Ramona Wis The Conductor As A Leader
In her book “The Conductor as a Leader”, Ramona Wis outlines many idea and concepts regarding how to be an effective leader. Many of her ideas seemed particularly profound to me as I read, but a small list seemed to stand out above the others. These points stood out to me often because I could relate them to experiences in my own life and conceptualize how their application would have changed an experience for myself.
The first point, and the most foundational to the book, was the entire notion of the Servant Leader. Though I had heard of the servant leader before, I had never taken time to study leadership styles or philosophies. Any ideas I had regarding leadership came from watching other leaders around me and that I operated under. Most …show more content…
directly of course, these were my middle school and high school orchestra directors. Now, I have only the upmost respect for those directors because they were effective educators who taught me to play my instrument and to be a musician (and put up with a middle school version of myself). That being said, upon reflection, I realize now that they both had a very dictatorial style of leadership that relied heavily on their authority to be a leader.
In the years I had spent with these two directors, I had learned leadership as they defined it.
This came back to bite me later in high school. By my junior year, I was a high-ranking officer in the school orchestra program. There was a particular day we were setting up for our Christmas party and my parents had come to bring some food to the party. As a result of the circumstance, my father got to see me acting in my position of leadership and I remember how pulled me aside and explained to me how I was failing everyone I was supposed to be leading. I, like those I had learned leadership from, was deriving my power from my title within the orchestra, barking orders and functioning in my dictatorial way. My dad, who is captain at his fire department explained that if he were to treat his crew the way I had treated my crew, it would result in a revolt and in no way produce an effective fire-fighting …show more content…
team.
Thus, I arrive in Wis’ book in the first chapter, where she quotes Robert Greenleaf in saying “The servant-leader is servant first…it begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (page11). While it is true that I had always served the orchestra, serving on the setup crew, volunteering in the library, etc., in my leadership position, I had been expecting others to serve me. In my leadership position, I was leading first and serving second. Shortly thereafter, Wis says “…we can begin to find ourselves seeking out positions with titles and authority…because we are intrigued by the title or the authority itself” (page 13). This sentence struck me because it was like someone was calling me out specifically on how I had not been the best leader that I could have been. Thus, this core principle of the book changed the core principles of my idea of leadership. Admittedly, by the time I left high school, I had adapted my behavior some if for no other reason than just to be a more pleasant leader, but Wis gave me an explanation of the idea I was gravitating towards and gave me a specific direction to go in the ways I lead.
A point that was not as ground breaking for me, but still of great significance is the passage in chapter 2 titled “Reevaluate Regularly”.
This is a crucial step in becoming an effective leader but also in staying that way. From my leadership experience, I remember constantly evaluating and reevaluating my subordinates, trying to determine who would be the next individual to take the next leadership position. As a section leader, I was constantly doing the same trying to determine who to ask to play certain events with me, who’s advice I might seek if I looked for advice, etc. but as a leader, I seldom took the time to reevaluate myself. I can’t help but wonder how much more effective I could have been by my senior year when I had been in leadership positions since my sophomore year? As we age, as we garner experience, we gain better insight and greater wisdom. Greater wisdom will always result in growth. How ignorant must we be to not apply the wisdom we gain to ourselves? In my case, it was the ignorance of a high schooler. Later in the book, Wis mentions uses the example of Benjamin Zander who is constantly accepting feedback from those whom he leads to better himself. While I see the value in this now, and intend to always try and collect feedback from those whom I am privileged enough to lead, I can only wish I had seen that value earlier in high
school.
On page 50, Wis introduces a section known as “Trust and Change”. This is another section I can apply to examples in my own life and see applying her philosophies may have resulted in a more positive outcome. Though I was in the orchestra, I worked often with our band directors in different full orchestra collaborations and pit orchestras. We had one band director from my freshman year through my junior year. This band director had been at my high school more than a decade and was as very-well respected and very well-loved director. Come my senior year, we got a new band director. Wis would emphasize “the importance of developing trust with the ensemble before attempting to institute significant change.” (page 50), a concept that our new band director did not particularly subscribe to. Though he was a good teacher, he was coming into a school that had deep loyalties to the previous director that he would have to overcome before he could implement serious change. Regrettably, he began changing policies day one. Some of these things were minor, but some were not. For instance, he entirely revamped the seating system, removed section leader titles, gave new section leader titles to many who had been deemed undeserving by the previous director, and thus, the other students. He changed the genres we did for our full orchestra pops arrangement (we had a commissioned work done each year). In addition, he changed the way repertoire was chosen, another area in which he did not follow Wis’s ideas. Whereas Wis would suggest that the director should choose repertoire that was both pedagogically and musically satisfying to the ensemble as well as musically satisfying the director, the new band director let the students chose repertoire by majority vote (given certain guidelines for the pieces of course). Though some students preferred this, those who’s vote lost did not. On the whole, the new band director failed to establish trust with the ensemble before making changes. This failure resulted in a less than warm reception by most of the band. I think that Wis is right in that he would have been much more welcomed if he had established a relationship to the students before implementing serious change.
