Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors
Leading and creating harmony without saying a word! What a beautiful thought. Itay Talgam used orchestra conductors to show this concept. Various conductors were shown to demonstrate his points: Leading with a happy face, leading with your eyes closed, when authority is needed it is there in their facial expressions, being in control in a special way and doing without doing.
This video showed me that leading is an art. I feel an art is something you intuitively have and a craft is something you can learn from step by step instructions. I think of the arts as: singing, dancing, drawing, etc. It’s something you are born with. You can polish these through “crafting” however, I feel if you don’t possess these qualities from within it will be difficult to become great no matter how much training you receive. These conductors in their own way (these movements were not something they duplicated from a book) led a group. This demonstrated that the group practiced and rehearsed what they needed to do as individuals and they were all brought together to make something beautiful happen. When a mistake was made only a facial expression was needed to show disappointment. A good leader has these qualities and I don’t feel you can craft these qualities to this point of expertise. Sure, leadership can be taught, just like dance and painting, however if it is not something you possess, it can not be brought to the highest level. Somewhere it has to come from within. Good leaders can take a group tell them what needs to be done and then brings it all together. I can see different leaders at my school and their effectiveness in leading. Some with little or no talking and others not as successful! Some have it some don’t!
Yvette, I watched this same video and got so much out of it. My new principal (for next year) has that intuitive nature that you talked about. She, in her current position as an assistant administrator, has to often talk to teachers about problems they are having and she does it with a soft, controlled voice that lets them know that a change needs to be made but that she respects them and wants to help them to do their very best. Such a rare leadership quality. I have learned much from watching her. I agree that a person can be taught the job of a leader, but not everyone can successfully lead. I recently had the opportunity to speak to a former principal who is now teaching. He said that he thought he would love being in that leadership role but when it came right down to it, he felt uncomfortable in the position and after two years stepped down because he just didn't feel he had it in him. Many leaders never see that in themselves and stay in a leadership role doing a poor job.
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