When you are a music major, you take at least one semester of conducting. It is one of the more enjoyable classes  because it’s very active. There is not a lot of sitting and listening to lectures. To learn how to conduct, you need to conduct. So it’s a lot of standing and practicing the patterns (yes, there is a method to those movements – see the picture at the top of this page).

What you quickly realize is that just as no two singing voices are the same, no two conducting styles are the same either. You also just as quickly realize that, as in most areas of expertise, some people have an affinity for conducting and others…don’t.

If this is your first time here, or you need a refresher, might I suggest you start with: 3 Leadership Lessons from Great Maestros, How Great Leaders Get Work Done, and 3 Ways to Build a High Performance Team.

We’re exploring lessons to be learned from great music conductors. Today, we are looking at the third lesson to be learned: rigorously crafting, refining, and executing a vision.

Crafting the Vision

Have you ever been around a leader who didn’t have a clear vision? It’s hard to follow that leader because you don’t know where he or she is going. It can make you cautious. It is most certainly frustrating. A leader without a clear vision, is a leader who cannot make decisions. A leader who cannot make decisions, while very common, is nowhere nearly as successful as they could be.

Legend tells us that Ludwig van Beethoven, towards the end of his life,  was still composing and conducting though he had lost most of his hearing. In fact, he cut the legs off of his piano so he could lay on the floor and feel the sound vibrations in order to keep composing. At the premiere for his Ninth Symphony, the one featured in the video above, it is said that Beethoven continued to conduct long after the orchestra finished playing. It was only after the concert master stood and touched his arm that Beethoven realized they were no longer playing. He could not hear it, but he had a very clear sound in his mind.

Your vision has to be just as crystal clear.

Refining the Vision

Now…I’m not talking about a pithy statement that you wear on your ID badge and hang on the wall in the break room (although that can be helpful). I mean a real vision of where you need and want your team to be. What are you chasing after? Why does it matter? How will you know if you catch it? When you can clearly answer those types of questions for yourself you are on your way. It is much easier to follow a leader who knows where he or she wants to take you.

I realize that may sound unrealistic. It shouldn’t be. I don’t mean to imply that once the vision is set, you can only go in that one direction. Certainly not. As you move towards the fulfillment of your vision, there may be new opportunities or situations that present themselves that may serve to further refine the original vision into something even better. You absolutely should entertain those ideas and, where it serves the original vision, make adjustments. 

Executing the Vision

Once you’ve crafted and communicated a clear vision and started moving your team in that direction, focus becomes critical. Every day there will be distractions that present themselves. Far from being giant time sucks (like endlessly scrolling social media or never ending levels of the latest mobile game) distractions usually disguise themselves as very worthy endeavors. The problem is they aren’t helping you or your team deliver against your vision.

This is perhaps the single most difficult concept for us to grasp in this “postmodern” world. No matter how great or enticing, we simply cannot do it all. We are not meant to do it all. In order to stay true to the vision you have crafted, you have to be willing to say no to what doesn’t advance that vision. That is a very hard thing, indeed. (For more about this topic see this post, The One Skill You Must Master).

Distractions come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them are ultimately good and worthy in their own right. However, as you lead your team, organization, or ensemble, anything that isn’t serving to fulfill the vision is ultimately a distraction. Anything. You have to get rid of it. Cut it off. Shut it down. If you don’t, you’ll soon have your team chasing their tails, not sure how to proceed – or worst of all – afraid to do anything.

This concept is no doubt challenging. I think of it like one of those DIY remodeling shows on cable TV (Fixer Upper, anybody? No? Just me?) On these shows, people find items or sometimes entire properties that are past their prime. They were someone else’s discards. Someone else who didn’t have the vision. Then the right person comes along and with the right guidance creates something extraordinary.

There is certainly someone in the world whose vision of what they are doing is completely different from your vision. What if that person’s vision is actually focused on those same distractions?  They will be able to leverage those good and worthy things to fulfill their vision. You will be able to direct your energy to fulfill your own vision. Those good things are still accomplished. You each fulfill what you were meant to fulfill. In the process, the world is changed.

How awesome is that?

A Final Thought

There are a lot of other lessons to be learned. We haven’t touched on the importance of preparation. We didn’t get into the critical nature of rehearsals (meetings) or preparing your team to execute. We only scratched the surface of actual execution. I think, however, I will leave you with this final thought.

Every great performance starts with an idea, a roadmap, and a vision. The conductor, you, has to take that idea (the music), the roadmap (the score), and your vision and invite others into it. Then you have to coach, encourage, teach, empower, and focus those others to execute the vision. When you do it well, in whatever setting, the result is pure magic.

We have been exploring leadership lessons from great conductors and how those lessons might apply to our teams, organizations,  and families. Last time, we talked about how great leaders get work done. We talked about setting clear expectations, trusting people, and being their champion. These tactics will empower your team to get work done, no question. But how do you ensure the quality of that work? How do you, as a leader, influence their commitment to do their best work?

That’s what every good conductor does every day, in every rehearsal and in every performance. I can tell you that I performed better under Wes Noble in that one long weekend than at many other times in my singing career. I don’t think I’m alone in that experience, either.  (If you’re a little confused, consider starting here.)

When I think about why that was, I see there are three lessons to be learned. Here are three ways you can help ensure that your team performs at their best. To build a high performing team, start here:

1. Give them motivation to do well.

When I was singing with Mr. Noble, I knew that I wanted to do well. Now, I know what you’re thinking. What does that have to do with the conductor? It has to do with your mindset as a leader. I’ve been around plenty of leaders in my day whose basic presumptions about their people was that they were going to fail. And those leaders created an environment where failure was nearly inevitable. (Psychologists call this a self-fulfilling prophecy. You failed because I expected you to fail.)

There’s a great scene in a movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer called Dangerous Minds. Dangerous Minds is based on the true story of LouAnne Johnson – a former Marine turned high school English teacher in the inner city of Los Angeles. In this scene, Johnson (played by Pfeiffer)  is explaining how the grading is going to work in her class. She tells the class that they all have an “A” and that all they have to do to keep that “A” is to do their best work all semester.

Now this class of misfits and under achievers don’t know how to react to this news. None of them has ever had an “A” before. And it makes all the difference in how they perform throughout the rest of the school year.

To bring out the best in your team, believe that they are capable of being their best. It will make all the difference in how you lead and it will make all the difference in how they perform.

(Click below to watch the trailer for Dangerous Minds. Sorry, it’s not in HD.)

2. Help them figure out the hard things.

We sang some of the most complicated choir literature I had attempted up to that point in my singing career. Some of it was just plain hard. We struggled to get parts of it right. We had to fight for it.

Never once did this brilliant conductor berate us or criticize us for not getting it right. In fact, I don’t recall him ever raising his voice. Instead, he helped us figure the hard things out. Consistently. Now, he did not lower his standards (more on this in the next installment). And he did not let us slack off. He never wavered in his belief that we could do it correctly. (See point #1).

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this truth. In fact, if you remember nothing else from this blog – remember this: you must absolutely believe in the deepest part of you that your team WILL perform at their absolute best. When you are convinced of this, your coaching gets better. When your coaching gets better, your team performs. See how that works?

When we finally did well – he celebrated. He noticed.

3. Celebrate when they get it right

In our VUCA world, every success can feel like a major battle fought. Precious little is simple or requires minimal exertion from us in the way of energy, effort, or commitment in order to achieve results. I don’t care what business you’re in.

We live in days of heightened stress and even higher expectations. It is critical that you notice when your team performs well. They need to know they are exceeding your expectations. They need to know that you value what they contribute.

Singing for a man like Wes Noble, we wanted to please him. We were killing ourselves (metaphorically) to get those complicated sections right. When we got them right and he smiled and nodded and said “Yes!” or  “Good job!”, it felt absolutely amazing. It kept me wanting to do well. It drove me to do even better.

You have to notice when your team does well, and you have to tell them.

At the end of the day, what it takes to create a high performing team isn’t all that complex. What is difficult is the living it out. The execution. It takes discipline. It takes compassion. It takes creativity. The leaders whose teams are killing it are being consistent. If your team isn’t killing it, start with you.

And start with just one of these techniques. Today or first thing tomorrow – pick the one behavior you know you can commit to being consistent in and do it. If you’re feeling pretty good about the state of things, maybe ask your team which one they want more of and focus on that.

Start immediately. Be consistent. Then let me know how it goes. Comment on the blog or drop me a line to matt@lookdeepercoaching.com