Yet another particularly relevant point was what Wis says on page 81: “the practice of walking into rehearsal…without any specific plan…is a recipe for boredom, inefficiency, frustration, unnecessary repetition and a sense of purposelessness.” The first year that my orchestra did a full orchestra for UIL (not just a pops concert) was my senior year. Here, I must level a critique against my own orchestra director. Because that year happened to just be an extremely busy year in her life, the first 3 weeks of full orchestra rehearsals were entirely unprepared, un planned and not at all thought out. I can say that in that way because she told me so herself in a conversation about how to rehearse efficiently. Though this director typically was well organized (and emphasized planning to me when I got the opportunity to teach one of the pieces), those three weeks of rehearsal were unforgettable-and not in a good way. Each rehearsal felt incredibly unproductive and very stagnant. Again, Wis quotes and outside sources (Parncutt and McPherson, 2002) when she says “In short, capable conductors must be remarkably prepared and have complete knowledge of the score and how to realize it…. All aspects of the rehearsal should be planned.” (page 80) Though this point may seem rather obvious, I don’t believe it is taken as seriously as it should be by all conductors. It as Dr. Steely told me in a lesson once “the more (I) come into the lesson with, the more we can get out of each lesson”. The same is true of a conductor and ensemble. The more a conductor comes prepared with in each rehearsal, the more effective each rehearsal can be.
Though there was a plethora more of impactful points, the final point that I’ll write about is the beginning of chapter 6, entitled “Lead with Character”. One of the most crucial aspects of being an effective leader is having the trust of whomever is being lead. Without character, no trust is had and thus effective leadership is incredibly hindered. This principle applies to far more than just music, and as an example I would point to modern politics. I am not referencing any one politician, rather the swarm of politicians who have been accused of sexual harassment or abuse recently. Rather than being able to look up to our politicians who are supposed to be leading our government, we must act despite them, trying to improve our own character regardless of who is leading us. Naturally, this applies very well to music and ensembles. As Wis uses the example from her own life (page 141), it is crucial that those whom are being lead care for their director. I know in my own experience, I find that I want to perform better for conductors whom I like as a person and view as of good character, though of course I must play at my best regardless of the conductor.
As mentioned earlier, this is just a sampling of the plethora of wisdom Wis has to offer in her book, but to conclude I think it is important to note this: all points I have noted are simply sub points of the first point I wrote about. If I am to be a servant leader, I must demonstrate these other characteristics not just for me, but as a service to those I lead.
The first point, and the most foundational to the book, was the entire notion of the Servant Leader. Though I had heard of the servant leader before, I had never taken time to study leadership styles or philosophies. Any ideas I had regarding leadership came from watching other leaders around me and that I operated under. Most …show more content…
directly of course, these were my middle school and high school orchestra directors. Now, I have only the upmost respect for those directors because they were effective educators who taught me to play my instrument and to be a musician (and put up with a middle school version of myself). That being said, upon reflection, I realize now that they both had a very dictatorial style of leadership that relied heavily on their authority to be a leader.
In the years I had spent with these two directors, I had learned leadership as they defined it.
This came back to bite me later in high school. By my junior year, I was a high-ranking officer in the school orchestra program. There was a particular day we were setting up for our Christmas party and my parents had come to bring some food to the party. As a result of the circumstance, my father got to see me acting in my position of leadership and I remember how pulled me aside and explained to me how I was failing everyone I was supposed to be leading. I, like those I had learned leadership from, was deriving my power from my title within the orchestra, barking orders and functioning in my dictatorial way. My dad, who is captain at his fire department explained that if he were to treat his crew the way I had treated my crew, it would result in a revolt and in no way produce an effective fire-fighting …show more content…
team.
Thus, I arrive in Wis’ book in the first chapter, where she quotes Robert Greenleaf in saying “The servant-leader is servant first…it begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (page11). While it is true that I had always served the orchestra, serving on the setup crew, volunteering in the library, etc., in my leadership position, I had been expecting others to serve me. In my leadership position, I was leading first and serving second. Shortly thereafter, Wis says “…we can begin to find ourselves seeking out positions with titles and authority…because we are intrigued by the title or the authority itself” (page 13). This sentence struck me because it was like someone was calling me out specifically on how I had not been the best leader that I could have been. Thus, this core principle of the book changed the core principles of my idea of leadership. Admittedly, by the time I left high school, I had adapted my behavior some if for no other reason than just to be a more pleasant leader, but Wis gave me an explanation of the idea I was gravitating towards and gave me a specific direction to go in the ways I lead.
A point that was not as ground breaking for me, but still of great significance is the passage in chapter 2 titled “Reevaluate Regularly”.
