Business Intelligence
March 24, 2011
Leadership and The Music Paradigm
Taking an accepted idea and presenting it in a different and seemingly unrelated approach can allow you to connect to the idea like you hadn’t before. I had that experience when attending The Music Paradigm on March 22, 2011 at the Carpenter Theater at CenterStage.
The idea behind the Music Paradigm is to show different styles of leadership and the importance of each team member being a part of a group. The program was brought by local business consultant Floricane, LLCand the Richmond Symphonyand led by renowned conductor Roger Nierenberg. He is also the author of a book on leadership called “Maestro.”
Each program participant was asked to sit next to the musician. I ended up next to the viola players. During the event, Mr. Nierenberg performed several exercises that helped bring his points about leadership and team functions across. For example, even though each player plays his own part, at the end, they are all part of a big team. It is the role of the conductor (or the leader) to bring these parts together, and make sure they all sound in sync with each other. At one time, the conductor left the stage to show that the orchestra can perform even without him, which they did quite well (not to say that the leaders are not important). This only proves that the musicians are all professionals and know what they are doing.
The style of the leadership has a great effect on the team as well. Micromanaging, lack of emotions or not keeping the whole team aware of what is going on, are some of the milestones to a successful company. For example, when the conductor started to conduct without any emotions, one of the players said that she lost interest in the music and started to think about lunch. When the conductor started to micromanage each player, the cello player felt that the conductor was in his face and offensive. Also, the role of the conductor is to compel each player to play the music the way the conductor wants him to play (i.e. angrily, softly, and quietly). But most importantly, it is essential for the conductor to have a clear vision of what he wants the overall music to sound like. By having this vision, he can lead each of his players towards it.
This likely does not sound like anything new, but it was a great experience to see it from the perspective of the orchestra, to see the inner workings and how things operate behind the scenes, which look a lot like in any other company or organization.
The most important lessons learned were:
• Have a vision
• Learn how to listen
• Inspire and reward your team members
• Have trust
It is a little bit challenging to describe in a few words what went on the stage, especially since most of it was expressed through music. But I GREATLY enjoyed the event and would highly recommend it to others. It was a wonderful experience and a chance to look at things from a different perspective.
Finally, I got to meet Bobbie Barajas, for those of you who listen to WCVE Public Radio may know her through her program “Classical Music.” That was another true highlight of the day for me.
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