One of the secrets of good conducting is to have a light touch. What actually happens is when a conductor tries to force movements or over-emphasize and overpower the music, the symphony as a whole will generally rebel and do their own thing. The conductor’s job is to simply convey their own vision for the music and to make small corrections to that music as needed. When the conductor fails to do so and “goes for more” (usually a characteristic of younger, inexperienced conductors) the musicians will feel the awkwardness discomfort. This discomfort leads them to do what they already know – how to play music.
The message here is that leadership that tries to do too much, micromanage, and overpower their staffs ultimately force the staff to distance themselves. Rather than coming together for a single vision, they end up looking away from the leader’s vision and playing to their own. One of the concepts here is that musicians and HR people already know what to do. We all do our jobs pretty well, we know what to do, and we know when to do it. Without leadership, the organization will still run itself and get all of the tasks done. The problem is simply that we won’t do anything new or innovative, nor will we try anything new that further aligns us with strategy.
The micromanager and forceful manager never has an opportunity to strive for innovation or better strategy alignment as their staff has no appreciation for their leadership. It’s the light touch that wins people over – a simple communication of vision and direction, and not a management of the full orchestration of the organization that makes HR get better.
