"Direction and Purpose" as a strategy for decision-making.
Some leadership lessons from my musical background
To facilitate your understanding of what I'm about to tell, I need to explain a little of the context of my professional development. Early in my career, before entering the technology industry, I worked for many years as a music professor and orchestra conductor. I worked with chamber orchestras, choirs and taught musical structure and practical subjects in undergraduate music courses.
Both in rehearsals and in classes, I have always worked with musicians on the process of building a musical interpretation. According to maestro Osvaldo Ferreira (quoted by Charles Roussin in his master’s thesis) “to conduct is to make decisions”. It is up to the conductor or the interpreter to decide; not about the content of the music (as this is already written in the score), but about how the notes and phrases should sound.
Whether designing an interpretation or guiding a student, I have always worked with two concepts that would guide this process: direction and purpose. Any musical element to be interpreted must have a clear direction, must go somewhere and must have a reason for being, a purpose, a motive that underlies that interpretive choice.
Without direction, music loses its life, loses its narrative and enters a circular process that can quickly lead the listener to boredom and the impression that he is listening to a machine instead of a body of artists. Without purpose, the interpretation can have disconnected elements, more like a senseless mess than a work conceived in the most rigorous way.
Years later, now leading the technical team at one of the most respected data consultancy firms in Brazil, I have slightly different challenges. Managing the team well, attracting and developing people, defining and pursuing the area’s strategy, monitoring project results and ensuring that our clients are always ahead of the market in terms of data are some of these challenges. The curious thing is that even now, in this new context, the words direction and purpose still accompany me. In what way?
In the various decisions that a manager makes on a day-to-day basis, whether related to the medium/long-term strategy or related to the operation, it is essential that each decision is guided by clear and established goals and also that these decisions are well-informed, that they make sense given the context of the organization, the culture, the scenario and any other factors that interfere in the company's operation. Although these two concepts are widely known and recognized as a sine qua non condition for good management, there is an abysmal difference between knowing what to do and actually being able to do it.
It is quite common to find managers (mostly young or in their first leadership) who do not define a direction for their conduction. They do not define clear and well-established goals, or if they do, they abandon them halfway through. If they have good goals, it is common not to have adequate measurement or control to assess whether or not the intended results were achieved. This leads the team and the organization to the same feeling mentioned above of being “going around in circles”, without direction, which leads to demotivation and constant questioning whether the organization (or the manager) is mature enough.
It is equally common to find young managers who start a project or an action with no clear purpose, with no answer to "why it this being carried out". They lack depth in the organizational context. Sometimes they start working on projects that are already being developed by other teams, without synergy. Sometimes they can even do something that takes them away from the central objectives of the organization.
Decisions with clear direction inspire the entire team to look in the same direction, to pursue the same objectives, to measure their results and have control, at each new work cycle, whether we are approaching our objectives, moving away from them or going in circles. Clear direction allows the organization’s objectives to be achieved with less effort and in a more consolidated manner, always anchored in data, showing the before, the after, and the impact of the actions taken.
Decisions with purpose give meaning to people’s work. People understand what they do, the context of their actions, they are able to see and position their activities within the organization’s global strategy, and as a result, they feel more motivated. There are few things that demotivate a professional more than not understanding why any task should be performed. When this "why" is clarified, a sense of belonging is created.
In short, whether in music, performing a technical task or making a decision that will impact an entire team in the organization, it is important to remember that having a clear direction allows you to efficiently pursue the organization’s global objectives and having a clear purpose gives meaning to work.
