It is often easier to define something by a negative focus – what is not great leadership. And considering that by various leadership studies, we have more examples of “un-great” leadership – only 8% of leaders worldwide are considered great, it makes sense to be the logical path. Not the most productive path though. Today we are focusing on an aspect of great leadership – what sounds will be produced by a great leader as a great conductor.
There are two extremes in being a conductor – the one that is highly technical and focused on correct technical output, and on the other hand, the conductor that leads from the heart and is passionate about both the quality of the sound and the emotive value of the music. I have also seen this distinction in dancers – some are technically perfect, with little to no emotion, and others sweep the audience away with an emotional story being told through dance. In sport – I have seen it on the tennis court, sometimes the sound of the ball is a dispassionate ping, ping, ping across the net, and with some players the sound of the racket to the ball deafening with intent and passion. The conductor from the Netflix Series, Mozart in the Jungle explained it very eloquently to a musician – “You play the music with your blood”.
The story for leadership in this context is – are you leading technically – doing the right things such as giving directions, clarifying goals, strategy, and outcome, or are leading and inspiring people. The sound of great leadership comes from the heart; it is the combination of delivering technical leadership skills and authentic empathy, caring for those in your charge.
Leadership theory and practice have evolved far away from command and control (Putin style) to a humanistic leadership style. In a recent report by Fellows of the Institute of Coaching on “Humanistic Leadership”, the leaders interviewed relayed the magnitude of the positive impact that a person-first approach to leadership had on organizational performance. “…a compassionate, whole-person approach to employee well-being and resilience was a key driver of organizational performance.”
From our research we boiled down the sound of great leadership into 3 elements:
- A conscious leadership presence:
Bringing great sound out of a team starts with how you pitch up to lead and being fine-tuned to the nuances of how you are received by those around you.
- Authentic compassionate relationships:
Fake and masked are always obvious. Leading with strong, trusting, open and constructive relationships sets the tone for the organization. Making this an essential part of the organizational culture is valuable beyond measure.
- Leading psychological safety in the organization:
Psychological safety is core to humanistic leadership and people-focused workplaces. It supports innovation, collaboration and belonging. It also supports a culture of agility and agile course correction.
My last thought on this today is the opening quotation from one of the leaders interviewed for the Humanistic Leadership Report. “[Humanistic leadership is..] the ability to simplify in the middle of complexity, inspire when there’s little hope, build relationships when there is distrust, build bridges when things have fragmented, change people when people don’t want to change. All those skills are not in the technical manual. (Healthcare Leader). And these are the sounds of great leadership.
Quoted Source: Leading with Humanity: The future of Leadership and Coaching. An Institute of Coaching Report
