LEADERSHIP


we have complete transparency in rehearsals,” he says. “Everyone sees and knows the mistakes of the others. This creates a perfect error-management culture. We have a concrete and open way to deal with it, which creates a lot of trust because it’s a very human kind of communication. “If the mistake is because of a lack of attention, then I start to


address it in degrees. I just repeat. To 90 per cent of the members of the orchestra, they will realise very quickly by themselves and automatically adjust. If there is no improvement, then I focus the attention of the whole team, of the whole orchestra, and then they realise we have to change something. “If things still are not improving, I will say to them, ‘you do know


it is broken, right?’ I will try always to develop people – that is not to tell them what is wrong because then I take the responsibility away from them. I take over. I put questions to people. That is how we deal with mistakes. “If you meet someone you do not know very well, and you confess


a weak point or weakness, then you have ventured towards creating a high degree of trust and demanding trust. That is what we are doing all of the time in an orchestra. Rehearsing means we makes our mistakes before the performance. Being open with our mistakes means there is a good chance that we will avoid it the next time, and this is very important,” he explains. This safe space to make mistakes and learn is fundamental to good


perception, believes Professor Schulz. It reduces stress and therefore increases our ability to perceive. “The moment your stress level goes up, your level of perception goes down,” he says. “You limit your horizons. You lose the ability to perceive in a very refined way. This is a real challenge. I think every good team has to be aware of the importance of members’ ability to perceive each other and to know about the strengths and weaknesses of individuals.”


Non-verbal communication Achieving this level of understanding between team members means actively seeking ways to create personal connections that are critical to successful teams. “Just meeting and communicating in a direct way creates a


lot of togetherness, and supports the perception in a professional process,” says Professor Schulz. “In business, as a leader there are so many examples of where you can create at better perception of yourself. It starts with your office. Are you in a closed box? Things like that.” Non-verbal communication is a critical aspect of this, says Professor Schulz. “Non-verbal communication is linked to the


CIPD 2017


sub-conscious. It is the result of all life experience. There is a saying that ‘the tongue can lie, but the body cannot’. “You have to have that in mind; you can be read by people


around you and body language is a very strong power.” In his CIPD conference end-note speech, Professor Schulz


demonstrated the ability and the will of individual musicians to perceive and be perceptive of each other with help from musicians of the city’s newly formed Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra. He dispersed violinists from their section onto the stage and into


the audience, and then asked them to play together. The musicians performed exceptionally, continuing to engage and stir the audience. Nevertheless, the audience could also perceive at close hand the challenges of this reorganisation, including how the musicians could communicate and lead each other across a much wider space. Delegates could discern how the players responded by


continuing to pay close attention to each other and using exaggerated body language to determine tempo and cue performance notes.


Knowing when to lead and when to guide Given how businesses across organisations and boundaries are interconnected, how does this realm of non-verbal communication and eliciting emotional responses work for managers of global and remote teams who are rarely in the same physical space? “Nowadays, in the business world, the challenge is becoming


bigger and bigger every day because there are often dislocated teams all over the world and on different continents,’ observes Professor Schulz. “This makes the whole exercise really, really challenging. “Other kinds of communication are necessary because you


can’t always see the person you are communicating with. But we still have meetings, and still have eye-to-eye contact and limbic [emotional] contact. This, for human beings, is most important for human communications. “And now we are moving more and more away from hierarchy. This


means people cannot always rely on being told what to do. I don’t want to overstretch the orchestra metaphor, but creating the conditions for success is about becoming a unit with a very refined way of interacting. “In most cases, it is a lot about discipline and about having a


common creativity: 95 per cent is the orchestra and 5 per cent is me as the leader to develop the overall picture of the pieces we are playing.” This time, demonstrating with a soloist playing the French


horn, Professor Schulz explored again what such transformational leadership looked like in practice. As the musician performed, Professor Schulz turned to face him and limited his conducting instructions, allowing the soloist to lead the way. “For a leader, there is a very slim edge of doing too little –


creating uncertainty and frustration – and doing too much, which can undermine individuals’ authority,” he explains. “Conductors are always thinking about how to reduce and


minimise their instruction to give a feeling of freedom. They are showing the important points to direct energy.”


Bringing vision to life Summing up the conductor’s role in releasing high performance, Professor Schulz believes that less is more, but at its heart is creating meaning and bringing that to life. “Everything that is printed down – all of the laws, all of the


companies’ values, all that is fixed – is very important. But at the very end, it is printed paper. To make that come alive, to make that real, is the responsibility of our leaders. At that moment, the best we can do is coordinate, support and help individuals to create the space of autonomy.”


32 | Re:locate | January 2018


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60