5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Unexpected But Very Useful Analogy, September 19, 2009
This review is from: Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening (Hardcover)
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This amazing book allows one to learn more about both orchestras and leadership. When I first approached this book, I was skeptical. But, over this relatively short book (only a little over a hundred pages), my concerns were all raised and addressed.
While this book did cover much that I had learned elsewhere, it did give me a new appreciation for some of that, and went on to present some ideas that were new to me. My favorite lesson was that, as a conductor does in an orchestra, a business leader has a perspective that is fundamentally different from those he leads. This is not only due to his looking in a different direction, but also because he hears things differently. Many times as a leader, I had not realized this and expected those whom I led to see what I saw. This book has definitely improved my leadership skills.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Decent message, but a boring and ho hum read, May 5, 2010
Sad! I really wanted to like this book, as listening truly IS such an important and often-overlooked aspect of leadership. However, Maestro was just...boring! The story - even more so than other personal development parables - was cheesy. The writing was average, if not a bit below. It didn't keep my attention nor clearly point out its lessons.
Is listening an important part of leadership? An important part of ANY type of business? You bet. Is reading Maestro an entertaining way to learn that lesson? Zzzz...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Parable of Violins, Cheese and Icebergs, December 26, 2009
This review is from: Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening (Hardcover)
Some business lessons are better taught by story than rigorous facts and analysis.
We learned about change and how to prepare and cope with it in Who Moved My Cheese? The same was done in John Kotter's Our Iceberg is Melting.
And now, conductor, Roger Nierenberg explores leadership in a new business fable to add to the list, Maestro.
In Nierenberg's parable, we follow a business executive struggling to motivate his team to work together so they might stop their business' sinking ship.
The executive befriends an orchestra conductor who allows the executive to sit within the orchestra during rehearsals. And it's from that seat that the executive soon learns the value that listening has on leadership.
For instance, from the violin section, one may not understand what the double basses are hearing, or how it may impact how they play. In the same way, one business division may be working in a silo -- not considering its impact on the rest of the company.
And so by learning how a large and diverse orchestra works so flawlessly, the executive finds leadership principles to apply to his own career.
Seeing that it's a parable, it's a bit difficult to select some quick-meaning quotes, but here's a few of my favorites:
"...a strong vision can lead people away from focusing on their part alone toward being aware of the whole. The vision should be lofty enough to stir and challenge people. If it's too limited, then people will feel underutilized and uninspired."
"Tasks that might have previously seemed routine now acquire meaning and beauty. While they are doing their jobs, they're always thinking of the grand vision."
"I hadn't realized that a micromanager's core problem is not too much leadership, but rather too little. His vision and strategy are withheld or never explained."
"A leader must commit to that which has not yet happened. Otherwise you are not really leading; in fact, you are actually following."
"What energizes people is the leader's act of committing to what is possible."
And interestingly enough, Nierenberg believes in the view from the conductor's podium, or next to a violinist, so much he's changing corporations one at a time in his Music Paradigm program.
The Music Paradigm is essentially a living, interactive example of the book, Maestro. Available to corporations of varying sizes, Nierenberg seats executives within his orchestra and leads them through a series of exercises with the musicians in order to demonstrate the truth about leadership and a functioning organization.
Maestro may be what your organization needs to get 'on the same page.' It's a very short and quick read and may do wonders to help departments within the same company understand how very important it is to not only work together, but harmoniously and productively.
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