Orchestras and Teams: Playing in Tune
Orchestras and Teams: Playing in Tune
Many years ago, when I was newly appointed as the leader of a large team, I met with them to introduce myself and to learn more about them. And I shared an analogy that continues to ring true in my mind today; that we’re an orchestra and I was their conductor.
The conductor’s role is to have a finely tuned ear to distinguish how well the orchestra is performing, and if necessary, identify the steps needed to perform at the level expected to deliver a masterpiece. Similarly, the leader’s role is to distinguish how well the team is performing, and to provide coaching and guidance to reach their goals and objectives. (more…)
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Several weeks ago, I completed my first half marathon. Making the decision to do it, disciplining myself to train for it, standing in the middle of the street in downtown Detroit at 6:30 a.m. on a chilly morning with anxious excitement waiting for the starting signal, and later working through the physical aches were all new experiences. But my biggest learning wasn’t physical, it was mental.
It’s no secret that many companies are struggling to find the right balance between remote and hybrid work policies for their knowledge workers. After over two years of forced remote work, announcements and retractions of return-to-office dates, remote local hires who have never stepped foot on site, and remote countrywide hires who will never be expected to work on site, many hope there is light at the end of the tunnel. They just don’t know if it’s sunlight or a train headlight. 
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about a young man named Liam McCoy.1 Liam was born with albinism, a diagnosis characterized by lack of the pigment melanin in his hair, eyes, and skin. His eyes were overly sensitive to bright light, they moved involuntarily to the point that he was unable to make them look at any specific object, and he was extremely nearsighted. He could only see something in a field three inches from his nose and had a visual acuity of 20/2000. Though he had sight, his visual perception was extremely poor, and he learned to experience and understand his environment using cues that were different from those born with normal vision. 
“Belief in what someone can do is more powerful than knowledge of what they can do.”