Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening

by Roger Nierenberg

Overview

A conductor reveals powerful leadership lessons by explaining the inner workings of a symphony orchestra

Roger Nierenberg, a veteran conductor, is the creator of The Music Paradigm, a unique program that invites people to sit INSIDE a professional symphony orchestra as the musicians and conductor solve problems together.

He captures that experience in Maestro: A Surprising Story about Leading by Listening, a parable about a rising executive tough challenges. The narrator befriends an orchestra conductor and is inspired to think about leadership and communication in an entirely new way.

For instance:

• A maestro doesn't micromanage, but encourages others to develop their own solutions. There's a big difference between conducting and trying to play all the instruments.

• A maestro helps people feel ownership of the whole piece, not just their individual parts.

• A maestro leads by listening. When people sense genuine open-mindedness, they offer more of their talent. If not, they get defensive and hold back their best ideas.

• Truly great leaders, whether conductors striving for perfect harmony or CEOs reaching for excellence, act with a vision of their organization at its best.

For more information, visit: www.MaestroBook.com


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101148891
Publisher:	Temple Publications International, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	318,980
File size:	168 KB

About the Author

Roger Nierenberg is a highly successful conductor who has performed with some of the most distinguished orchestras in America and Europe. Through his interactive program, the Music Paradigm, he has taught hundreds of top companies around the world how to improve their leadership skills and teamwork.

Editorial Reviews

The most vibrant leadership concepts are metaphors that we can all understand. Roger Nierenberg's Maestro fable resonates, one might say, from his experiences as the creator/conductor of The Music Paradigm, a program that invites people into an orchestra to share the experience of musicians and conductor solving problems. There are lessons to be learned here: A true maestro doesn't attempt to play every instrument; micromanaging is every egotist's downfall. The best conductors lead by listening and encouraging every violinist, horn player, and timpanist to feel ownership of the whole piece. And once you've got all that down, you'll be ready for office encores.

Conductor Nierenberg has brought his skills at leading an orchestra to the business world with what he calls the Music Paradigm. Nierenberg teaches executives how to turn a company into a euphonious symphony of work. Simplistic and cloying, Nierenberg teaches his Music Paradigm through a parable; he presents an executive whose company is facing the challenges of the company working together effectively. Determined to discover new methods of leadership, the executive decides to sit in on his daughter's violin teacher's symphony rehearsal. As he sits in over several weeks, he learns not to oversee every note (i.e. micromanage), to lead (not to cheerlead), to listen first, and to create confidence in his employees by letting them take ownership of their decisions. Unfortunately, this executive is so obsessed with learning from the conductor that his mind is always on his next visit, and he often can't wait to get away from an acrimonious conversation at work to sit in with the orchestra. The parable is undermined by the executive's seeming self-regard; whatever lessons he's supposed to learn are lost in his own quest to save himself.
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