The Music Paradigm--Leadership

On Mohonk Mountain in New Paltz, New York this past week, I participated in a session on leadership literally conducted by Roger Nierenburg. Along with fellow heads of school from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, I sat "within" an orchestra conducted by Nierenburg and experienced first hand the impact of his leadership styles--for he presented many--on his organization.

Using conducting the orchestra, one he had never conducted before, as a metaphor for leadership of a school, Nierenburg explored and exposed a variety of leadership styles--overly eager to please, harsh and expectant, easy, inconsistent, balanced, and their literal respective impacts. It was fascinating to experience the variety of perspectives within the orchestra that each of these styles precipitated--their individual and collective reactions to his "leadership" and the extreme variety of the orchestra's performance outcomes as a result of his leadership.

Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings formed the base of what turned out to be a stirring and emotionally charged 1 and a 1/2 hour session. We left enlightened and moved. From his website:

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