Caret Ltd. - Tuning into Management

Tuning into Management
by Danny Morris

Jose Antonio Abreu started El Sistema (‘the system’) with the aim of helping disadvantaged Venezuelan kids to play a musical instrument and be part of an orchestra. Since its inception in 1975 El Sistema has seeded 102 youth orchestras, nurtured 250,000 musicians and developed some notable stars including Gustavo Dudamel, now music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In this article, Danny looks at how Abreu identified that it’s not talent or even hard work that is foundational to high performance: "We were looking for exceptional kids," he said, "and what we found were exceptional conditions."

El Sistema’s work is underpinned by building self-esteem and confidence – shaping performers by creating the conditions from which they could develop their talents. And there are strong parallels between developing great musicians and nurturing great performers in the workplace.

In our observation, the primary work and responsibility of managers is creating the conditions that enable people to make their best contribution. Yet despite the billions spent on executive education, a recent study found that only 25% of employees say their companies are good at helping people transition into their first managerial roles.

If great management development is not underway at this early point then neither is it addressed when people become more senior and their development turns to leadership.

Consider some symptoms:

Most managers spend longer checking emails or having lunch than mentoring the members of their team. A McKinsey study revealed that senior managers spend an average of just 5-10 minutes per day coaching staff.
The Chief Executive of a large business recently confided that, while plenty of attention was given to developing the leaders in his organisation, most of them needed help to better manage their teams.
Gallup’s often quoted stat that at exit interviews 70% of employees were found not to be leaving their organisation but their line manager.

During this protracted season of economic uncertainty and shrinking resources, staff motivation has become increasingly volatile. With the potentially hazardous impact this can have on performance, it is critical for leaders to ensure that employees (of all levels) are enabled to give of their best. This requires greater scrutiny of how people are managed.

Mark O’Connor is an American violinist, acclaimed for his teaching methods which are built around his ‘Eight Principles.’ Like Abreu, much of his approach involves shaping the right conditions. In order to help leaders manage more effectively, here are a few of O’Connor’s principles, and thoughts about how they might be applied to better managing:

Listening: O’Connor encourages his budding violinists to begin by listening to their favourite musicians. Not only does this train their ears but it gets them in the right mood to learn and perform. An exercise I often use with teams is asking them to describe the best manager they have ever had and then identify what they did that was so good. Interestingly, people usually say the same things: they developed me, they were clear about expectations, they played to my strengths, gave me the right tools/info to do the job, and so on. Try doing this exercise with your team and then ask for practical ideas for how this might be applied to your current context.

Practice: “there is no substitute for time with the instrument.” While practice is required for many things in life, such as music and sport, little or no practice is given to work-related skills and behaviours - these are largely left to ‘live’ performance. What are some of the specific skills or behaviours someone you manage needs to master? What help do they need? Psychologists have proven that without repetitious rehearsal, information in the short term memory decays. In other words, something they found useful in a management seminar is likely to be forgotten only hours later when it could be helpful, unless they have been regularly rehearsing it.

Progression: this is ‘practice part II’ - “practice until a piece is ‘easy’, not just until you believe it is correct.” People tend to practice until they see some improvement rather than pressing on to achieve significant change. In order for a person to master a particular skill or behaviour they will probably need help to remain consistently focused. They will require regular feedback including lots of encouragement. Actress Celeste Holm said, “We live by encouragement and we die without it, slowly, sadly, and angrily.” Schedule regular time for giving specific encouragement to those you manage.

Creativity: “individual creativity is encouraged from the very earliest stages of development.” Encouraging and enabling creative thinking should be a critical aim for managers - but there’s a challenge, as described by psychologist William James: “A great many people think they are thinking, when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” In the workplace these prejudices often concern what a person thinks can or cannot be achieved and the right strategy for achieving it. Managers need to ask good open ended questions to break up assumptions and inspire new ideas and ways of thinking. Some of the best managers we work with rehearse these types of questions. I also recommend books like Leading with Questions or Quiet Leadership.

Management is about nurturing elite performance by creating the right conditions for people to succeed. This involves taking talented people, encouraging them, helping them work hard to improve focused skills and behaviours, and coaching them to success. As Beethoven said:

“The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‘Thus far and no farther.’"