How the Symphony Will Help You Lead Your Business

I took my wife to the symphony last week. We found our seats while the orchestra warmed up. Chaotic notes filled the air as musicians practiced and tuned their instruments. Music disappeared into silence when the conductor took his place on stage. The first chair violinist played a steady note and soon other sections joined in to create one harmonic sound. Now silence. Here’s the best part. My favorite moment of the night:

The conductor raised his baton.

And beautiful music begins. But don’t lose sight of the start. Think about it – over 100 highly trained professionals work together in one coordinated effort. They restrain themselves for the better good of the music. They stop and listen. They watch the conductor with anticipation. The baton goes up. Now there is order where chaos lived only moments ago. They don’t play music. They make music.

Leadership Lessons from the Symphony

It’s a great lesson in leadership and teamwork, particularly for technology companies where skilled developers likely know more about code than their managers. I think we can learn a lot from the symphony. To illustrate, here is a wonderful presentation by the charming conductor Itay Talgam at a TED conference earlier this year. It’s about leading like the great conductors.

Talgam’s best comment is early in the video: “The joy is about enabling other people’s stories to be heard at the same time.” He goes on the explain that the music is a ride. Then he extolls the value of an orchestra where you know what you do and you become a partner in building the roller coaster while you are on the ride. Is a small (or large) technology company any different?

A few leadership approaches to avoid:

• style: it’s about the interpretation of the music as the conductor sees it
• style: the execution is more important than the interpretation
• style: listen to one another to lead…you have to guess the conductor’s mind

Here is a final quote I’ll leave you with:

“Kleiber not only creates a process but he also creates the conditions in the world in which this process takes place.”