Do you have this kind of conductor / quarterback
leading your all-star exit team?

In a news report on CBS This Morning (November 4, 2013), Cultural Correspondent, Wynton Marsalis presented a piece called Symphony and Scrimmage comparing the central role that conductors and quarterbacks play. I couldn't help but relate all that they have in common with the central role of your exit strategist. I have been using the analogy of the symphony conductor for years.

Look at the parallels between these two outstanding professionals, Tom Brady and Alan Gilbert, legends in their own fields. Look for the parallel skills and results that you would want from the exit strategist at your side to achieve your optimum outcome.

Your Quarterback / Conductor

As Patriot’s quarterback, Tom Brady and New York Philharmonic conductor, Alan Gilbert related in the piece, the quarterback/conductor must:

• Understand the function of every role
• Have a sense of what every player is going through (every player on the field, every instrument and musician in the orchestra)
• Not dictate how each person performs
• Respond to what each person offers
• Bring out excellence of every player on the field/every musician on stage
• Know exactly what they are going for, what result they want from each player/ performer in a unified performance

These two masters have the same philosophy, adhere to the same principles, and see their team/orchestra the same way. They deliver and bring out this level of excellence from every musician and every player at every outing (game or concert). That’s what you deserve from your entire exit team with a dedicated exit strategist as your conductor.

To Achieve Your Exit Transaction/ Transition

Correspondent Wynton Marsalis explained that: “A well-balanced football team plays like a symphony orchestra. Their performance is a delicate balance….The professions are strikingly similar.” That delicate balance is also imperative to achieve your exit transaction/transition.

To achieve their objective (winning a football championship/ delivering a world class performance of a symphony) the quarterback/conductor will:

• Prepare extensively long before the team/orchestra is assembled to practice together
• Constantly look at everything
• Set the pace/tempo of the game/symphony
• Synchronize the entire team/orchestra
• Be one step ahead of everyone else, to control the present moment of play and see ahead/read the score ahead to queue the right player/musician to join at the right moment
• Harmonize the mechanics of game play/movements of the symphony
• Bring excellence, emotion and heart and timing to every game/symphony performance

Behind their perfect precision and finesse, is their ever present understanding of human fundamentals. Both of these world-class facilitators (Tom Brady and Alan Gilbert) said that the great thing about the football team/the orchestra is how they come together. The results defy belief, the parts together add up to something much bigger. Big enough to excite the imagination. A sight to see.

Isn't that what you want from YOUR All-Star
exit team?

Review these lists of what a ‘quarterback’/conductor must do and will do to achieve those world class results consistently. Isn't that the standard of coordination, cooperation, collaboration you want on your exit team? Isn’t that what you want your exit strategist to bring to planning your exit strategy?