The leadership, it is 'a changin'

What?
Leadership of musicians requires a blend of managerial and leadership skills in order to be effective.  I have been leading the music for a contemporary worship service at Dahlgren United Methodist Church for two years and have learned a lot about leadership in the process.  In my experience, using a single leadership style is insufficient for meeting group goals as the group develops.  The band I currently lead is currently at a crossroads, and my intuition tells me it may be time to switch leadership styles yet again.

So what?
In the early days of the band, I relied primarily on an authoritarian version of leadership, analogous to assigned leadership from Northouse (2010) or basis for authority leadership as defined by Garrick (2004).  According to Annick Brennen,

The Authoritarian Leadership Style is characterized by a leader who makes all the decisions and passes the directives to subordinates who are expected to carry these out under very close supervision.

Authoritarian leadership was necessary because team cohesion was still developing, with members of the band looking for formal guidance at all decision points.  Band members did not exercise initiative early on, so directive orders were necessary.  According to Northouse (2010), I was using legitimate power during this time period based on my position as band leader.

As the band began to form a more cohesive identity and become comfortable with one another, the leadership style I used changed.  Members were becoming more vocal in their preferences and were bringing forth their own ideas for improvement.  The group needed to be led in a different way that focused on conflict resolution and consensus finding, so I switched to an Emotional Intelligence style of leadership, focusing as much on the members of the band as I did on the execution of its mission.

Now what?
Now, the band has a high degree of cohesion and is starting to become restless with the status quo.  All of the members are working together to seek new ways to achieve the group's goal.  This search has led to many deep discussions reflecting on overall vision, mission, effectiveness.  I believe the time is right for my leadership style to switch to inter-personal leadership (Garrick, 2004).  In the short term, I plan to employ principles of servant leadership to elevate the individual the members of the group.  I have also decided to "take my hands off the wheel" and allow the band members to lead themselves.  I hope that these changes in leadership will take the band to the next level.


Guitarist image courtesy of steved_np3