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The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting
—

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

—

We have been around our imaginary wedding table and met all the characters. We have seen each personality’s unique challenges and how a magician might react in each case.

In the next few posts, I would like to make some general observations from working with the table as a whole to gain some valuable insights for team leaders.

Lift Them Up

As a magician, the first lesson for me is that it is all about the audience. They are the most important, I am there to serve them, and I need to do all I can to lift them up.

Likewise, as team leaders, our most important job is to serve our teams.

How might we do this?

Working through the MAGIC formula:

Move: I need to make my audience feel something. Most of the time, it will be most beneficial to stimulate positive feelings. As a performer, I want them to feel amazed, intrigued, excited and mystified, but I also want them to feel comfortable and relaxed. I might need some help from an audience member at some point, in which case I want them to feel confident in me and brave enough to take the risk of taking part.

Very occasionally, I might want to make the audience feel uncomfortable as part of the dramatic flow of a routine, e.g., by making them think that I have screwed up a trick and leaving an awkward silence. But I only want to do this if I know the situation will be temporary and quickly resolved and that the feeling of discomfort will only serve to heighten the effect that follows.

It is similar when leading a team. As a leader, you want your team members to feel comfortable and confident working with you and with each other. You want them to be energised, confident and excited. Occasionally you might want to throw in a bit of discomfort as a motivator, as long as you can also show that there is a way out by you all working together and triumphing somehow.

Attune: Magic at tables works best when you correctly judge the mood and characters of the table and tailor your presentation and routine to seamlessly start from that point.

In the same way, as a team leader, you will find it much easier if you can attune to the character and mood of your team members, both individually and as a group.

When performing magic, I have to work with the audience I have, not the audience I wish I had. As a team leader, I have to work with the team I have, not the team I wish I had. If you get it right, your actual team may eventually become very similar to your ideal team.

Give: One of the founders of The Magic Circle, David Devant, once coined the phrase “All done by kindness”. This saying is much loved by magicians and a great mantra for life and leadership in general.

When performing at a wedding table, I need to provide an experience that the guests could not have had without me being there. My role is to give them something that will stick in their memories with good feelings, maybe cause them to think a little differently about magicians, their lives and their fellow humans. This might sound a little grand for a magic performance, but I have had enough chats with audience members to know that it is possible. At the very least, I can aim to give everyone a positive and enjoyable time.

How and what can you give to your team members as a team leader? I would suggest, for starters, encouragement, fun, opportunities to learn and grow, information and your time.

Inspire: I want to leave my audience with a slightly different view of the world, one that will cause them to act differently, if only slightly. Maybe this will simply be in their reaction to future magic performances? Perhaps it will be in their thinking about how the human mind works or how different people see things in different ways? Maybe they will want to go and learn some magic tricks themselves?

How can you inspire your team? What do you want them to want to do as a result of interacting with you? It is worth considering that you will inspire them to act in one way or another no matter what you do! This might be positive or negative. It is more likely to be positive if you are intentional about it. Spend some time thinking about how you would like to be inspiring your team and how you might be able to go about it in your actions, encouragement and general dealings with them.

Connect: The more successfully I can connect with an audience and individual audience members, the better the resulting performance will be. It is exactly the same with team members. Time spent one-to-one with team members or in building relationships with the whole group will never be wasted.

Elevation

How can you serve your team?

How can you lift them up?

—

Help Please!

I am writing a book about using The MAGIC Formula to manage yourself, particularly if you work from home.

If you are a freelancer, self-employed, or work from home in another capacity, I would love to talk to you.

If you would like to help, please get in touch: https://www.work-life-magic.com/contact/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting

—

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

—

Home on the Range Rover

The last person to meet at this wedding guests table is 17-year old Taramasalata. She is sitting next to her dad, Tarquin the Silverback, who has been ostentatiously boasting about his wealth and rich-person-type activities. Tara (for short) has been talking about how she has been learning to drive in her new Range Rover on the family’s second field and how it was such a hassle because they had to move the pony.

With my comprehensive school chip on my shoulder, I have a strong urge to slap her around the face and tell her to get a life, meet the real world, and wake up and smell the coffee. Who does she think she is?! She wouldn’t have all this if it wasn’t for an accident of birth and daddy’s money. How can she be so crashingly insensitive to the rest of those around the table?

