Manage Like a Conductor

To be a great manager, take your cues from orchestra conductors.

Orchestras around the world treat us to extraordinary experiences. It’s thanks to those lone persons standing between the audience and the orchestra that the music comes to life. That person’s role is to keep dozens of musicians working in perfect union for every second of the performance. It’s not easy.

I’ve always taken pleasure in watching orchestra conductors. I enjoy watching them help shape the fabric of the music that is somehow simultaneously in and out of their control. It has recently struck me that the conductor is perhaps the model for what it takes to be a great manager.

Some of you may think: why a great manager? Why not a leader? The discipline of management, after all, seems to play second fiddle to leadership (no pun intended).

The word “leader” is often conferred on a manager who displays various attributes beyond those that are sufficient to manage.

But if you think about it, conductors – those men and women who coax such extraordinary things from all those musicians before them – don’t really “lead”. You can best describe what they do as managing.

Besides, Leadership is Overrated

We’re at the peak of the cult of leadership. There are a thousand books written about leadership, hundreds of LinkedIn posts about what it takes to be a leader. Don’t be a mere manager, they say, be a leader.

Because of the value society places on leadership, this "leadership porn" is a lucrative business. Do you want to sell thousands of books? Tell the inadequate middle manager of an obscure firm that he can be just like Steve Jobs or Richard Branson.

This is all probably stems from the misplaced belief in the primacy of leadership. That primacy is based on a simplistic biological theory that holds that, in nature, the alpha leads the pack.

It’s discredited nonsense, of course (even scientists who propagated the “alpha male” theory have since disavowed that terminology). And it does a lot of harm, especially when negative qualities like intransigence or “gut decisions” are expected or even encouraged from “leaders”.

People with sharp elbows would be tempted to think it’s their natural place to be at the top and make all the decisions. They attempt to reverse engineer a “leadership” attitude.

How many firms have imploded with people like that at the helm? I can think of at least three high-profile cases in the last twelve months.

Steve Jobs is often paraded as the role model for leadership. His intransigence and “no-nonsense” attitude — famously described as “the reality distortion field” — is imitated by aspiring leaders to often toxic effect. While Jobs was successful, it doesn't necessarily validate his methods.

Alluding to Jobs’s (and others) notoriety as a tough leader, Ryan Holiday writes in his Ego is the Enemy:

“We can seek to rationalise the worst behavior by pointing to the outliers. But no one is truly successful because they are delusional, self-absorbed, or disconnected. […] We think that success requires a bold vision or some sweeping plan — after all, that’s what the founders of this company or that championship team supposedly had. (But did they? Did they really?)”

Guide, Don’t Lead

Management is more important. To me, the difference between a leader and a manager is this:

The leader shapes a collective to their will, a manager organises a group to fully realise its collective will.

Never underestimate people’s capacity to spontaneously self-organise to achieve what they need to. How did humanity come this far in the first place? People don’t need to be led to their goals. “Leaders” exist by the virtue of collective effort, not (as is too commonly thought) the vice versa.

Managers are needed to allocate resource and ensure people work well together, but in many cases delusion can take over and the manager thinks they are “leading” the group’s endeavours. 

If you want a happy, productive and successful team, don’t fall into this delusion. Instead, try thinking of yourself as a conductor.

The conductor may set the pace, but they are only guiding the performance, not making it happen, not bringing it into being.

Great management in action: Alla Kulbaba conducts Carmen with the Kiev State Opera. Watch how she's a step ahead of the musicians. Watch how she maintains pace while managing the colour and texture of the music.

How the conductor is the model for a great manager:

1. Conductors are not leaders

The conductor does not need to tell the members of the orchestra what to do, the conductor simply endeavours to achieve optimum collaboration among the orchestra from their privileged vantage point.

The conductor has little agency, they simply conduct the music like copper conducts electricity. The music flows from the pages through them, they are avatars of a bigger purpose, conduits of a bigger collective goal.

The conductor will help colour and shape that goal, but they are only a part of its realisation.

2. Conductors are always a step ahead

Have you ever noticed that conductors make gestures before the music changes? That’s because conductors always have to be a step ahead. They need to be a step ahead because they need to ensure that the orchestra plays the music as best as possible.

To do that, they need to “cue in” the players (usually by “sniffing” or raising their chin and making eye contact, before pulling them in with a gesture). The good manager always needs to be a step ahead. Planning is essential, and managers “cue in” the resource as needed. To manage effectively you need to have a keen sense of anticipation.

3. Conductors do not play…

One of the most important lessons I have learned in management is that, even if every instinct is telling you to work on something, even if you (think you) could do a better job, you should not get actively involved in your team’s tasks.

Conductors do not play an instrument in the orchestra for good reason. If the conductor tries to play an instrument, things would fall apart very quickly.

Delegation is essential to good management: you must ensure that you’re getting the best from your team and, love it or hate it, that’s a full-time job.

As much as you want to still be a copywriter, or make video content, or design a brochure or whatever it may be, you need to spend your time managing what needs to be done, not doing it.

4. … Neither can conductors play

I doubt any conductor could play all the instruments as well as the members of their orchestra. It’s highly unlikely they could play more than a few at all. There are many aspects of a team’s work that the manager will not be qualified in, or even have a clue how to do.

And that’s fine. You don’t need to know everything about accounting, marketing or communications or whatever type of team you manage. If your team members know more than you, it could well be a sign that you’re doing a great job of managing them.

This is wonderful to watch: Simon Rattle conducts 6 school orchestras. The warmth and good humour of Rattle’s mentorship gets the best out of a huge orchestra of children.

5. Conductors set the pace

That “W” motion conductors make in the air with the baton sets the tempo. Their facial expressions and gestures with the free hand help colour the music, from the downward pat for softness to the clenched fist for more grit. Conductors “lead” only in so much that they guide the orchestra.

It’s all about continual feedback to the performers. Not controlling them, but rather letting the performers thrive in a framework that evolves as the composition progresses.

Great managers balance workloads, ensure the pace is right so that productivity does not come at the cost of rest and creativity (or work-life balance). It’s the output (achievements) of a team, not the input (effort), that’s important.

Unlike hours at the desk, creativity and inspiration cannot be quantified, but results can. Results should provide the basis of managerial feedback, not a silly insistence on effort.

6. Conductors NEVER take the credit

Never take the credit for your team’s work. The conductor will always bow to applause, but they will also quickly divert the applause to the musicians. No one person is responsible for a shared endeavour.

7. Conductors have the best spot in the house

Management gets bad press because of the cult of leadership. But it’s gratifying to be a manager. I can vouch for that as the manager of a small but important team. It’s wonderful to see people develop, to see your team collaborate to become a greater force than a sum of its parts.

The conductor stands in front of the orchestra, with their back to the audience. They see, hear and feel the magic like nobody else can. What a privilege, what an honour.