Three illusions of leading teams

Imagine this scene. The Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan strides confidently onto the stage the day before the Deutsche Grammophon recording in 1955. He doesn’t know it yet, but it will form part of his magnificent legacy. He has no baton. He doesn’t preside over the conductor podium, opting instead to casually draw up a chair and sit on the musicians’ level. Karajan purposefully leans into the violinists to show them he’s actively listening.

He seeks their input, “Shall we run through the first passage to see how it feels?” He doesn’t direct.

Before long, the violas play too delicately in a forte passage. The strings are supposed to build slowly and heavily. No matter, thinks Karajan. I’ll empower them to discover the issue. “As you play the music, keep in mind the central theme of the piece we want to convey and make sure you feel and portray it,” he encourages. But the notes are too fast, too sharp. He perseveres, “Is this working for you? The music?” Yet the musicians are struggling to understand the vision and what they are doing right or wrong. They can’t play their best; not as one philharmonic unit in any case. There is no beautiful symphony, just a collection of musicians playing to their own chaotic (empowered) tune.

For any classically-trained musician or aficionado out there, you will quickly note that this opening scenario is fiction. In reality, Karajan was heralded one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century because he actively directed some of the best musicians in the world very specifically on his vision for each piece. By the power of his podium presence and his meticulous preparation in rehearsal, he created a best-in-class blended orchestral sound. He was an authority who provided instruction, assigned roles and tasks and filled concert halls with rigour. His directive leadership (and not empowering approach) enabled him to create masterpieces not only because it matched the situational context, but also because it’s what the musicians expected and needed from him.

This fictitious opening demonstrates what would happen if someone incorrectly led a group by encouraging them to be involved and seeking their input, when they really needed direction from above. Similarly, in other situations, it’s easy to picture the leader who, due to their overly-directive and micro-managing approach, failed to achieve team buy-in or get the best results.

Directive leadership is not better or worse than empowering leadership. Each style is effective in some contexts while ineffective in others. To better apply empowering and directive leadership when the occasion calls for it, consider three common illusions of leading teams and how to address them.