Entitlement Resentment

OK, maybe I have painted an extreme caricature of an entitled teen. However, I am reasonably confident that those feelings of incredulity mingled with slight resentment are familiar to many people to some extent.

Do you have someone on your team who raises even a fraction of these emotions in you? You feel that they are only there because they are related to the boss, whereas you had to work your way up or get the job on your own merits? They come out with the most inane rubbish and have no real grasp on the real world. And, what is worse, you are stuck with having to manage them because they have ended up on your team!

What do you do?

Controlled Reaction

Is it even possible to Move, Attune, Give, Inspire and Connect in this situation?
Well, I think it is. It is not easy, but it is possible.

In life, in general, the only thing we can really control is our response to a situation. We can’t change what is going on in someone else’s head, and we rarely have much influence over most events in the world. But we can change our reactions.

Take Tara at the wedding table. My initial reaction is that I feel resentment and want to write her off. Not a great start if I am there to entertain!Neither is it a great start for you if you are there to manage a team member.

How to do MAGIC

So, what can I do to manage my reactions in this instance?

Move: What emotion do I want Tara to feel during and after my performance? I need to resist my desire for her to feel humiliation; I actually want her to feel wonder and a sense of experiencing something special with the rest of the table.

Attune: How can I understand Tara more? She clearly comes from a different world to me, but how would I be behaving if I had the same start in life and the same life experience? I have to acknowledge that she is not actively trying to be obnoxious and intimidating as she flicks her perfectly styled hair…

Give: What do I want to give Tara? I have to remember that I am there to serve,  as is a team leader. How can I be generous to her?

Inspire: How do I want her to behave or think due to my performance? Well, I would like her to experience being part of an audience with the other guests, and as a result, not feel like she is so very different from them after all. 

Connect: My initial reaction is that Tara is from a different planet to me. But is that really true? Within a couple of icebreaking questions, I can probably discover some points of connection, places we have both visited, or activities we have both tried.

As a magician, I have to go through this process very quickly, in a matter of minutes. As a team leader, you will have a bit longer. But the principle is the same. Your real challenge is to start with yourself, to take control of your own reactions and allow yourself to view yourself as the servant of your irritating team member.

Do you have a Taramasalata on your team? 

Identify the emotions they stir up in you and reflect on how you could modify your internal reactions.

—

Help Please!

I am writing a book about using The MAGIC Formula to manage yourself, particularly if you work from home.

If you are a freelancer, self-employed, or work from home in another capacity, I would love to talk to you.

If you are able to help, please get in touch: https://www.work-life-magic.com/contact/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting
—
I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

—

Teenage Tricks

Let’s move around the table. Next to Joker Jake, we have Bored Ben. Ben is a teenager and is the son of Jake and Timid Tina. He is the brother of the Enthusiastic Matilda and is sitting on his phone, avoiding eye contact and not engaging with anyone else. If you are the parent of a teenager, you may well recognise this behaviour!

How do I as a magician deal with Ben as I am trying to make the table fizz and pop with enjoyment and excitement?

Tactical Sidling

Well, one of the tactical things to do is to try to avoid this situation in the first place. If possible, I will have scouted the room before everyone has sat down at the tables. I will have identified the teenagers and sidled up to them while they were standing at the edges observing everybody else.

I will have shown them a cool card trick in a low-key way. It won’t have got a big reaction because most teenagers don’t do big reactions at weddings. However, it might have got a smile or nod of the head. I’ll take that!

Pre-COVID, I would also have done a mind-blowing trick with their phone. This pre-meeting would have enabled me to establish some rapport with Ben so that I’m not meeting him cold when I meet him in the more diverse group at the table. Once I am at the table, this should mean that I can get some eye contact with him and encourage him not to be on his phone. I may also be able to include him in a non-threatening way, for example, by asking him to pick a card, but nothing where he has to perform to the table to any great extent.

Alien Imposters

Why does Ben feel disengaged at the table? I think teenagers feel this because of a sense of cultural alienation. They are in the midst of people they perceive as different to them and don’t feel like they fit into the social setup. The surrounding grownups and children don’t speak their language, don’t understand their likes or dislikes.

