The Symphonic Harmonies of Leadership

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves Sunday Night. Our Daughter Sydney sings in the chamber choir for Canyon High School, and they had the opportunity to join the West Texas A & M Choir and Orchestra for a Christmas Concert. It was phenomenal. Music is always such a powerful force, especially music written to lift Christ’s name.

I’ve been to many concerts and choir events and have always been impressed by the hard work and effort put into producing outstanding performances. However, this time, as I observed the entire process, I walked away with several Leadership thoughts that were extremely obvious as the musicians, singers, conductors, and directors worked together to create an atmosphere that gave us more than a concert; they gave us a fantastic experience.

So, let me share some of the Leadership principles I derived from the concert. Let me say first that just like the music of this concert brought vibrancy and inspiration to those who encountered it, so too can your leadership. Whether inspiring those within your team or those observing your organization from an outside perspective, the unity and harmony that can come from outstanding leadership can be incredibly inspiring and a model for others to follow.

1. Leadership is Bringing the talents, abilities, and strengths of the different individual team members together to make one beautiful, harmonic sound.

          I have always loved the beginning of concerts. The sounds of instruments and voices tuning up. It sounds like utter chaos, but there is a beauty about it. These notes sound off with beauty and precision, yet not together. This is the power of leadership. The moment the conductor takes the stage and clicks his baton against the podium, all the confusion stops. The different individual voices and instruments come together in a collaborative effort to make one sound. The Leader brings the team guidance, direction, connection, and correction. It’s not just about leading the individual members of the group; it’s about teaching them to bring their talents and skills to partner with the others on the team. That is authentic leadership—the ability to lead calibration in a way that sounds singular.

2. Leadership is developing unity of purpose.

A special guest, a violinist from Russia, was playing with the orchestra. He was incredible. Watching him play a complicated piece that moved up and down and faster and slower was invigorating. The one thing I kept asking as I heard his violin harmonize with the flute was how he could stay in unison with the other instruments at that rate of speed. They were so tightly connected it sounded like perfection. I’m sure a trained ear could hear mistakes if they were there, but I heard none. It was impressive. I asked myself, “What is keeping them together?”  Is it the Leader? No, because, while receiving direction about the big picture of the song, the note-by-note timing and playing are much too fast for them to take a cue from the Leader without getting off beat or separated from each other. Also, watching the conductor can be very subjective; what I think he directs us to do may differ from what you require. Conductors lead from different styles, some particular and micromanaging, and others very general or macro managing, but none could direct to the timing like this. So, what is it?

It is the written music on the page. Some read as they played, but no doubt everyone played from memory. They knew it so well that they could play it, listen to each other, and move together as if they were one mind. Just as this works this way in music, it also is the unifying force in leadership—the vision. The Leader gives direction, and a clear perspective of where we are going, but the vision and values written down become who we are as an organization; that is the developed culture that defines us as a team. VISION IS VITAL. It creates unity, harmony, and a tightly-knit connectedness to others, resulting in greatness. The image tells us where we are going, why we are going there, and how we will get there. Once deeply embraced, it causes us to be able to move together with precise fluidity.

3. Order and accolades.

I noticed that the flow of the night had been predetermined and planned and moved impressively forward to its end goal without one word being spoken. The choir, the orchestra, and all the soloists were on the same page. They were all working from the same plan. They all approached it with their skill and talent and were all very different from one another individually, but they moved in lockstep and showed the power of harmonious unity. Group order has true strength when derived from diverse forces coming together. It sometimes looks and feels like Organized chaos, but it is all according to plan. The Transitions, changes, and modifications as they moved forward were terrific to watch.

I also noticed that they took time to honor one another at the appropriate times. The choir and orchestra celebrated the soloists, and the soloists marked the orchestra and choir. They all kept the conductor and director. In contrast, the conductors and directors pushed the accolades back towards the artists. This teaches us something significant that is often overlooked in leadership circles.

We need to celebrate the team’s wins as they happen, honor individuals and departments when they succeed, and create a mutually honoring atmosphere. No one is seeking honor or praise, but it is a part of the culture that honors and acknowledges all team members’ wins, successes, and achievements; whether individual or team achievement, it is equally celebrated.

I’m sure we could develop many more leadership principles from observing a choir and orchestra concert. Guides about team, collaboration, partnership, etc. Suffice it to say in its essence, whether realized or not, it is replete with leadership concepts.

I would encourage all leaders to take these principles to heart, work this thinking into their leadership style, and watch and see if it doesn’t begin to create a harmonious, symphonic sound that lifts, inspires, and evokes emotion that moves followers to action.

So, leaders raise the baton and let the music play.