Two things caught my eye on the telly over the weekend (apart of course from the return of the sublime "X Factor" of which I am a total addict), the first being the latest round of "Last Choir Standing" and the second being the Beijing Olympics.

Just what difference does a conductor make?

Only Men Aloud are a fabulous male voice choir with a contempory twist. In a previous heat of "Last Choir Standing" they had had to perform without their Musical Director. Now I'm sure like me you've often wondered if an orchestra really need the conductor to be there? Surely they know the music, and some of them can't even really see the conductor waving his arms about anyway. Just what difference does the conductor make?

Well for Only Men Aloud, it made all the difference. Their performance, without the encouragement and leadership of Tim, their MD, was lacklustre and distinctly average. In the VT shown the following week when Tim was back (it never was explained where he had been........) you saw Tim putting the choir through their paces in rehearsals. You saw Tim pushing them to excel, stretching them individually and collectively, setting them arrangements and harmonies that took them beyond what they thought themselves capable of. He was unrelenting. He was unreasonable. He was uncompromising. He was a tyrant. The result when it came to show time, was a simply fabulous choral performance, and comments from the judges to die for. And the reward for Tim? Hugs of love and approbation from his guys - the same ones who could cheerfully have killed him a few days earlier.

Interestingly for me, the other choirs in real contention, a gospel choir and an unpronounceable welsh school choir, each have MDs with the same characteristics as Tim - total commitment and passion for their cause, total belief in the ability of their choirs to produce extraordinary performances and, critically, the self belief and personal commitment to lead their choirs.

And what about sports coaches?

Team GB's performance in Beijing has exceeded all expectations. We have already beaten our gold medal tally from Athens, and we are yet half way through. I have been mesmerised by the cycling (not just the funny helmets and ridiculous bikes) and by the commitment of the athletes to their objectives. Hearing Rebecca Romero, one of our cycling gold medallists, and the first Britain ever to win Olympic medals at two different sports, fighting back the tears of emotion as she described her journey to the gold medal - a journey of pain and disappointment and frustration - and then hearing her credit her coaches, you knew that she had not achieved gold through her personal efforts alone. 

Neither of her coaches have ever won Olympic medals by the way, so I wonder where they get Rebecca's respect from. Same place as Tiger Wood's coach Hank Haney gets his respect I guess - from having the personal leadership skills to know their proteges, to believe in them and to stretch them to extraordinary achievement. In business one of the most common misconceptions in management is that you earn respect as a manager by showing that you can do the job of those you are managing. Take a lesson from sports coaches, and don't waste your time. Focus on creating the respect that comes from true leadership; from taking someone out of their comfort zone to extraordinary performance.

Everyone is capable of being extraordinary

We all have the potential to be extraordinary - to achieve extraordinary things. But maybe we can't get there without a leader? Writing the above I was reminded of some of my favourite words on leadership, written about Ernest Shackleton nearly 100 years ago: "At the core of Shackleton’s gift for leadership in crisis was an adamantine conviction that quite ordinary individuals were capable of heroic feats if the circumstances required; the weak and the strong could and must survive together.The mystique that Shackleton acquired as a leader may be partly attributed to the fact that he elicited from his men strength and endurance they had never imagined they possessed. He ennobled them." Was dear old Ernest a nice guy? Did he earn his popularity by letting his crew off or by doing things for them? Absolutely not. He always put doing the right thing in front of any consideration of his personal popularity.  

And returning for just a moment to "The X Factor" isn't it interesting, whatever you think of Simon Cowell, that the only judge whose approval means anything to the contestants is his. He gives brutal feedback, calling it just as he sees it. He is undoubtedly cruel at times and is often a characature of himself, but its Simon's vote they all crave. Who gives a stuff about what nice old Louis thinks?

The burden of leadership

The bottom line for us as leaders is that we cannot hide from the risk of unpopularity, or accusations of unfairness, or unreasonableness, or even of being evangelistic. If we are not prepared to come out of our comfort zones to take these risks, then we will never get others out of their comfort zones and we will lead a mediocre team. In which case we may as well do a Tim and have an unexplained week off, for all the difference we make.