They feel like imposters. Maybe you have someone like Ben on your team? In team meetings, they don’t seem to be engaged. On Zoom calls, you can tell that they’re checking their inbox instead of paying attention to the business at hand.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Why might this be? The first thing to realise is that it’s probably not because they hate you or the organisation. It’s perhaps because they feel some degree of cultural alienation. Maybe a sense of imposter syndrome?

This could be because they have a different educational background or social background. Maybe they have a different sexuality or race than most other members? Perhaps they have a visible or hidden disability. I’m reading an excellent book by Caroline Flanagan at the moment called “Be the First“(ad), which deals with imposter syndrome among black people in organisations. It is excellent and much recommended.

Become an Ally

Can you spend some time with your disengaged team member outside of the meeting to establish some rapport and find out more about them? This will change you from “another other” to a reassuring ally. Then, when you are back in a team meeting, you can make them feel valued in the group without putting pressure on them to step outside their comfort zone.

Hidden Riches

A Bored Ben can seem irritating and even rude on the surface, but there is much more going on than meets the eye. As a team leader, it will pay you dividends to make an effort to get to know them.

Find the riches that lie within.

—

Help Please!

I am currently adding to my coaching toolkit by undergoing some NLP Coaching training. As part of the course, I need to practise my new techniques on willing volunteers.

The research involves a 30-minute Zoom call. I get some practice and you get some free coaching: win-win!

Thank you to those who have already done it – much appreciated!

Please pass this on to anyone that you know might enjoy or benefit from it.

If you would like to help, please book in here:
https://www.work-life-magic.com/free-coaching/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting

—

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!
I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

Bouncing Enthusiasm

Continuing my journey around the wedding table… We have met Tarquin, the silverback and Clint, the critical analyst. Now we come to Matilda, a 10-year-old who wants to show me her card trick. Her parents are telling me that Matilda has a special trick to show me. I know with almost 90% certainty that this trick will involve her dealing out 21 cards several times. It takes a long time and a lot of table space, and she will probably make a mistake and have to start again. The energy on the table will drop, and this will kill the flow of my routine. What to do? Matilda is bouncing up and down in her seat with enthusiasm.

The best thing to do is to ask her, with a smile, what the trick involves. If I find out it is the 21 card trick, I will suggest that she show it to me at a separate table after I have finished my time with this group. I promise that I will help her to make it even better. Most of the time, this works really well.

Don’t Dampen, Channel

Maybe you have someone a bit like Matilda on your team? I call them “blinkered enthusiasts”; they are desperate to show you their latest project, to explain at length their theories, or to describe what they have been working on. They are blind to the fact that this will render the rest of the team bored, kill the energy of a meeting, or distract from the main point of discussion. However, you do not want to dampen their enthusiasm. So what do you do?

Well, the first thing is to show appreciation, then maybe you can move their detailed explanation to a separate meeting in an encouraging way. For example, “That sounds brilliant. I don’t think we have time to go into it in detail here, but can I give you a call about that later on? Maybe two or three of us could get together to explore that and your ideas in a separate meeting, so that we can give it the time it deserves?” And then, in the separate meeting, you want to be as encouraging as possible and to suggest possible next steps.

Promote Growth

Talking to someone like Matilda at a wedding, I might suggest magic books or videos that she could watch. For a team member, you might want to recommend some reading material or, quite possibly, establish a coaching or mentoring relationship with yourself or somebody else to help them grow and develop their ideas and awareness of how they fit into the rest of the team.

You need enthusiasts on your team because they will give the energy and time to projects that no one else will. But you also need to manage them carefully so they do not alienate the rest of the team and distract from everything else that is going on. In the kindest way possible, you have to teach them that “less is more” when it comes to whole team gatherings. Dealing with them requires much sensitivity. You don’t want to quench their spirit. But you need to challenge them and channel them in the right way.

Do you have a Matilda on your team? How will you harness their enthusiasm?

—

Help Please!

I would like to interview even more team leaders to gain insight into the challenges they face. This is so that I can design an effective resource for use by team leaders in many different situations. I am talking to leaders of both permanent and temporary teams.

The research involves a 15 minute Zoom call. Thank you to those who have already done it – much appreciated!

