My reflection blog this week is review Italy Talgram’s video “Lead like the Great Conductor.” Talgam’s using videos about musical conductors to demonstrate leadership theories and behaviors is interesting and creative. I personally have zero experience in understanding the structure elements of band or orchestra, however when you have a community of people, there is always a person who is a leader.  

Supportive Behavior

The first video displayed a conductor who was very happy and appeared to love what he was doing. Talgam discussed that the happiness was not about the conductor himself, but the conductor’s ability to “enable other people’s stories to be heard at the same time.” The behavior approach from this conductor aligns within the supportive leadership, where “leadership consists of being friendly and approachable as a leader including attending the well-being of the followers.” (p117-118) (Northouse, 2016) This conductor went out of his way to make the working environment pleasant to work in, allowing the team to play music and be heard.

My personal experience with a leader who was always happy and appeared to love what he did was a director on the F22 program. I had the opportunity to work for this director for about ten years. He would walk into our daily staff meetings with a smile and made a point to know about everyone and their families. He would even leave his desk and make it a point to visit people on the team. He was just a very nice person who cared about his team. When he was forced out on an involuntary lay-off program, the team was devastated. This person still calls and checks on employees who have worked for him, including attending offsite group functions. From my perspective, his continuous interaction is a true testament of how he enjoyed what he did and the people on his team.

Authority-Compliant

The second video displayed a conductor who was driving the performance in a particular way that suited him. The conductor’s performance seemed to display that the performance was about him and not the team. When asked why he chose this type of style of leading the group, he responded with “I am responsible.” The conductor is directive and aligned with the Authority-Compliant type of leadership. This leadership has “heavy emphasis on task and job requirements with less emphasis on people, except to the extent that people are the tools for getting the job done.” (p75) (Northouse, 2016)

This conductor chose to lead with this type of style, but I found it really sad when he received a letter signed by 700 employees defining he was a great conductor, but asked him to resign because the employees did not want to work for him.  I think this could have been different outcome if the conductor found time to focus on building effective relationships and bit less on performance. Talgam talked about how the best music created is by establishing partnerships and a good conductor keeps the show going, but listens for mistakes. From my personal perspective, this approach would lead to career suicide as it has potential to leave a very negative perception about your ability to lead.  

My personal experience with authority-compliant is myself as a leader. My first job out of high school my position was a drill instructor for a military style boot camp for high school drop-outs. The instruction was very focused on the set of tasks aligned to help these young men and women achieve skills to survive on their own upon graduation twenty-weeks later.  I was not there to build friendly relationships, but focus on tasks. There were reasons the cadets were in the boot camp, and majority of them were there for behavior issues. The drill instructors were not favored and the cadets liked to try to get drill instructors in trouble and fired. I never was fired, but I witnessed some really good drill sergeants lose their jobs due to the cadet’s game plan of getting one fired actually worked.

Directive

The third video was just interesting. I noticed the conductor had no expression on his face, and appeared to be leading routinely via status quo to what he has always done. The conductor was in his senior years of performing, but had written the “Ten Commandments for Conductors” in his 30s. These commandments are considered the rule book for orchestra and the conductor everyone to know and understand those commandments. This conductors approach is very directive, as he gave the team the “instructions about their tasks, what is expected of them, and how things will be done” via the commandments. (p117) (Northouse, 2016) Talgam also stated that the conductor, who writes his own music, either did know the music or used the approach of flipping pages to re-emphasis to his team that the expectations is for the team to perform according to the rules.

Personally, I have tried to lead using the directive approach. I have written processes and have directed those who use the process to read it and take actions as required. The approach, for me personally, came across as being cold and perception I was being non-supportive. I do value feedback and I am careful to make sure my behaviors do not come across as non-caring about other people. There is a time for directive behavior and I feel you have to adjust according to the situation.

Achievement Oriented

The next video was a bit different as the conductor kept his eyes closes during the presentation. The orchestra team defaulted to looking at each other to figure out what they needed to next. The first players of the orchestra took it upon themselves and led the ensemble and the team followed suit. The conductor was why he took this particular approach and his response was “the worst damage I can do to my orchestra is give them clear instructions as it would prevent the ensemble.” The conductor had cued in on the flute player who was asked when does the performance begin? The conductor responded “you start when you cannot stand it anymore.” This approach is aligned with the path-goal theory of Achievement-Oriented leadership. Achievement-Oriented leadership is “effective effective in settings where followers are required to perform ambiguous tasks. Leaders who challenge and set high standards for followers, the confidence of followers is increased to reaching their goals. Achievement-oriented leadership “helps followers feel that their efforts will result in effective performance” (p122). (Northouse, 2016)

LMX Theory

The last video is my favorite one by far. The conductor stood posed with his arms crossed, but used many facial expressions throughout the performance. The conductor allowed the team to just play and if the conductor didn’t like a particular note he would use facial body language to guide the response of the team. When the conductor was asked why he chose this approach and his response was “if you love something, you should give it away”.  I felt this approach was more aligned with the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory where the leader gave more emotion or less emotion to gain a particular result. LMX outlines the communication between the leader and the follower. The communication is the “vehicle through which leaders and followers create, mature, and sustain useful exchanges. Leadership occurs when the communication of leaders and followers is characterized by mutual trust, respect and commitment.” (p146) (Northouse, 2016) I also felt this approach was instant feedback to the team.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed the watching the videos and reviewing leadership behaviors and theories in relationship to the conductor.  Each video had their own style. Ironically, this past week I attended the annual conference for the National Management Association (NMA). One of our keynote speakers was Hattie Bryant, who compared the structure of Jazz Music to leadership. Her overall message was about how the leader is not always the conductor, but other people on the team. She took the time to break it down to the responsibilities of the drummer, conductor, and other instrument players. Additionally, she emphasized that leader need to understand the strength and weaknesses of the team and make sure to not provide ambiguous instructions. Most importantly, leaders need to learn the listen.

Although both the keynote speaker and class assignment occurred within the same week, both used music to identify components of leadership and impacts associate with specific behaviors. Talgam talked about the best music is created by establishing partnerships and the conductor role is to keep the show moving and listen for mistakes. He also discussed how leaders should take part and be involved with their followers, but do not be over involved.

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Publication.

Talgam, I. (2010). Lead like the Great Conductor. Retrieved September 7, 2016, from Ted Talks:

http://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors