Leaders as Conductors

Maybe you have no idea how good someone else can be and maybe they don’t know how much they matter. Maybe you have been waiting for someone exactly like them to help you.

As today’s business environment becomes increasingly complex and competitive, organizations are striving to discover more effective ways to increase their performance. The most sustainable competitive advantage lies in continuously increasing an organization’s human talent. However, after over four decades of focus on individual competencies, increasing team effectiveness, and/or realigning culture, management structures, systems, and practices to improve performance there remains an unfulfilled promise of maximizing the human potential within an organization.  

The complexities of business and society will continue to drive increasing levels of subject matter expertise. That means a leader will no longer be the subject matter expert that guides everyone on the team. In the same way that a conductor of an orchestra will never be able to play each instrument better than those in the orchestra but have the subject matter expertise to guide the orchestra to make the best music it can, a business leader must become the conductor of the team they lead, helping them create the best results they can. That requires a high level of expertise in areas other than the hard skills they used earlier in their career. Skills such as human development and relational dynamics so they can create a culture that is growth promoting for everyone. They can either develop the skills themselves or hire advisors and/or coaches to serve as their subject matter experts in the area. To do so requires the leader to acknowledge that they don’t know everything, be open to feedback, and committed to the process of continual improvement in themselves, including helping those they lead, and letting those they lead contribute to the growth and success of others on the team as well.