One of the most destructive forces in a business is a conductor without a team.

Conductors by their nature don’t have to be a specialist in any one area, they simply need to understand their team’s role and seek to facilitate its operation as best they can.

They are the future of management, a person that although on their own might not seem extraordinary, are when combined with a team able to extract more than the sum of their own parts from that team.

And yet without a team a conductor becomes something else.

Without a team to organise or a project to work on conductors become a nuisance.

This doesn’t mean that the conductor themselves is a bad person, but often skilled in politics and problem solving, conductors left to their own devices go in search of something to do.

Imagine then that you had 5 teams in your business, each with their own conductor.

Regardless of output, conductors tend to be protective of their pack. They treat their work like their home life and as such take any review of their team’s performance as a personal attack.

Add into the mix then a 6th conductor, one with nothing to do. In order to justify their own existence they start looking for something to do. Naturally they gravitate towards the teams that they have experience with or have a particular problem.

In order to be helpful they start “sticking their oar in” with a particular team and much like when an orchestra has to look at two conductors, all hell breaks loose.

There is nothing good that can come from having a spare conductor; that is unless you have a conductor to conduct the conductors!

As such if you find yourself with a conductor spare, you need to address the situation sharpish. That means finding them something to do or cutting them loose.

Conductors with time on their hands cause a variety of problems. They spread rumours, create unrest, get involved when they shouldn’t and a whole manner of other issues.

At best they upset the conductor in charge and damage the team’s performance and as such your best option is to remove them from the business.

Chapter Summary:

• Never have two conductors on one team
• Conductors with nothing to do seek out roles to play
• Conductors with nothing to do can be divisive figures
• Find conductors something to do or cut them loose

Read our next blog post “Understand your role”.