Roger Nierenberg

#196: Leadership Stories You Can Learn From a Symphonic Orchestra

#196: Leadership Stories You Can Learn From a Symphonic Orchestra

You want to achieve operational excellence with your organization and that starts by understanding how to optimize your internal storytelling to get everyone buying into the same story. But most traditional team-building exercises seem to be antiquated and ineffective. So where might you look to build your leadership storytelling abilities? The key may be somewhere unexpected: symphony orchestra.

My guest Maestro Roger Nierenberg, the creator of The Music Paradigm and author of MAESTRO: A Surprising Story About Leading and Listening, reveals how he uses the powerful storytelling forces of a symphony orchestra to create more empathic and influential business leaders. What Roger has found is that conducting business is much like conducting an orchestra because in both organizations the leader must find a way to keep everyone moving in the same direction. So he created a way for business leaders to experience the difference between a cohesive performance and a dysfunctional performance as it relates to their business. 

 The symphonic orchestra is the greatest laboratory for the understanding of leadership.

As a leader of an organization, finding common ground with your employees is critical and there is no better way to do this than through the power of story. Once there is a shared story for employees to rally around, you as a leader are able to create momentum towards the goal you ultimately wish to achieve. Just like in a symphonic orchestra, once the conductor gets all the musicians pulling in the same direction, the outcome is a phenomenal performance.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• The ability to embrace change in business
• How true leadership isn’t telling people what to do, but creating flow in the organization
• How to understand the messages our bodies reveal and how that impacts an organization
• How music has an energy of its own that has such a powerful effect and pull on an audience
• How nuances can have such an enormous impact over time

Resources & Links

• The Music Paradigm 
• Business of Story Masterclass & Deliberate Practice Program
• The Juilliard School 
• The Phoenix Symphony 
• MAESTRO: A Surprising Story About Leading and Listening
• Roger’s Twitter
• Roger’s Instagram
• Roger’s Linkedin

 

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