When Maestro Wolfgang Heinzel stands before the Merck Orchestra, he may look like an authoritarian leader, commanding musicians from his podium. But Heinzel doesn’t actually know how to play the instruments himself—“in the same way a leader in an organization can’t do everyone’s job,” says Jon Chilingerian. What maestros—and good leaders—understand:

Melissa Dyrdahl, a former executive at Adobe, sums up pretty well the essence of taking on a leadership role: You get rewarded in a company by doing your job really well. But when you get promoted into management, you have to stop being the doer and start being the leader. For some people, that is a difficult transition ...

You’re frustrated. You carefully explained what needed to be done, in detail, gave the deadline and even suggested interim deadlines. Yet, the result was underwhelming. What happened? You answered four questions for your team: Who? What? When? and How? But you didn’t say Why.