Leadership Is Creating Resonance
A room full of business leaders, asked to hum, finds the same note within seconds. Drawing on Hartmut Rosa's philosophy of resonance and a string quartet experiment with four musicians who had never met, Bernhard Kerres argues that leadership is not about listening, or even active listening — it is about creating the conditions in which voices, ideas, and perspectives vibrate together into something greater.
Published 2025-08-24 by Bernhard Kerres
A room filled with businesspeople, diplomats, and politicians. Many of them have not met before. They arrive with busy schedules and various concerns from their daily work. I ask them to stand up, close their eyes, and take a deep breath. Then I invite them to hum.
At first, the room is a sea of scattered sounds — some high, some low, some hesitant, some bold. And then, something extraordinary happens. Within seconds, without instruction, without negotiation, without a conductor, they align. A single note fills the room — one resonance.
That is the power of music. It connects us in ways no words can. And it offers profound lessons for leadership.
Beyond Listening
We often speak of listening as a leadership skill. Good leaders listen. Great leaders practice active listening. But as essential as those are, they are not enough.
Listening is not the end. It is the beginning.
What matters most is whether leaders create the space for resonance — the possibility that out of dissonance, difference, and diversity, something shared and transformative can emerge. The German sociologist Hartmut Rosa, in his 2016 book Resonanz, defines resonance as a relationship of mutual vibration between self and world — a connection in which something genuinely passes between two parties, neither merely sent nor merely received. That is the leadership question I am after.
Resonance is not about eliminating differences. It is about allowing them to vibrate together. It is the difference between compromise and creativity, between polite agreement and genuine alignment.
Lessons from a String Quartet
I have had the joy of working with some of the world's finest string quartets — the Alban Berg Quartet, the Belcea Quartet, and others. A few years ago, I invited four outstanding musicians who had never met before — Tosca Opdam, Eric Silberger, Mathis Rochat, and Christine Lee — to come together in Germany. They had two days to rehearse before giving a performance.
We observed them closely. Three things stood out.
They were prepared. Each came with their part fully mastered. They didn't arrive to figure it out — they arrived to contribute.
They began by playing rather than talking. Before discussing interpretations or negotiating ideas, they opened their instrument cases and let the music speak. Resonance began not in words, but in shared sound.
They experimented with joy. They played with their backs to each other. For an hour, the men did not speak while the women led. They swapped chairs. They laughed, tried, listened, and adapted.
After two days, they delivered a magical performance. Not because they had resolved every disagreement, and not because one leader had imposed a vision. Because they had created resonance — a state in which individual mastery and collective openness combined to produce something none of them could have achieved alone.
The Leadership Parallel
For executives, the lesson is clear.
Preparation matters. Come with your part mastered — mastered in a way that allows you to contribute, not just to defend your preparation.
Listening is more than words. Sometimes you must "open the instrument case" and do the work together before debate.
Experimentation is not a luxury. It is a pathway to trust, creativity, and joy.
Most of all, leadership is not about enforcing harmony or ironing out differences. That leads to false agreement, compromise, and mediocrity. Leadership is about creating the conditions for resonance — where voices, ideas, and perspectives vibrate together into something greater.
Resonance as a Practice
Resonance cannot be forced. But it can be invited.
It begins with silence. With presence. With a willingness to listen not just for what is being said, but for what is wanting to emerge.
It requires courage to hold dissonance — to resist premature compromise and allow tension to ripen into creativity.
And it flourishes when leaders ask open questions, when they make space for others to bring their whole selves, not just their titles, roles, or functions.
Closing Reflection
Music shows us what leadership can be. It is not command and control. It is not about playing every note. It is about creating resonance.
When leaders do this, organizations not only function — they thrive. They sing.
Leadership is creating resonance.
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This article is the summary of a keynote I delivered at Sit Down 2025 in Ljubljana on 23 August 2025. With thanks to SPIRIT Slovenia, the Ministry of Economy, Tourism, and Sport, the Ljubljana Festival, and Art BSA for the invitation.
To explore a keynote on resonance and leadership for your organization, reach me at bernhardkerres.com (https://book.bernhardkerres.com/meetings/). The companion piece on what happens when executives actually conduct live musicians is Performing Leadership (https://www.bernhardkerres.com/read/performing-leadership/).
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About the author
Bernhard Kerres trained as an opera singer before joining Booz Allen Hamilton as a strategy consultant, then moved into CFO and CEO roles at two listed European technology companies, and served from 2007 to 2013 as CEO and Artistic Director (Intendant) of the Wiener Konzerthaus. Today he works as a leadership coach, executive advisor, and keynote speaker. He is a PCC-certified ICF coach, holds an MBA from London Business School, and was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art. He is the founder of RolePlays.ai, an AI platform for practicing high-stakes leadership conversations.
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Reference
Rosa, H. (2016). Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung. Berlin: Suhrkamp. English edition: Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World, trans. James C. Wagner. Cambridge: Polity, 2019.