Leadership Lessons from Music: Itay Talgam

Off late, I've found myself reading up on the emerging management styles of corporations and how it will determine the course of their business. The success of any management style depends a lot on the leadership that is imbibing and driving it.

A lot has been said, written, debated and ignored about leadership. To put it succinctly- leadership in theory is overrated and in practice underrated. As someone who steers clear of management books, i wanted to relate leadership to the things i liked to do and see whether there were any lessons that could be learned from them.

Music tops that list and i began asking google whether it could show me what music has to teach us about leadership. I stumbled upon this absolutely mindblowing TED video of Itay Talgam, an Israeli conductor and a business consultant. In his 20 minute talk, he shows us how leadership is about enabling people yet at the same time being in control- one that does not stifle the individuals but energizes them to do more. He uses examples of some of the world's greatest music conductors and tells us how each one had a different kind of leadership style which led to varied outcomes.

Watch his inspirational TED talk on Lead Like the Great Conductors. 


Quoting Itay, ""But you can see the music on his face.You can see the baton left his hand. No more baton. Now it's about you, the player, telling the story. Now it's a reversed thing. You're telling the story. And you're telling the story. And even briefly, you become the storyteller to which the community, the whole community, listens to."