Please pass this on to any team leaders that you know.

If you are a team leader and would like to help, please book in here:
https://www.work-life-magic.com/magic-for-teams-research/

I love doing magic tricks, and I love working as a magician. Sometimes I want to design a new trick. For example, what if I wanted to turn an apple into an orange? How would I go about that?

As well as being a magician, I work as a life and work coach, working with people to pinpoint their goals and then achieve them.

GROW

A popular coaching model that I love to use in my coaching is the GROW Model, originally developed by Sir John Whitmore. GROW stands for:

– Goal
– Reality
– Options, and
– Will

You can use it in many different situations. Here I describe how I would apply it to creating my magic trick. However, you could apply it to any goal in your life, big or small, and I work with clients to apply it to their lives and work.

So, taking the example of my magic trick…

Where Am I Going?

The Goal: to design a magic trick to turn an apple into an orange. When defining any goal, you have to decide if it is short or long term; this one is a medium-term goal. You could have a dream to change your career, or it could be just to decide what you want to get out of your next meeting. That’s G for goal.

Where Am I Now?

Next, R for Reality. Where are you now? What obstacles are in your way? Maybe there are practical barriers? Perhaps you have skill or knowledge deficiencies that you need to fix by learning or reading or practising, possibly some limiting assumptions? Maybe there are financial obstacles?

I have to convince myself that I am actually the sort of person that could design a trick like this. I have to acknowledge that I have limited time and money, and that I may have to learn some new skills to build any necessary props. Also, I must realise that other people might think I am crazy for even attempting it. On the other side of the reality question,  what resources do you already have? These might be material resources such as equipment or technology, or emotional and intellectual qualities you possess in terms of knowledge and skills. 

With my magic trick, I can think about what sleight of hand skills and magical knowledge I have. Then I could consider my magic library of books and videos and that I have the magic community. I’m a member of The Magic Circle, so I can ask my colleagues for advice. These are all resources that form part of my current Reality.

What Could I Do?

Next is O – Options. What possibilities are there for me to reach my goal? Well, I could decide to do it alone. That’s one option. Or I could choose to work with a team – that’s another option. I could create a whole new, utterly original method. Or I could combine and adapt existing methods. These are all options.

What Will I Do?

The fourth letter is W for Will. What Will I do now? What will I commit to doing next? I could decide to read more magic books to find existing methods. I could commit to contacting magic friends to talk through possibilities. I could allocate some money, or maybe decide to save up if I need more. I can diarise time for development and practice.

That’s the GROW model.

GROW and Change

Now, I haven’t designed the trick to turn an apple into an orange. I may or may not do it. I might not be able to turn an apple into an orange yet, but I have seen clients lives change from using this model in my coaching sessions.

If you would like to know more about my coaching or get a free trial to give this method a go, please get in touch. You can book a free discovery call here: https://www.work-life-magic.com/help-with-your-work-life/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting
—

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

“It’s up your sleeve!”

Moving on around the table. We have met Tarquin the Silverback. I will leave his slightly entitled daughter Taramasalata for the time being. Next to her is Clint. Clint is a competitive analyst. He’s the one who wants to point out how all my tricks are done.

“It’s up your sleeve. I saw you holding it in your hand. You’re wearing a false arm…”

Clint has the potential to derail my whole act, to divert the attention of the entire table. He is pushing my buttons, as did Tarquin, but in a slightly different way.

However, I must resist the urge to compete. Under the intensely irritating exterior, I know that in his heart of hearts, Clint means well. He is just one of that minority of people who view magic as a puzzle for them to solve. I reckon about 5% of people are like this – that’s not a scientific number, just a gut feeling from my years of experience. He feels his duty is to work out the trick and to do everyone a great service by telling everybody how it works, to give them the solution for which they must have surely been longing.

I have to say people like Clint usually get the answer wrong because they lack the experience or knowledge to know what is actually going on. But this doesn’t stop them from being certain and wanting to share their “wisdom”.

Resist the Competition

My temptation is to compete, to prove my superior knowledge. However, as with Tarquin the Silverback, I have to rein that in. I have to remind myself that I’m there to entertain.
How can I Move, Attune, Give, Inspire and Connect with Clint?

