Frans Campher: How Can Leaders Multiply Impact Through Others?

Many leaders reach a point where doing more themselves no longer works. They are smart, experienced, and driven—yet their impact stalls. Teams feel dependent, innovation slows, and leadership becomes exhausting rather than energizing.

This is the core challenge explored in this episode with Frans Campher—executive coach, leadership strategist, co-founder of Integral Leadership Dynamics, and faculty member at Imperial College London. With over 30 years of global corporate and executive education experience, Frans has worked with leaders across industries who struggle with one pivotal transition: moving from managing to leading.

At the heart of his message is a powerful metaphor—and a profound identity shift. Leadership, Frans argues, is not about playing the instrument better. It’s about learning when to put the instrument down and become the conductor.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, first-generation leaders, mid-career professionals, and global executives alike, this conversation offers a clear and human framework for multiplying impact through others—without losing authenticity.

From Expert to Leader: Why the Shift Is So Hard

Most leaders are promoted because they are excellent at something. They are outstanding engineers, analysts, marketers, or operators. But leadership demands something different.

Frans explains that organizations often promote people into roles that are no longer connected to their original expertise. This creates tension, uncertainty, and often over-control.

“One of the biggest challenges I’m seeing is the ability for people to expand from managing to leading.”

The problem is not competence—it’s identity. Leaders continue to define their value by doing rather than enabling. They hold on to tasks, decisions, and control because that’s where their confidence lives.

The Orchestra Metaphor: A New Way to See Leadership

Frans uses an analogy that resonates across cultures and professions: the orchestra.

You begin as a violinist—skilled, focused, and excellent at your craft. Then you become lead violinist, responsible not only for your own performance but for others. Eventually, you are asked to become the conductor.

That moment requires putting the instrument down.

“That’s a very difficult identity shift for people to make—to become the orchestrator rather than playing the instruments.”

The conductor does not create sound directly. Their role is to create coherence, timing, trust, and shared purpose. This is where leadership truly begins.

What Is Authentic Leadership, Really?

Authenticity is often misunderstood as personality or vulnerability alone. For Frans, authentic leadership emerged from lived experience—during a period of intense professional pressure following an acquisition and international expansion.

He found himself wearing different “masks” depending on the room. The cost was exhaustion and disconnection.

The turning point came when he made a simple but radical decision:

“Who I was was sufficient. That who I was was okay.”

When he stopped performing versions of himself, something unexpected happened. Influence increased. Trust deepened. Promotions followed.

Authentic leadership, in this sense, is not about oversharing—it’s about internal alignment. Leaders who are congruent are easier to follow.

Why the Best Leaders Stop Commanding and Start Coaching

As leaders scale, control becomes the bottleneck. Frans argues that high-impact leaders shift from command and control to facilitating thinking.

This is where the leader-as-coach mindset becomes essential.

“Coaching is an elicitation skill. You’re asking questions and getting people to think differently.”

Instead of providing answers, leaders create conditions for insight, ownership, and growth. This distinction matters deeply in fast-changing environments, where no single leader can hold all the answers.

Steve Jobs captured this idea succinctly:

“You don’t hire great people and then tell them what to do.”

FAQ: Why Does Coaching Improve Retention and Performance?

Do people really want coaching at work?

Yes—because people want to be seen, valued, and stretched.

Frans highlights that employees are silently asking:

• Do my ideas matter?

• Does my work matter?

• Can I grow here?

A coaching mindset addresses all three. It increases engagement, builds bench strength, and creates long-term retention—especially critical for diverse, global, and first-generation professionals navigating complex systems.

How Coaching Scales Across Organizations

IL Dynamics has applied this philosophy at scale for decades. One of their earliest clients, GlaxoSmithKline, partnered with them for eight years to build internal coaching capacity.

The result?

• Over 500 internal coaching assignments in a single year

• Development not just for executives, but for high-potential leaders in the middle of the organization

This approach democratized leadership development and unlocked hidden talent.

Other long-term clients—including AtkinsRéalis (18 years), Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Imperial College London—demonstrate that coaching is not a “soft” skill, but a strategic capability.

Context Still Matters: Results Without Templates

Despite the human-centered approach, Frans is clear: leadership development must deliver results.

Every program IL Dynamics designs is context-specific. Strategy, culture, and outcomes matter.

“It’s not ‘this is a program I’m selling you.’ It has to fit your context and deliver results.”

This balance—between humanity and performance—is what makes the conductor metaphor so powerful.

The Ultimate Test of Leadership: Shiny Eyes

Frans closes with a quote from conductor Benjamin Zander that encapsulates everything:

“The role of the conductor is to ensure that the orchestra has shiny eyes—so that the audience has shiny eyes.”

In leadership terms: when people are energized, aligned, and seen, customers and stakeholders feel it too.

That is how leaders multiply impact—through others.

Key Takeaways for Leaders and Entrepreneurs

• Leadership is an identity shift, not a skill upgrade

• Authenticity increases influence, not risk

• Coaching is the fastest way to scale people and performance

• Control limits growth; facilitation unlocks it

• Great leaders create conditions, not instructions

Call to Action

Reflect on your own role:

• Where are you still playing the instrument?

• Where is it time to step onto the podium?

Consider experimenting this week with one coaching question instead of one directive. Share this article with a leader who might benefit—or explore Frans Campher’s work to deepen your practice.