THREE LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVES FOR ENHANCING THE ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR METAPHOR

Abstract

The author is an award-winning orchestral and opera conductor, and music conservatory professor, who remarks on the way that “the conductor is such a common metaphor in executive leadership.” Yet she discovered that these notions can be flawed because of misconceptions about what a conductor actually does, on the podium and outside it. She provides an “insider’s perspective,” that in her words, (1) the conductor is a storyteller, (2) listening is the conductor’s most important job, and (3) musicians don’t actually follow conductors. Within the first perspective, she takes “four approaches: investigate clues, find meaning, get buy-in, and be a reverse-engineer.” She relates that “It’s fascinating that different conductors can gather different stories based on their own worldviews, lived experiences, and artistic values. This results in many different possible performances of the same piece of music. That’s the magic of interpretation.” In perspective two, she describes “three types of awareness: situation-aware, self-aware, other-aware.” Regarding teamwork in perspective three: “The best conductors enable teamwork and stay out of the way. They don’t insist on their help when it may be unhelpful.” Finally, she reminds us that “a conductor faces the same challenges as any leader embedded within a top-down management structure.”