Leaders Need to Be Led
Special guest: John D’Addario III, CEO of D’Addario, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of musical instrument accessories.
Many leaders seek outside help when something is broken.
Sales are down. Engagement is slipping. Turnover is rising. Growth has stalled.
But the most effective leaders often do the opposite.
They seek outside perspective while things are going well.
In this episode of Culture Starts Here, Heather Haas and BJ McKay sat down with John D’Addario III, CEO of D’Addario, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of musical instrument accessories. As a fourth-generation leader of a global family business whose products are sold in more than 130 countries, John shared a philosophy that has shaped both his leadership journey and the company’s long-term success:
Don’t wait until you have a problem to invest in leadership development.
Success doesn’t eliminate blind spots
D’Addario is the kind of company many organizations aspire to become.
The company is a global market leader. It has successfully navigated multiple generations of family ownership. Its culture is strong, employee engagement is high, and its products are trusted by musicians around the world.
Yet throughout the conversation, one theme surfaced again and again:
Throughout his career, John and the D’Addario family have intentionally sought outside perspectives to help navigate succession, leadership development, and organizational growth.
- Years ago, his father and uncle hired a family business advisor to help establish governance structures, improve communication, and create a sustainable succession planning process.
- John worked outside the family business for three years in the cosmetics industry and described that experience as invaluable because it gave him a different perspective and greater self-awareness. He now encourages the next generation to do the same.
- He participated in leadership development programs designed specifically for emerging family-business leaders.
- He embraced 360-degree feedback to better understand how others experienced his leadership.
- And most recently, D’Addario invested in leadership development for both its executive team and high-potential future leaders.
The common thread: leadership is too important to develop in isolation.
Leadership is not a solo sport
One of the most compelling moments in the conversation came when John reflected on the value of seeking outside support.
“Don’t be afraid to seek resources that can help you.”
Simple advice. Powerful implications.
As organizations grow, leadership becomes more complex.
The decisions carry greater consequences. The number of stakeholders increases. The business becomes more interconnected. The margin for blind spots narrows.
The instinct for many leaders is to rely on their own experience.
The best leaders recognize when they need additional perspective.
They seek coaches, advisors, mentors, peer networks, and development opportunities—not because they’re struggling, but because they understand that growth requires challenge.
In John’s case, each outside perspective provided a new lens, a new skill, or a new way of thinking that helped prepare both him and the organization for the future.
“Don’t be afraid to seek resources that can help you.”
Why invest in leadership development when things are already going well?
Perhaps the most interesting part of D’Addario’s story is that leadership development wasn’t a response to a crisis.
In fact, the company had recently achieved an employee engagement score of 82.
By most standards, that’s an impressive result.
But when leaders reviewed employee feedback, they discovered a clear message: employees wanted more opportunities for learning, growth, and leadership development.
Rather than viewing that feedback as optional, the company treated it as an opportunity.
D’Addario identified high-potential leaders and invested in their development. At the same time, the executive team participated in leadership development together, creating shared language, stronger alignment, and a deeper understanding of how culture shapes performance.
It’s a reminder that leadership development isn’t just about fixing weaknesses.
It’s about preparing people for what’s next.
Culture can be a competitive advantage
Throughout the conversation, John spoke about the many advantages D’Addario has built over the years.
The company designs, programs, and builds much of its own manufacturing equipment. It maintains significant control over production processes. It has developed valuable intellectual property and operational expertise.
But one insight stood out.
John believes culture deserves to be viewed as a competitive advantage too.
Not as a soft initiative.
Not as an HR program.
As a strategic asset.
As the company grew globally, he realized culture could no longer be left to chance. Leaders had to become more intentional about communicating values, developing people, recognizing desired behaviors, and creating consistency across geographies.
Like any competitive advantage, culture requires investment.
And like any competitive advantage, it can erode if ignored.
The best leaders never stop learning
One of D’Addario’s core values is curiosity.
That value shows up not only in how the company develops products and improves processes, but also in how its leaders approach their own growth.
The mindset is simple:
There is always another way to improve. Another perspective to consider. Another lesson to learn. Another opportunity to grow.
For leaders, that’s perhaps the biggest takeaway from John’s story.
The organizations that thrive across decades—and generations—aren’t led by people who think they’ve arrived.
They’re led by people who remain committed to learning. Who seek feedback. Who welcome challenge. Who invest in development. And who understand that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness.
It’s often one of the reasons they succeed.
ATLAS framework for cultural competitive advantage
To help organizations create the culture they need to succeed, ADVISA developed the ATLAS framework – five critical drivers that, when aligned, create cultural competitive advantage. Today, those drivers are the building blocks of the Leader-Led Culture™ system:
- Activate – Build commitment from the top.
- Target – Establish desired future state.
- Lead – Develop confidence and capability.
- Apply – Improve performance with people data.
- Scale – Enable behavior change.
When those five drivers work together, culture stops being abstract. It becomes a practical engine for business performance.
Take the free, 5-minute culture check
Find out where your organization stands today – in just minutes. ADVISA’s online ATLAS Navigator tool gives you a snapshot of strengths and opportunities across the five drivers.
It is a practical conversation starter for leaders, managers, and teams who want to begin aligning culture with strategy.
👉 Take the ATLAS Navigator five-minute culture check here
About Culture Starts Here
Culture can be an organization’s biggest threat to growth – or its greatest opportunity for competitive advantage.
In Culture Starts Here, a special series on the CultureCon Podcast, ADVISA CEO Heather Haas and leadership consultant BJ McKay share insights and tactics you can use to jump-start your organization’s optimal culture. This and every episode of Culture Starts Here includes the answer to the most common question ADVISA’s leadership consultants hear: Where do we start?
All episodes of the Culture Starts Here podcast series
- Ep1: Meet ATLAS
- Ep2: One thing your C-Suite absolutely can’t delegate
- Ep3: Do Mission, Vision, and Values Really Matter?
- Ep4: Do Your Leaders Know What to Say and Do To Be Effective?
- Ep5: For Leaders, This Can Make the Difference Between a Guess and a Smart Decision
- Ep6: Leaders Are Only as Effective as the Systems That Support Them
- Ep7: What we learned from attending CultureCon
- Ep8: What Culture Change Actually Looks Like Inside Organizations
- Ep9: To Lead Is Human
- Ep10: What If Culture Didn’t Eat Strategy?
- Ep11: Leaders Need to Be Led
Related resources
D’Addario
For generations, D’Addario has helped musicians sound their best. What began as a family business has grown into a global leader whose products are used by millions of musicians every day. From guitar strings and drumsticks to reeds, cables, tuners, and other essential accessories, D’Addario’s brands have become fixtures in rehearsal spaces, recording studios, schools, houses of worship, and concert stages around the world.
The company’s portfolio includes some of the most trusted names in music, including D’Addario Strings, Evans Drumheads, ProMark Drumsticks, Rico Reeds, Planet Waves, and Puresound Snare Wires. Its products are relied upon by everyone from first-time players to touring professionals performing on the world’s biggest stages.
Today, D’Addario serves customers in more than 130 countries and is widely recognized as the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instrument accessories. Under the leadership of fourth-generation family member John D’Addario III, the company continues to balance global growth with the craftsmanship, innovation, and family-business values that have defined its success for decades.
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PeopleForward Network
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