What typically works is to get alongside, be conspiratorial, have a quiet word in his ear: “I see you think like a magician. Can I discuss your theories with you later? It would be better if you didn’t share them with the table, just so it doesn’t spoil the show for the others.”

Non-Transferable Skills

Clint is probably an acknowledged expert in his own field, very good at what he does. Emotionally, he feels he can transfer his competence to areas outside of his speciality. Maybe this works sometimes. At other times, as in watching magic, it doesn’t. But it doesn’t stop him from trying.

Maybe you have somebody on your team a bit like Clint?

I was part of a team like that once; we had a bookkeeper, she would go into massive detail about financial issues that she perceived as problems to be solved. She would state her theories as if they were the only obvious solution. This would wind up the big-picture CEO no-end. However, post-meeting, he would calm down and then get alongside her privately to try to understand her points. Maybe he would then set up special smaller sub-meetings to explore her issues and further discuss them in detail.

Watch and Learn

I watched and learned from my team leader. I realised that the way to deal promptly and effectively with competitive analysts is to:

– listen,
– acknowledge,
– appreciate, and then
– channel.

Listen to them. Acknowledge their questions and concerns. Appreciate their insight and expertise and thank them for bringing up the issue. Then channel them effectively, so they don’t divert the rest of the team.

If you can work with this team member effectively, they will be a tremendous asset. If you try to confront them head-on in a team meeting, they will just annoy and divert you and the whole team.

How will you harness the power of your competitive analyst team member?

—
Help Please!

I would like to interview even more team leaders to gain insight into the challenges they face. This is so that I can design an effective resource for use by team leaders in many different situations. I am talking to leaders of both permanent and temporary teams.

The research involves a 15 minute Zoom call. Thank you to those who have already done it – much appreciated!

Please pass this on to any team leaders that you know.

If you are a team leader and would like to help, please book in here:

https://www.work-life-magic.com/magic-for-teams-research/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting

—
Teams and Tables

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

Gorilla Warfare

In my experience,  there will almost always be a silverback male on a table of guests at a wedding.

A community of gorillas generally has a dominant male known as the “silverback” – they are older with silver-grey hair on their back. Big and tough, they want to maintain their leadership position. Humans are not that different. I’m sure we have all come across silverback males in our teams.

As I approach a wedding table, this individual will typically be holding forth, trying to maintain dominance of the whole group, making sure everyone knows they are in charge. When I turn up as a magician, it is a critical moment. Mr Silverback – let’s call him Tarquin – can make or break the success of my performance.

Stop, Think

The most important thing is for me to stop and think, “How can I be MAGIC in this situation?” Not magic in terms of what tricks I can do, but how can I Move, Attune, Give, Inspire and Connect? MAGIC.

I have to admit that public-school-educated silverback males tend to push all my buttons in a bad way. I have a state-school-educated chip on my shoulder, a knee-jerk reaction to pushy posh people that I have to get past. It only lasts an instant and then my rational brain takes over. Please understand, I know lots of posh people and I love them! Most of them are not at all pushy.

I have to prevent myself from acting on my momentary instinct. I have to pause. I have to resist the urge to compete. Taking on Tarquin Silverback will never go well. The rest of the spectators will just end up watching the fight, and no one wants to see that, especially when it’s supposed to be entertainment.

I have to resist the urge to defend myself, to use my magic and position as a weapon. It is all too tempting for us magicians to try and get one up on our spectators, to show how clever we are with ingenious tricks and clever put-downs. That never goes go well.

Alignment Assignment

What works much better is to work out what is motivating the silverback. They want to look good, how can I make them look better? How can I make them feel secure and not threatened?

If they have a guest, and they almost always will, they want to make them look great. So the most strategic move is to get their companion involved in a magic routine in such a way that makes the guest look fantastic. This way, you immediately recruit the silverback as an ally rather than a competitor because they now share a common aim. I am indebted to magician Dominic Reyes for this insight.

Work With the People in Front of You

As I have said before, you have to work with the table that you have, not the table you wish you had. Like it or not the silverback is a powerful force and it’s much better to work with him than against him.

I have to remember my bigger aim – to provide an entertaining time for the whole table so that they give me a big round of applause and cheer at the end,  which leaves them feeling happy and satisfied and makes me look great to the rest of the room.

