The key to any professional career is to know when you are a soloist and when you are an ensemble player.  An ensemble player works as part of the team and play a (probably) pedestrian harmonic component in order to everything to come together correctly.  In contrast, the soloist is the star.  They are who the audience comes to see, and they are expected to be perfect and flawless.  An ensemble player who makes a mistake is embarrassed, a soloist who makes a mistake is disgraced.

Each role requires different skills and different techniques to practice.  Traditionally, the soloist memorizes the music while the ensemble player is able to read read it.  The ensemble player is expected to blend in and not have a distance sound while the soloist needs to do the opposite.  Finally in practice, the soloist can’t make mistakes.  They need to go back and re-play until the passage is perfect.  An ensemble player needs to learn to play through mistakes.  The orchestra will never stop for the ensemble player, they need to mess up and move on.  In other words:

A talented musician can play both roles, and for you to be successful you need to be able to play both as well.  A leader in an organization must know when to make a stand (soloist) or when to work as part of the team (ensemble).  If someone else is having a good quarter, let them have it and help them be successful.  The right action to take in any situation is based on the context and the role you play.  By identifying the role, and understanding if you need to be part of a team or the star, you can best apply your talent and possibly have fun in the process.

Personal Note

When I worked for Deloitte they had a concept called Mass Career Customization (MCC) and the salient concept for me was “Dialed Up or Dialed Down”.  Someone who was “dialed up” was someone who was ready to do whatever it takes to get to the next level and someone who was “dialed down” was on a slower career trajectory in order to do something else (such as raise a family, take care of a friend or loved one).  I think about this often when I try to balance my career with my life.  To extend the metaphor, being “dialed up” is the soloist and being “dialed down” is the ensemble player.

For whatever reason, this concept has stuck with me and helped me navigate my career and my life as I became a father and a husband.  When I get frustrated with my progress at my job I always ask myself “am I dialed up or am I dialed down?” and that tends to get me the clarity I want.  Either I am dialed up and I have work to do, or I am dialed down and I need to be grateful for what I have and re-new the focus on my non-career priorities.