What Leaders Can Learn From Symphony Conductors

“A conductor’s happiness does not come from only his own story and his joy of the music. The joy is about enabling other people’s stories to be heard at the same time.” Itay Talgam

Short Bio of Itay Talgam

Itay Talgam debuted as an international conductor in 1987, when he was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to appear in a special concert with the Orchestre de Paris. Bernstein conducted the second half of the concert. Since then, he has conducted many orchestras in Europe. He was the first Israeli conductor to perform with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leipzig Opera house. In Israel, he has conducted and recorded with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Israeli Opera, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

After a decade-long conducting career in his native Israel, Itay Talgam has reinvented himself as a conductor of people in business.  Itay Talgam finds metaphors for organizational behaviour and models for inspired leadership within the workings of the symphony orchestra, imagining music as a model for all spheres of human creativity, from the classroom to the boardroom.

What Leaders Can Learn from the Great Conductors

In this video, Itay Talgam gives an interesting view on how the great conductors use various approaches and techniques to bring out the best in the music through the orchestra.  He illustrates the various qualities leaders need to exhibit as the situation requires, through the work of some of the great symphony conductors.

This video is an interesting unorthodox look at leadership.  What other qualities of leaders did you notice from this talk?