back and says, "If you say so, man!"

As Bonnie Khan said in my original LinkedIn post, "I thought Dylan really didn’t understand what Quincy Jones was expecting from him, and when Steve literally modelled/sung it, that’s when he got it. The asking, giving and accepting help was beautiful.”

Lionel Ritchie organises food for the group, and Tina Turner shares how much she relishes the fried chicken provided...

Leaders know a working group need nourishment!

Anyone else watch the show? What else did you notice? Are you inspired to watch it now? If you do, please come back to this and share what you think of it!

How can I help?

Are you curious about working with a leadership coach who specialises in internal communications and can’t help but see leadership everywhere?! 😊

I can help you make better decisions, build stronger relationships, be more creative and FEEL better.

And you’ll grow your leadership presence and influence.

Take advantage of my free insights & ideas session by emailing justine.williams@groveleadership.co.uk (no selling, just talking).

Until then, come and connect with me on Linked In if we're not already connected.

If you have any comms colleagues who you think would benefit from this newsletter, please pass it along.

And remember to click the "Subscribe" button in the upper right corner of the page.

*Bob Geldof speech to the singers of the, ‘We Are The World’ record, January 28, 1985.

“Well maybe to put you in the mood of the song you’re about to sing - which hopefully will save millions of lives - I think it is best to remember that the price of a life this year is a piece of plastic seven inches wide with a hole in the middle.

And that I think is an indictment of us.

And I think what’s happening in Africa is a crime of stark proportions.

And the crime is that the Western world has got billions of tons of grain bursting at its silos and we’re not releasing it to people who are dying of hunger.

And I don’t know if we in particular can conceive of nothing.

But nothing is not having a cardboard box to sleep under at minus 10 degrees; nothing is not having any drink to get drunk on; not having water.

And you walk into one of the corrugated iron huts and you see meningitis and malaria and typhoid buzzing around in the air.

And you see dead bodies lying side by side with the live ones.

And on a good day you can only see 120 people die slowly in front of you.

And in some of the camps you’ll see 15 bags of flour for 27 and a half thousand people.

And it’s that that we’re here for.

I don’t want to bring anybody down but it may be the best way of making what you really feel and why you’re really here tonight to come out through this song.

So thanks a lot everybody and let’s hope it works.”