The Ignorant Maestro
How Great Leaders Inspire Unpredictable Brilliance
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
In The Ignorant Maestro, Symphony Orchestra conductor Itay Talgam reveals the art of successful leadership by looking at the world's greatest conductors
A conductor in front of his orchestra is an iconic symbol of leadership. But what does a maestro actually do to ensure cooperation, harmony and a flawless performance?
The key is to embrace ignorance.
For twenty years, orchestra conductor Itay Talgam has drawn on his experience on the podium to teach non-musicians the art of leading like a conductor - from CEOs to entrepreneurs, politicians to schoolteachers. In The Ignorant Maestro, he brings that art to leaders everywhere.
Turning to six of the most iconic conductors as examples, from the dictatorial Muti to Bernstein, the master of dialogue, Talgam's anecdotes and insights will change the way you think about listening, humility and the path to unpredictable brilliance. They will equip you for exceptional leadership. And they will empower you to lead your team to greater harmony.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This strained offering from orchestral conductor and leadership speaker Talgam frames leadership lessons through an orchestra leader's perspective, peppered with examples of great conductors, such as Richard Strauss. Talgam, a grandchild of the first kibbutznik pioneers to Israel, takes an entrepreneurial and fail-fast-fail-first approach to leadership; ignorance, according to him, can be overcome by a willingness to learn from and listen to colleagues and respected mentors. Talgam admits to knowing very little about the fields in which most of his consulting clients work; this has not, to his mind, precluded him from being able to lead them toward success. His tone is encouraging "You are the designer of your organization, the composer and the orchestrator of its flow of work" but it is not always clear how he expects his readers to interpret his more orchestra-specific musings on topics such as "gap handling" (dealing with the spaces between notes) and creating "enough structure to sustain the flow" in the "metaphorical music of the workplace." Though earnest and well intentioned, this book is too vague and meandering in its execution, and the musical metaphor is stretched too thin. An enthusiastic attempt that misses the mark.
