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As a professional speaker, I focus on leadership and management. But I have a major handicap to overcome: the conventional wisdom that a core goal of leadership is to motivate greater effort.
A coach or leader urging everyone on to greater effort evokes a wonderfully romantic image. It sings mightily to the soul. Every sports tale from The Gipper to Rocky reinforces this grand notion. But, as I learned from the great orchestral conductors who excused us from practice early, increased effort does not always translate to the desired result.
We all know that we always have one more ounce of reserve energy in there, and the team will admire us for devoting it to the group effort. There is a certain satisfaction in having “given it your all.” Managers take pride in squeezing every ounce of energy out of their workforce. That’s their job, isn’t it? And it’s nice to think that, if we just crank ourselves up to “110%,” we will prevail in any competitive venture. These ideas provide a euphoric sense of our own potential empowerment.
As a leadership or motivational speaker, I often feel obliged to offer that cheerleading. The audience expects me to promulgate a message that yet again encourages people to push themselves further, and crank out that last dime of energy and effort.
Sorry. I just can’t do that.
I certainly believed in the “push yourself harder” management model when I was a student. But when I became a professional musician, I quickly discovered that real professionals don’t seek to work harder. They always seek to work deeper and smarter – to be more efficient, because energy is a finite resource, and it is a sin to waste it.
Efficiency is not very sexy. It does not impress amateur observers. But for a true professional, the goal is never to exhaust yourself. The idea is to achieve your goal with as little energy as possible, because you will always need that leftover energy later on.
In the musical world, brass players can only play for so long before their lips start to give out. In the more common context of sports, there is a lot to be said for giving it your greatest effort, but you also must save yourself for the final “kick” to the finish line. People who burn themselves out early in the race never win the gold medal.
In orchestras, we actually had contempt for people who did not manage their energy well. Some people would practice too much on a show day. They were amateurishly venting their performance anxiety, and, when showtime came, they had nothing left. We would have preferred less effort beforehand.
