10 Characteristics of the Community Maestro: Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part article titled “10 Characteristics of the Community Maestro.” Click here for Part 1.

Conducting meetings, presentations, and conversations yields a plethora of information, opinions, definitions, and models. The community maestro displays an uncanny ability to draw on the strengths of all, coalescing them into cooperative actions that bring about the desired change.

The first five characteristics described in the first article were as follows:

1. The Community Maestro’s Intention – a mental determination, purpose, or aim to achieve a specific result.
2. The Community Maestro’s Contemplation – deep, focused, quiet reflection.
3. The Community Maestro’s Vision – vivid mental image, foresight, or strategic goal for the future.
4. The Community Maestro’s Inspiration – stimulated mentally or emotionally, especially toward creativity; drawing in a breath.
5. The Community Maestro’s Connection – the relationship or link between people, things, or ideas.

Let’s consider the remaining characteristics.

The Community Maestro’s Facilitation
Facilitation – the possibility of making something possible or easier.

I would venture to say that when we hear the word “facilitation,” we think of leading or running a meeting. But built into the concept of facilitation is the accomplishment of something, which raises a question of purpose and effect. When working with a community, facilitation is part of a single meeting, but it’s also part of the broader purpose and work that the meeting represents.

We have all been part of meetings that are repeatedly facilitated without real progress because the conversations are always the same. When a process is facilitated with an abundance of discussion producing ideas and opinions, but no real, actionable purpose is realized, that is conducting a meeting. Community maestros facilitate purposeful movement with restorative outcomes.

What sets the community maestro’s facilitation apart from that of a meeting conductor is their understanding of and capacity to cultivate the atmosphere and focus, all the way down to the individual. While there is a shared score that everyone is playing, the maestro sees and hears all of the individual players and knows their parts, sometimes better than they do.

The maestro as facilitator listens well, beyond what others might even hear. How they facilitate is guided by what they hear in conversations with individuals and when everyone is in the room together. What they hear can shift how they facilitate

Facilitation takes place not only in the room but also outside the room. The stirring up outside of meeting times is not only to fill the room, but to foster the movement. The community maestro is a collector and gatherer of people, but not just to conduct a successful meeting.

I have an earlier article entitled Cultivate, where you can explore this approach to facilitating in more depth.

The Community Maestro’s Adaptation

Adaptation – the process of changing or adjusting to better suit new conditions, environments, or purposes.

Adaptive leadership is a topic well represented in books, in the fields of change theory and management, and even as university-level courses of study. To unpack a few characteristics of adaptation, I’ll use the acronym FAST: Flexible, Agile, Stabilizing, and Translatable.

Note: FAST is about quickly recognizing the need, not necessarily quickly changing everything. Sometimes adaptation takes time, like turning a giant ship. The community maestro is a master of knowing when and how to adapt, without losing themselves in the process.

 Flexible – Adjusting to the context and content happens as the community maestro reads the room. Sometimes this is a literal gathering being facilitated, and the agenda needs to shift. A stiff conductor of a meeting might awkwardly complain about the changes, resist making them, or even ignore the need and refuse to be flexible. This is particularly true if what is being fostered is new. The maestro learning along the way necessitates flexibility to prevent the unnecessary and unhelpful fracturing of relationships and fizzling of the strategic work.

Agile – Moving with wisdom and insight means adaptation is clearly intentional and wonderfully confident because the adjustments are informed. Agility in movement isn’t merely quick; it’s responsive. If our maestro image is shifted to a star running back, his agility stems from seeing beyond the moment. He sees where things are going based on the current trajectories of everyone around him, but then he decides. Agility is about deciding with confidence to make a move and adapt.

Stabilizing – A community maestro is a master at calming the room, even in an intense context and content. They know when and how to settle the atmosphere, but at the same time, they don’t avoid discussing the hard stuff. This is a capacity you want in the room when problems or purposes need to be defined honestly and clearly. Finding and agreeing on answers can be a stormy process. Like a skilled sailor, the maestro knows how to keep the boat upright and moving in a storm. Part of the quality is in their personhood. They are a stable person; therefore, they are a stabilizing presence.

Translatable – No matter what group they facilitate, where they speak, what vision they cast, or what leadership they provide, the community maestro communicates in the context. They have a way of matching context that doesn’t feel artificial. The maestro’s ability to adapt to the people with whom they are facilitating or speaking is a special trait. He or she adapts to changes in culture, education, generation, or economics with ease. From communication to facilitation to how they are present as a person, the community maestro is fully aware of where they are and with whom, and they adapt so that the message and meaning get through and the movement begins.