I have recently been doing interviews with team leaders, a theme that came up, again and again, was the challenge of getting and maintaining alignment, where all team members pull together towards the same goal. The challenge of working with the team you have, not the team you wish you had.

How can you be MAGIC?

What is your aim?

Do you have a Silverback who wants to take things in a different direction? Can you find a way of working with them, instead of against them? There will be a temptation to rely on your own position and the rules of the team. But if you go down that route, you may end up having a fight and squaring off against each other. Much better to try and find a common cause, a way to get them working alongside you instead of against you.

Move, Attune, Give, Inspire, Connect.

Stop, think…

How can you be MAGIC in this situation?

—
Help Please!

I would like to interview even more team leaders to gain insight into the challenges they face. This is so that I can design an effective resource for use by team leaders in many different situations. I am talking to leaders of both permanent and temporary teams.

The research involves a 15-minute Zoom call. Thank you to those who have already done it – much appreciated!

Please pass this on to any team leaders that you know.

If you are a team leader and would like to help, please book in here:
https://www.work-life-magic.com/magic-for-teams-research/

The MAGIC formula:

Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting

It applies to:

Yourself
Your clients
Your team
Your prospects 

—

Turns at Tables

I have been working as a close-up magician for the last 25 years. I have entertained at thousands of events – hundreds of tables at weddings, corporate parties and significant birthdays.

At the same time, in the other half of my life, I have led and been a member of several teams. Recently, I have been interviewing many other team leaders about their experiences and challenges. Many thanks if you are one of them!

I have observed that many of the challenges facing a close-up magician approaching a table of guests are very similar to those facing team leaders. I have also realised that the MAGIC formula may be applied in both situations.

A Typical Table

Let’s take a typical wedding table. This is not an actual table that I have entertained, but the characters are based on many people that I have met. The only thing they have in common is that they have been invited to the wedding because they know, work with, or are related to one or both of the happy couple.

There is a silverback male. Let’s call him Tarquin. He is holding forth, showing off to his slightly entitled daughter Taramasalata. Next to them is Clint, a competitive analyst, wanting to point out how all my tricks are done. He’s the uncle of the over-enthusiastic 10-year-old Matilda, who is dying to show me a card trick of her own.

On Matilda’s right is her joker dad Jake,  then her bored teenage brother Ben, who is glued to his phone and would rather be anywhere else in the world. Finally, we have Tina, Matilda and Ben’s timid mother, who doesn’t really like magic and has to endure sitting next to the silverback Tarquin.

The Challenge

When I arrive at the table, I have only a short time to connect with the whole table, work out the personality types present, and try and get them all working as a single audience. I need, if possible, to get them aligned, to pull together as one.

Also, I want to change their emotional state, get them to feel differently, have a good time, and feel more positive about being on the table together. My aim is to Move them, Attune to them, Give to them, Inspire them and Connect with them. That is the real MAGIC that will be going on.

Button Pushing

Some of the personality types are pushing my buttons. Inside, I want to compete with them, to win. I have to reign that in. I need to remind myself that I am there to entertain and serve. So I have to repress my competitive instincts.

Teams and Tables

It’s not uncommon to get a similar mix of people on a team that you might be leading. You may not get them all at once, but, for example, I am sure you can recognise the person who thinks they should be leading instead of you, or the person who wants to go into intricate detail about something in particular, or the one who just wants to make jokes all the time. You get the idea.

Over the next few weeks, I will go through these different characters and ponder how a magician deals with them and how that might provide insights for team leaders attempting to deal with similar personalities and situations.

A team is like a wedding table, and a wedding table is like a team. The only real difference is the timescale and depth of interaction. A magician has to do it in about 10 minutes and only scratches the surface. You will probably have several months, but will have the opportunity to go deeper.

Time to unleash your inner magician?

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Help Please!

I would like to interview even more team leaders to gain insight into the challenges they face. This is so that I can design an effective resource for use by team leaders in many different situations. I am talking to leaders of both permanent and temporary teams.

The research involves a 15 minute Zoom call. Thank you to those who have already done it – much appreciated!

Please pass this on to any team leaders that you know.

If you are a team leader and would like to help, please book in here: