Last week we visited the People nowadays have so many options, they choose what they see fit and choose an environment in which they can explore and use their potential. If you want to attract the people with the most potential, a leader has to create an environment in which people want to explore. This requires another way of leading a company than in the top-down industrial age. The role of the leader changes more to that of a conductor, who focuses on the individual musical notes, the chords, creates a play, and especially: focuses on the whole and reminds people of the rhythm and emphasis. Since he cannot tell the notes or individuals what to sound like, he focuses on their potential and stimulates to get the best out of it. Not by yelling top-down the demands the people should live up to, but by collaboration and arrangement.People are not just pieces of mechanics, operating to keep the company’s machinery running. By addressing the mechanical part: the body, you leave out most of ones potential. If you know how to stimulate and address people wholly, you address body, mind, soul and spirit. You address the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. You can only hire the physical part, the rest has to volunteer. To get the most out of people they have to be committed from within. The leader creates an environment in which people can do what they do best, everyday. The culture created is one of guidelines not rules, accountability to the team, not to the boss. For that, the leader needs to help people find and develop their own voice. The days of the carrot and the stick are soon over. The leader needs to tie people to the needs of the company by unleashing their potential. Trusting in that they know best how to be of true value to the company, leaving room for them to figure out themselves how to be most effective and of most value.
A common misperception is to try to transform people into something that they are not. The purpose of life is not transformation, it is unleashing. A leader should look at people through their strengths, and manage around their weaknesses by orchestrating teams, by combining skill-sets.
Personal growth does not mean a change of personality, as you grow you become more and more of who you already are. The biggest growth opportunities are not in ones weaknesses; one grows the most in the area’s of their greatest strengths.
Crucial is having a clear understanding of ones strengths and weaknesses. Knowing how to address ones strengths is to create an opportunity for empowerment. Having people that know how to operate and collaborate can lead to the loop of good decision making, winning, getting confidence and creating momentum. Having empowered people in your organization is to have Spartans, willing to fight for shared goals. Strength is passion with precision
Image
Can you give some real life examples of the kind of leaders you mean here, or one large (?) organization where only this ‘good’ kind of leadership is visible? It sounds simple, but is it that simple? In a network every node counts, thus shouldn’t we all show leadership as you describe here?
I totally agree with you. And I do believe that everyone is a leader in a (perfect?) organization. Not so easy to find these days though, or at least I wouldn’t know where such a thing is actually the case. Besides, I do think that the context in which such forms of leadership are possible have to be set by someone. So maybe that is the role of a new leader, to create the right environment for each individual to lead to the best of his abilities. Like a conductor conducting an orchestra indeed…
I think the idea of a leader as a conductor is very interesting. I am also interested in any real life examples of this type of leader. I wonder if it is more difficult to think of them because they may be the type of leader that is less inclined to grab the spotlight? This may be a challenge for us in determining who they are and if that leadership style is really growing in influence.
Secondly, i assume there may be many many “conductors” within one broad organization. There may simply be many more conductor-like leaders in the world, so each one doesn’t draw as much attention to themselves.
A good example of this kind of leadership is choreographer Krisztina de Châtel, who was working together with philosopher Jan Flameling on a workshop for the ISVW. The workshop was called ‘Let your organisation dance’.
The workshop focuses on the explicit role a choreographer has in ‘managing’ a group. Linked to her experience and creative ideas the choreographer creates a natural authority over the dancers. From this position she can be an inspiration and motivator for the group, who will be happy to submit themselves to the thoughts and ideas of the leader. In the training progress the group will follow the choreography and train themselves within the context and boundaries of this concept. But during the performance the group will be autonomous from its leader and is responsible itself for recreating the dance on stage. This area makes it really exiting, because for it to be the best experience for the audience the group cannot just repeat what they have been told before. The personal talent of the dancers and the interaction within the group on that exact moment will determine the quality of the dance and the experience. That means that it’s an ongoing process where new leaders have to stand up and take responsibility on that moment, think only of the need for improvisation during a performance.