This is a crucial step in becoming an effective leader but also in staying that way. From my leadership experience, I remember constantly evaluating and reevaluating my subordinates, trying to determine who would be the next individual to take the next leadership position. As a section leader, I was constantly doing the same trying to determine who to ask to play certain events with me, who’s advice I might seek if I looked for advice, etc. but as a leader, I seldom took the time to reevaluate myself. I can’t help but wonder how much more effective I could have been by my senior year when I had been in leadership positions since my sophomore year? As we age, as we garner experience, we gain better insight and greater wisdom. Greater wisdom will always result in growth. How ignorant must we be to not apply the wisdom we gain to ourselves? In my case, it was the ignorance of a high schooler. Later in the book, Wis mentions uses the example of Benjamin Zander who is constantly accepting feedback from those whom he leads to better himself. While I see the value in this now, and intend to always try and collect feedback from those whom I am privileged enough to lead, I can only wish I had seen that value earlier in high
school.
On page 50, Wis introduces a section known as “Trust and Change”. This is another section I can apply to examples in my own life and see applying her philosophies may have resulted in a more positive outcome. Though I was in the orchestra, I worked often with our band directors in different full orchestra collaborations and pit orchestras. We had one band director from my freshman year through my junior year. This band director had been at my high school more than a decade and was as very-well respected and very well-loved director. Come my senior year, we got a new band director. Wis would emphasize “the importance of developing trust with the ensemble before attempting to institute significant change.” (page 50), a concept that our new band director did not particularly subscribe to. Though he was a good teacher, he was coming into a school that had deep loyalties to the previous director that he would have to overcome before he could implement serious change. Regrettably, he began changing policies day one. Some of these things were minor, but some were not. For instance, he entirely revamped the seating system, removed section leader titles, gave new section leader titles to many who had been deemed undeserving by the previous director, and thus, the other students. He changed the genres we did for our full orchestra pops arrangement (we had a commissioned work done each year). In addition, he changed the way repertoire was chosen, another area in which he did not follow Wis’s ideas. Whereas Wis would suggest that the director should choose repertoire that was both pedagogically and musically satisfying to the ensemble as well as musically satisfying the director, the new band director let the students chose repertoire by majority vote (given certain guidelines for the pieces of course). Though some students preferred this, those who’s vote lost did not. On the whole, the new band director failed to establish trust with the ensemble before making changes. This failure resulted in a less than warm reception by most of the band. I think that Wis is right in that he would have been much more welcomed if he had established a relationship to the students before implementing serious change.
Yet another particularly relevant point was what Wis says on page 81: “the practice of walking into rehearsal…without any specific plan…is a recipe for boredom, inefficiency, frustration, unnecessary repetition and a sense of purposelessness.” The first year that my orchestra did a full orchestra for UIL (not just a pops concert) was my senior year. Here, I must level a critique against my own orchestra director. Because that year happened to just be an extremely busy year in her life, the first 3 weeks of full orchestra rehearsals were entirely unprepared, un planned and not at all thought out. I can say that in that way because she told me so herself in a conversation about how to rehearse efficiently. Though this director typically was well organized (and emphasized planning to me when I got the opportunity to teach one of the pieces), those three weeks of rehearsal were unforgettable-and not in a good way. Each rehearsal felt incredibly unproductive and very stagnant. Again, Wis quotes and outside sources (Parncutt and McPherson, 2002) when she says “In short, capable conductors must be remarkably prepared and have complete knowledge of the score and how to realize it…. All aspects of the rehearsal should be planned.” (page 80) Though this point may seem rather obvious, I don’t believe it is taken as seriously as it should be by all conductors. It as Dr. Steely told me in a lesson once “the more (I) come into the lesson with, the more we can get out of each lesson”. The same is true of a conductor and ensemble. The more a conductor comes prepared with in each rehearsal, the more effective each rehearsal can be.
Though there was a plethora more of impactful points, the final point that I’ll write about is the beginning of chapter 6, entitled “Lead with Character”. One of the most crucial aspects of being an effective leader is having the trust of whomever is being lead. Without character, no trust is had and thus effective leadership is incredibly hindered. This principle applies to far more than just music, and as an example I would point to modern politics. I am not referencing any one politician, rather the swarm of politicians who have been accused of sexual harassment or abuse recently. Rather than being able to look up to our politicians who are supposed to be leading our government, we must act despite them, trying to improve our own character regardless of who is leading us. Naturally, this applies very well to music and ensembles. As Wis uses the example from her own life (page 141), it is crucial that those whom are being lead care for their director. I know in my own experience, I find that I want to perform better for conductors whom I like as a person and view as of good character, though of course I must play at my best regardless of the conductor.
As mentioned earlier, this is just a sampling of the plethora of wisdom Wis has to offer in her book, but to conclude I think it is important to note this: all points I have noted are simply sub points of the first point I wrote about. If I am to be a servant leader, I must demonstrate these other characteristics not just for me, but as a service to those I lead.