Business Book Review: ‘The Ignorant Maestro’
Book Review: Great leaders ‘The Ignorant Maestro’ by Itay Talgum
At first I didn’t like it, then I warmed to it, then I wasn’t sure again….so I tried to break it down and analyse it to help me decide:
Liked
- Concept of exposing the flaws of 6 great conductors and imagining how these would play out in a corporate environment
- Looks at the both good & bad characteristics of each conductor
Didn’t like
- Style of writing = rather sanctimonious
- Interesting for 1 leader, repetitive for 6
- Apart from profiling leader types, hard to see day-to-day relevance
Conclusion
- Is it going to change how you approach life? Probably not.
- Is it useful if you’re not a leader? Probably not.
- At the end of the day, it’s a simple message – there’s no one size fits all, but if you’re authentic, your passion will cover any flaws.
What is this book about?
A world-renowned music conductor who also teaches leadership to blue chip companies. It is split into 3 parts:
1st part - The Music of Business
"If you look at zero, you see zero - if you look through zero you see infinity"
* There is no one size fits all solution
* However, looking at companies through the lens of music will help to define your unique leadership style.
2nd part - Three New Themes of Leadership
"Let go of knowledge and embrace ignorance"
* Music itself is one to interpretation using vague terms such as 'Fast', 'Slow'...etc.
"The notes I can handle no better than other pianists, but the pauses between the notes - that's where the art resides"
* Make a void into a gap - a well defined space - where something creative can happen to close this gap
* However, business abhors gaps and either ignores them or fills them with routines
3rd part - Six Musical Variations on the Themes of Leadership; i.e. Famous conductors and their leadership styles
Riccardo Muti = control freak
Arturo Toscanini = the head of the family
Richard Strauss = bureaucrat, follow the rules
Herbert Von Karajan = no rules, find your own meaning, guru figure
Carlos Kleiber = control the process
Leonard Bernstein = in search of 'why?'
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!