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Great Leaders Are Like Orchestra Conductors
By Shlomo Maital
My wife and I recently enjoyed a Jerusalem Camerata concert, with a British guest conductor named Paul Goodwin. The last piece was Josef Haydn’s Symphony #83 in G minor. It was brilliant. The orchestra played its heart out. The conductor’s leadership was spirited, energetic, and his body language interpreted the music, for his orchestra and for his audience.
It occurred to me that quality leadership in strong leaders resembles conducting an orchestra. For some conductors, who use distracting histrionics, it is all about them. Just like egoistic leaders, who generally fail.
Because – strong leadership is about getting your followers to excel – to do amazing things way beyond what they think they can, what they are generally capable of, what they believe. Great conductors make their orchestra members want to play beautifully, at the top of their games. That was what we saw on Monday evening. An orchestra in top form, because they were motivated to be so by the conductor Paul Goodsin. Even though it was the fifth time they were playing this concert (concerts in Israel are often played six times, in different cities, in order to pay for the guest soloists and conductors). They played it, with excellence, and freshness, as if it was the first time.
Great leaders are like conductors. At the end, with rapt applause, the conductor made sure to focus on the orchestra members, asking groups to stand (concert master, violins, percussion, woodwinds, bass violins….) for applause. It is pretty easy to tell which conductors have the love and respect of their musicians, who play their hearts out for them, and which have their players going through the motions, for this egomaniac jumping around on stage to gain all the attention.
How many world leaders are there, who resemble great orchestra conductors? And, is it my imagination, or are the egomaniac leaders mainly men, and the ‘it’s about you not me’ leaders are mainly women? Not to mention names, but, Trump, Trudeau, Putin, Xi Jin Ping, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Mihály Orbán….Netanyahu….
What We Learn from Claudio Abbado
By Shlomo Maital
Claudio Abbado
The great Italian conductor Claudio Abbado died on Monday, age 80. He passed away at his home in Bologna, Italy. He had been ill for years.
We can learn a great deal from this fine man. Star orchestra conductors often have egos the size of Texas and personalities that combine General Patton and Genghis Khan. Not Abbado.
Abbado used to say, “Many bad things in the world could be avoided if only people would listen to each other.” He told this to his musicians: Listen to each other. Play as you like, he told them, clashing violently with the Herbert von Karajan ‘my-way-or-highway’ approach; don’t just wait for me.
This combination of respect, empowerment, respect for his musicians, and teaching them respect for one another, led to crisp, brilliant, lyrical performances. He broke the rule that great orchestras, like the Berlin Philharmonic, are utterly disciplined, like elite army units. He got the best out of his orchestras, like La Scala, by getting his musicians to like and respect him, and motivating them to work hard to make extraordinarily beautiful music. This is true leadership.
Abbado was an innovator. He encouraged avant garde music. He performed Manzoni’s “Atomtod”, at the Salzburg Festival – entirely in the dark!
He once explained his awkwardness in taking curtain calls, citing a conductor, Knappertsbusch, who refused curtain calls entirely. Abbado said, “it still embarrasses me to take bows. I’m not a showman.” In an age when famed conductors are primarily showmen, Abbado was rare. He broke the rules. We can learn much from his leadership style.
TIMnovate 