The Community Maestro’s Emotion
Emotion – a strong feeling usually directed toward something or someone, which can even have physiological and behavioral expressions

When you watch a maestro at work, it’s clear that they are moved by what they hear in their mind, heart, and soul before anyone else hears it. The maestro leads the orchestra into what he hears, which then leads the audience. Seeing the maestro nurturing the musical atmosphere from that depth of emotion and feeling is, all by itself, moving. It’s clear that he or she is conducting from a deep well.

The community maestro feels the world, including what he or she hears about, sees from a distance, or learns from the news. It is from that deep place of emotion that they lead others. For someone to be a person who moves a community to shared action usually means they are emotionally moved by what matters to them. “Motion” is in the actual word used to indicate that we have these stirrings about people, things, issues, needs, hopes, and dreams.

Self-restraint for the community maestro’s emotions is the ability to feel fully, while showing only what fits the moment, the message, and the audience. This is a different response to emotion than stuffing what is stirred. The maestro knows how to harness the power of emotion without over-conducting and blowing a fuse. It’s an uncomfortable moment when a meeting facilitator blows up. But it’s also uncomfortable to have a facilitator who has zero emotional connection or displays, and you wonder if they are alive inside.

A lifetime as a maestro promises recurring emotional waves…
Excitement
Depression
Frustration
Anger
Pain
Optimism
Anticipation
Hurt
Hopefulness
…and abundantly more.

Because of what the community maestro carries in their deeper self, there must be a capacity for self-care. They acknowledge and navigate the intense stirrings, yet the maestro also maintains self-awareness when the love and fire for this community-impacting work have dissipated. Picture trying to light others’ fires when you have none to offer. If you recognize your need to refuel and reignite, invest some time in my article “Burn Again.”

The Community Maestro’s Determination
Determination – Firmness of purpose; resoluteness.

Maybe you’ve heard it said, “I won’t let go because it won’t let me go.” The emotions described above, together with the community maestro’s intention outlined in part 1 of this article, lead to this determination. It’s fire in the belly and focused intentions, all for the good of people and communities.

Along the path of your community impact investment, you may also have heard someone declare, “Let’s be honest, we’re fighting a losing battle!” The community maestro will listen to that person’s frustration and discouragement, but will also usher in hope and vision that flow from resolve.

This maestro determination differs from being driven primarily by the need to succeed or complete a task. When the “failure is not an option” sentiment is more about the person trying to accomplish something than about what is being accomplished, that’s not the maestro. The maestro doesn’t just want to finish one score and move on to the next. They are determined because the work matters to people’s lives, not just the bottom line.

The community maestro’s determination is patient, able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering. When the “shiny new” wears off, the initial crowd may start to drop off, but the maestro will not. Experience over time cultivates the maestro’s ability to manage the externalizing of the internal fire. That’s one of the benefits of contemplation, as described in Part 1 of this 2-part blog.

When no one else steps up, keeps going, or sees what the maestro sees, he or she keeps engaging.

The Community Maestro’s Ovation
Ovation – an extended and often loud and standing applause, approval, and appreciation by an audience.

The culmination of all the maestro’s characteristics described above is in the ovation: how they treat the beauty that has emerged from the intentions, contemplation, vision, inspiration, connection, facilitation, adaptation, emotion, and determination.

How success is carried and how applause is responded to is revelatory about a person. Some people live for the applause. Success is carried well by the maestro because the good they seek is always pursued with a community vision, never fueled by self-aggrandizement. They want the lives of people and communities to be at their best.

Sometimes, a community leader can approach their work for the credit to be gained, rather than the good to be created. The difference between these leaders is vast, making a stark distinction in how they get their work done and how they celebrate its success.

Have you ever worked for someone who seemed never able to give credit where credit is due? They demand the spotlight, don’t share it well, if at all, and might milk the attention for all it is worth. A conductor without the orchestra is a person standing alone in silence.

A diverse team across the layers, elements, and pathways of effective community building. When that shared work succeeds, the community maestro celebrates every part played and gives a standing ovation to each one.

When I reflect on my nearly forty years of investing in people and communities, the faces of a plethora of people are starring in the documentary that plays in my mind. Along with the maestro, communities need a variety of leaders working together to understand the problems that plague their people, so that the necessary solutions can be created. The mix of skills, strengths, and capacities among those leaders is innumerable.

Oh, and as you ponder who the maestro might be in your community, don’t forget to consider that it could be you.

Again, this is Part 2 of a two-part article. To read or listen to 10 Characteristics of the Community Maestro: Part 1, click here.

Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or OasisInsight network and achieve new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com.

Dr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Specialist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested nearly forty years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, The Struggle Coach, and the founder of Entrusted Foundation. His great passion is to help people and communities grow stronger. Chuck is the proud husband of Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to nine.