Eugene Lee is the Chief Executive Officer and member of the
Board of Directors at Socialtext.
In this video, he talks about ‘Breathing
Together - Leadership Lessons from Musical Ensembles’ – a fascinating insight!
Showing posts with label Learning from the Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning from the Arts. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Positive Leadership: Creating Harmony
Monday, August 30, 2010
Best Leadership Practices from the Greatest Actors
Walk the stage. You don’t have to live in the boardroom for a week before the presentation, but do what stage actors do. We walk the stage before performances so you know how many steps it is from chair to coffee table. If you walk the boardroom, you’ll know how to avoid the LCD light and which chair is most likely to trip you.
Learn your lines. What’s your message? What do you want people to walk away with from your meeting or presentation? Make sure it’s brief and “sticky”.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
The Art of Possibility
Speaking recently on leadership and problem solving, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander emphasises that everyone has options.
"You can face problems with resignation, anger or possibility. These are all valid responses. You have a choice." Choosing possibility isn't always easy, he notes, but it will lead to excellence. It will also lead to a challenging of assumptions -- and assumptions are often roadblocks to innovation.
"Everybody wants out of the box thinking; the question is, how do you get it?" says Zander. "It's very simple. You ask a question: What assumptions am I making that I don't know I'm making?" The key to success inside an organisation, he adds, has to do with voicing these assumptions. "Every organisation, every human endeavour, has to have someone whose job it is to notice what assumptions are being made ... and [who] has permission to say so. Anybody from the bottom to the top should be able to speak about assumptions without fearing loss of any kind."
When Zander's musicians make a mistake, he teaches them not to give in to the voice of doubt or self-recrimination. Instead, he has instructed his students to say "How fascinating!" whenever they make a mistake. To Zander, this means throwing up one's arms and exclaiming "How fascinating!" at top volume. His point: Every setback is an opportunity to learn. Every setback represents a world of possibility. "Education is not so much about the transference of information as the opening up of new categories," Zander notes. "When you are educated in that sense, you are actually walking in a different world. The question becomes, 'What are you going to do now?'".
Friday, April 30, 2010
Leaders Need 'Presence'
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Let People Do Things
'Q. What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
A. Let people do things. If they do it better than you, let them do it. You have to recognise that in order for this plane to fly, I need co-pilots, I need engineers, I need passengers.
Q. How did you learn that?
A. There’s no formula. It’s kind of the natural thing to do. I’ve been in a competitive situation almost all my life. I’ve been having a competition with myself and trying to be the best I could be. I did a lot of praying. I did a lot of preparation. But then, I also learned how to release, how to let go. That’s a constant learning process — how to let go and let somebody else do it who knows how to do it better than you do it. If it keeps the plane in the air, fine.
Q. What else have you learned?
A. I want to know who you are as a person, and then I want you to develop as a whole human being. One thing I cannot stand is when people say, “Hi, how are you?” and they don’t wait to hear how I am. They’re just going through the motions. I say to people: “Keep it human. Keep it alive. Don’t turn into a robot.” You have to hear what the other person is saying clearly. You have to listen, and really care, because we’re all the same under the skin. I’ve danced all over the world, and people are people. We cannot cut off from each other in life. In order to lead, you can’t do that. '
For more, see - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/business/29corner.html?_r=1&ref=business
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Leadership is like conducting an orchestra
• Have a clear and vibrant vision for your people's success
Leaders who have not yet done the hard work of imagining a best-case scenario for their organisations will inevitably default to leading through correction and criticism. But when your highest priority is developing the right goals and strategy, you will spend most of your time inspiring people about them and guiding them towards successful achievement.
• Listen carefully to your people
A maestro listens "microscopically" to the orchestra. She uses the special perspective of her podium to take in both the big picture and the relevant details. In her imagination she juxtaposes the reality of the orchestra's playing with her best-case vision of how they might sound. Subtracting one from the other shows the crucial gap she needs to narrow or even eliminate. Armed with this knowledge she can focus the organisation's attention on those few crucial points.
• Translate your agenda into directions that can easily be understood and executed by the players
It is a major accomplishment to devise the right goals, but that is no guarantee they will be achieved. Only your workforce can accomplish that, and the leader and the worker will have vastly different understandings of the vision. The leader's understanding is based on the pressing strategic needs, as seen from the podium. The worker's view is shaped by the chair he occupies, where the big-picture view of the organisation is very much in the distant background. So the leader needs to translate the vision so that it makes sense from every chair. The workforce cannot act effectively until the leader expresses directions and assignments in the language they understand.
• It's not about you. It's about how the orchestra sounds under your direction.
It's very easy for a conductor to personalise the orchestra's behaviour and see it as reflection on him or his abilities. But the orchestra is not nearly so concerned with what a conductor does or says as they are with how they sound. Therefore sharpen your focus on simply getting the best results, and don't get distracted by interpersonal dynamics.
For more, see - http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/guestinsights/2009/10/leadership-secrets-from-a-maestro.html
Friday, October 23, 2009
What Conducting and Leading have in common
1.The conductor starts with a great score. Conductors have a plan. They start with a musical score and a clear idea of how it should sound. Only then do they attempt to recreate in real time their musical “vision.”
2.The conductor recruits the very best players. Great conductors attract great players. Mediocre conductors attract mediocre players. The very best players want to work for the very best conductors. Like attracts like.
3.The conductor is visible, so that everyone can see him. The conductor stands on a platform, so that every single member of the orchestra can see him. This is the only way the orchestra can stay in alignment, with each player starting and stopping at the appropriate time.
4.The conductor leads with his heart. Great conductors are swept up in the music. They are passionate. They don’t just play with their head; they also play with their heart. You can read it on their face. You can sense it in their movement. They are fully present and “playing full out.”
5.The conductor delegates and focuses on what only he can do. The conductor doesn’t do everything. He doesn’t sell the tickets. He doesn’t participate (usually) in the preliminaries. He doesn’t even make sure that the orchestra is in tune. He stays off stage until it is time for him to do what only he can do—lead.
6.The conductor is aware of his gestures and their impact. A conductor can’t afford to make an unintentional gesture. Everything means something. The flick of the wrist, the raising of an eyebrow, and the closing of the eyes all have meaning. A good conductor can’t afford to be careless with his public demeanor.
7.The conductor keeps his back to the audience. Conductors are aware of the audience but their focus is on the the players and their performance. The only time the conductor stops to acknowledge the audience is before the playing begins and after it is finished. Other than that, he is focused on delivering an outstanding performance.
8.The conductor shares the spotlight. When the concert is over, and the audience is clapping, the conductor turns to the audience and takes a bow. A good conductor immediately turns to the orchestra and invites them to stand and bow as well. He shares the glory with his colleagues, realizing that without them, the music would not be possible.
Learning from the Arts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)