How Great Leaders Use Small Acts of Leadership To Become Even Greater

RP Members I have to agree with the author on this post. Great Leaders are always making small tweaks to their organization and providing divine small amounts of guidance, mentoring, and coaching to the leaders they are developing to one day take their place through normal attrition or when the situation calls for it under distress! What are your thoughts RP Leaders?

By Lawrence Polsky
Co-Founder, Teams of Distinction
http://www.teamsofdistinction.com
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The NY Philharmonic is known to be one of the best classical music groups. They have always attracted great talent (Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta). They are a great team. To be in this team you have to be the best of the best. I had the pleasure to sit in on the open dress rehearsal of NY Philharmonic solo debut of Frank Huang, the new concertmaster (i.e. the first violinist). It was a moving musical experience. More than that, it was a peek into how a top leader of a top team operates. And it was an amazing lesson in how great individuals can become even greater, through small acts of leadership.

Listening to them play the first section of the first piece, I was deeply moved. It was a beautiful piece (The Last Spring by Grieg), played exquisitely. However, I was greatly surprised at what happened at the end of the section.

To me, the piece sounded as perfect as I could imagine. Yet, when they finished, being a rehearsal, Mr. Huang pointed out small areas to his colleagues which he thought could be even better. Small bow movements, timing, emphasis. Moments you and I couldn't hear or see, but he did. As they went back to replay small parts, each time they were measurably better. You could hear the difference. You could hear them playing tighter, more in sync.

Mr. Huang was still pointing out small things to make these great players even greater.

This is what great leaders do. For example, leaders at Facebook encourage small, but constant updates to Facebook.com – making small updates several times a day, every day behind the scenes without people seeing or knowing (which by the way is mind boggling to many in the technology space). They are making something already a leading product in the market even greater with small tweaks.