Written by James Gillespie
James Gillespie is a former SVP for Sony UK who now does coaching for professionals in music and the creative industries
I’ve worked with some artists I didn’t like. Harry Styles isn’t one of them.
Every time he came in to play us a new album, he met us at the door and shook our hands as we walked into the room.
I’ve been seeing footage of his Madison Square Garden residency and it’s got me thinking about him.
I was on the team at Sony that worked on One Direction from the start. I was in the early meetings that decided how the band would be styled and what their logo would look like. I devised One Direction’s global campaigns with Apple, Spotify, Amazon and YouTube, and then worked on Harry’s first three albums.
I met him seven or eight times over the years. He always remembered me. That amazed me when I thought about how many people he met.
When he played us his music he talked about it in a way that wasn’t contrived and wasn’t coming from a prompt sheet. He was serious about the music he made, and because it was so personal it mattered to him that people liked it. He was confident about it too. There was a pride and a sensitivity that not all artists have.
We don’t think of pop stars as founders, but they’re the founders of their business and their brand. When Harry left One Direction he created something that was completely his own.
Being a founder is one thing. Building something where you inspire people and people want to work with you is something quite different. Harry had belief in himself, and he surrounded himself with a team of people who enabled him to be that leader.
His message about being yourself and being kind to other people never felt like a marketing slogan. It felt like a philosophy. That’s how I try to live my life. The older I get, the more I want to be myself, lead from my heart and not my head, and see the good in people.
Who’s the person you’ve worked with who made you want to do your best work?
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