Examples of leadership are everywhere in our communities and society and we can learn from them all.
“ .. conducting an orchestra provides some unique challenges. Most orchestras don’t play exactly on the beat. Sometimes the players come in a little later than the beat, and sometimes a lot later than the beat. It varies according to the conductor's beat. It can vary according to how loud or accented the beat is supposed to sound (the greater the accent, the closer to the beat they play). It's also complicated by the fact that the lowest instruments of the orchestra, such as trombones, tuba, and string basses, take a longer time for their sound to materialise after they "play their note." And because they are in the back of the orchestra, it can take even longer for the note to sound.”
“Somehow, a conductor must give a single gesture that gets everyone to play and sing at exactly the same time, despite the tendencies described above. It’s why conducting … is so difficult.”
“How is it possible then that all of those different elements come together? Because the single most important element in a musical performance that holds everything together is... (not the conductor!!!) but each performer’s ability to listen! And through listening, they sing and play as an ensemble.”
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“ … one thing remains key whether your business is in the arts, manufacturing or services. The leadership has to be authentic."
“You are trying get different groups working together — bringing it all together without fighting each other,”
“Making a movie is like leading a business with multiple divisions and multiple goals. The challenge is to galvanise all the stakeholders into a cohesive operation working towards a shared vision.”
“It’s very difficult. Actors have egos. Sometimes he won’t do what you think he should. Production designers often go off on their own – you see the set and you say ‘this is not what we talked about.”
Stone’s advice about how to get everyone rowing in the same direction?
"You start with a script."
"Think plan on a page. Think strategy summary. Think mission statement. It doesn’t matter what it is called. But it matters greatly that everyone in the business buys into it."
"There has to be something greater than yourself. People respect that. If they don’t respect you as a director the script still stands as a shining light. That works for people.”
Leadership skills are important on and off the field. They help create championship teams, great work in the office and most importantly, personal growth.
Leadership is an interactive process between leader and followers, where the leader tries to guide and influence a group of individuals toward common goals. Leadership can be seen as effective when a leader succeeds in creating a good team atmosphere, strengthening the team’s cohesion and communication, and establishing a strong work ethic. This effective leadership is, in turn, an important driver of the team’s functioning and effectiveness; that is, the team’s ability to develop adequate cognitive, motivational, affective and coordinative processes.
Traditionally, leadership research has focused on the coach as formal leader of the team, guiding the team to optimal performance from a top-down, hierarchical perspective. However, leadership is not restrictive to the coach; players within the team can also take on important leadership roles, which is a phenomenon known as athlete (shared) leadership.The research identified a number of shared leadership roles, which can be formal and/or informal, such as:
· task functions (i.e., making decisions, responding to or resolving adverse situations, and establishing tactical instructions during matches that help the team achieve its goals and objectives)
· social functions (i.e., establishing good relationships among peers, serving as a trusted person, and mediating in socially controversial situations in the group that will help satisfy the psychosocial needs of all team members).
· social leader, the role of an external leader “
The fulfillment of these three types of leadership has several benefits, as it promotes greater identification of players with the team and greater confidence in the team, a stronger task and social cohesion, and more optimal team functioning, resulting ultimately in a better team performance.The Study concluded that:
“ … the teams that had a high number of leaders in each of the roles showed greater team effectiveness. More specifically, these teams reported higher role clarity, stronger task cohesion, collective efficacy, intention to continue, and better perceived performance, while reporting less role conflict, task conflict, and relationship conflict compared to other teams.”
The present findings lead to two important conclusions. First, each of these leadership roles is essential for the team’s functioning, and having leaders in each of these roles is clearly better for the team’s effectiveness than having zero leaders.
Second, the findings reveal that it is not only important to have leaders occupy the different leadership roles, but it is also important to share leadership responsibilities about a specific role with more than one player. In other words, coaches should strive for a structure of shared leadership, not only across, but also within each leadership role
The study recommended implementing:
“ … a structure of shared leadership in their teams by appointing the adequate number of athlete leaders in each of the leadership roles (i.e., as established in the current study).
This is particularly important given the fact that our study findings revealed that teams
in which the leadership responsibilities rest solely on the shoulders of the coach,
and no athlete leaders were present, had poorer performance than teams
in which the leadership was shared."
References:
1. The Challenge of Conducting an Orchestra and Chorus Together | Evanston Symphony Orchestra
2. Movie director Oliver Stone offers his leadership tips | Acuity (acuitymag.com)
3. Leo FM, García-Calvo T, González-Ponce I, Pulido JJ, Fransen K. How many leaders does it take to lead a sports team? The relationship between the number of leaders and the effectiveness of professional sports teams. PLoS One. 2019;14(6):e0218167. Published 2019 Jun 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218167
