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Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening Hardcover – October 15, 2009

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 141 ratings

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A conductor reveals powerful leadership lessons by explaining the inner workings of a symphony orchestra

Roger Nierenberg, a veteran conductor, is the creator of The Music Paradigm, a unique program that invites people to sit INSIDE a professional symphony orchestra as the musicians and conductor solve problems together.

He captures that experience in
Maestro: A Surprising Story about Leading by Listening, a parable about a rising executive tough challenges. The narrator befriends an orchestra conductor and is inspired to think about leadership and communication in an entirely new way.

For instance:

• A maestro doesn't micromanage, but encourages others to develop their own solutions. There's a big difference between conducting and trying to play all the instruments.

• A maestro helps people feel ownership of the whole piece, not just their individual parts.

• A maestro leads by listening. When people sense genuine open-mindedness, they offer more of their talent. If not, they get defensive and hold back their best ideas.

• Truly great leaders, whether conductors striving for perfect harmony or CEOs reaching for excellence, act with a vision of their organization at its best.

For more information, visit: www.MaestroBook.com
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Conductor Nierenberg has brought his skills at leading an orchestra to the business world with what he calls the Music Paradigm. Nierenberg teaches executives how to turn a company into a euphonious symphony of work. Simplistic and cloying, Nierenberg teaches his Music Paradigm through a parable; he presents an executive whose company is facing the challenges of the company working together effectively. Determined to discover new methods of leadership, the executive decides to sit in on his daughter's violin teacher's symphony rehearsal. As he sits in over several weeks, he learns not to oversee every note (i.e. micromanage), to lead (not to cheerlead), to listen first, and to create confidence in his employees by letting them take ownership of their decisions. Unfortunately, this executive is so obsessed with learning from the conductor that his mind is always on his next visit, and he often can't wait to get away from an acrimonious conversation at work to sit in with the orchestra. The parable is undermined by the executive's seeming self-regard; whatever lessons he's supposed to learn are lost in his own quest to save himself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Roger Nierenberg is a highly successful conductor who has performed with some of the most distinguished orchestras in America and Europe. Through his interactive program, the Music Paradigm, he has taught hundreds of top companies around the world how to improve their leadership skills and teamwork.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; 1st edition (October 15, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1591842883
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591842880
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.54 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 141 ratings

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Roger Nierenberg
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Roger Nierenberg is a highly successful conductor who has performed with some of the most distinguished orchestras in America and Europe. Through his interactive program, The Music Paradigm, he has taught hundreds of top companies around the world how to improve their leadership skills and teamwork. This is his first book.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
141 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2016
The facilitator at my company's Management Training course recommended this book in passing, as we a DiSC/Meyers-Briggs sort of course. Quite fitting. But getting performance out of a company larger than a few dozen, that rivals The Maestro conducting an orchestral performance, will never happen. It doesn't have to happen to make a very good company. You only have to stay in tempo, in tune and play the right notes to be the best in business. Any orchestral performance that sounded like even the best company you can find today would still be aurally discordant. That's just the nature of business. But it doesn't mean that each manager can't conduct their own staff with virtuosity. A bit of a Catch 22, in that each smaller business unit can make beautiful music, but that the sum of the business units cannot blend.

The goal of leading by listening from the podium, to let each chair feel your vision, is the take-away lesson.
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2009
Comparing organizations to orchestras and managers to conductors is one of the oldest of management cliches. Nierenberg takes this old saw and turns into a wonderfully new, original, effective, and even moving primer on visionary leadership. An executive newly promoted to a top management position finds that his old directive management techniques, skills, and expertise are inadequate for the serious new challenges his business is facing and for the high-powered and talented executives he is being asked to motivate and lead. Through extensive discussions with, and observation of, a great orchestra conductor, he comes to understand and develop new and much more effective ways of leading and motivating his organization and getting the people in it to perform at their best. As a former senior executive myself, I would have benefitted enormously had I had this book available to me. I think it is a must for any manager's library, and will almost certainly improve any manager's operating style - and his or her employees' motivation, effectiveness, and morale.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2020
I chose this book because it was recommended on a social media site for band directors. While I don’t think it gave me a lot for teaching middle school band it really made me think about leadership, and the role of a conductor but also about leadership outside of the music world. I come from a family with quite a few business owners and I’m not sure they ever thought or even think of business in this way. Principals, business leaders, musicians and conductors can all find value in this book. At least some thought provocation anyway.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2016
I just completed my third reading of this book and each time I read it I walk away inspired to be a better leader by considering and applying the ideas and principles contained with the book. As a musician...I know exactly what the Maestro spoke of related to the teamwork and efforts to work together to make great music. As an employee of a very large communications company, in a leadership role, I fully see and agree with the tenets of this book and how a non-musical organization can and must apply the same principles in order to be fully successful. I will now put the book away...and try to "make beautiful and creative music" in my daily job....
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Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2013
This is a short, very readable book, which presents very clear messages using a metaphor resonating also with people who have no music background. The book describes the experience of the author's Music Paradigm session and sadly the powerful dimension of the music itself can only be read about in the book and imagined, not experienced. Still, as a middle manager in a large multinational, the management principles the book promotes were valuable, and I found that the Orchestra metaphor added significant value and (hopefully) helped me internalize the importance. Without the setting, as the fictional manager in the book says, some of these messages might sound "like a worn-out platitude. But on the lips of a musician in this unfamiliar context, the value [...] was meaningful to all the leaders in the room."
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2014
A bit on the nose and full of platitudes, but it is an interesting read. If you're looking for a book with more detailed suggestions to implement in the workplace, look elsewhere. It is a perfectly acceptable book on leadership philosophies however.
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2017
Original, inspiring, convicting, gratifying, confidence building, exposing, revealing, enlightening, masterful presentation of many concepts in efficient manner. Most trying to write this book would require over 500 pages, but this work of literary art is only 118 pages. Keen, intelligent timing on content progression shows at writing talent that presents more between the lines than on the pages. I will gift this book to many and enjoy my new confidence with better understanding of my own leadership. This may join the ranks of Viktor Frankl's - Man's Search for Meaning. It is that profound and original. Onward!
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2017
In a fable style leadership book, this one hits the spot for so many reasons. The book, in the vein of "five dysfunctions of a team" tells a great story of a need for leadership change. I really enjoyed the perspective of a Maestro considering I've never really understood his/her role. It's a short book that can teach some very good lessons about purpose, vision, and professional collaboration.
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