Blog Archives
Feel and Hear the Music
See Listen Play: How to play your life music by playing it together presents to readers a path to rediscover passion and purpose in working together. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I was never a musician who enjoyed playing solo. My goal was to play music together. The time has come when I want to share my experience, observations, and notes that I made on the music margins during rehearsals with the greatest conductors and orchestras. I feel a strong need to reactivate our natural abilities to cooperate, listen, and be involved. In this post-pandemic time, we have a lot of frustration in this area. When writing my book, my main goal was to make each of us want to change from a passive follower to an active participant. Both in the context of life and the work environment. Not only by accepting this thought on an intellectual level but also on an emotional level, when you start to feel and hear the music flowing within you.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The chapters in which I talk about overcoming established stereotypes or paradoxes are very important to me. I like to change the reader’s perspective. The very fact that our actions and values create a certain type of music and looking at teamwork or leadership in this context is mind-changing. Also in the context of creating a brand image. Which melodies do we play as a team and do we treat our audience as an extension of our music?
Another very important message for me is to show that in the goal-oriented world, we underrate the stage of “rehearsals,” when we start to see and listen to each other by exploring our roles and impact rather than pure tasks. What kind of music do we want to create together? I want to show that everyone needs to feel visible, regardless of the exposure of their tasks, because you have an impact on the shape of the “concert.”
Music has long been known to evoke emotional responses. What led to the idea of using music to enhance teamwork and leadership?
I have always seen a very strong analogy between music and life. I have notebooks full of notes from rehearsals and music workshops, and at almost each of them, I wrote down something that related to my self-development as a person, not only in the context of music. This attitude clarified the idea and life motto in my head: everyone plays music without knowing it. Then I met several people in my life who showed that drawing inspiration from other areas of life, especially from music (which combines the structural with the abstract), is possible and necessary. Years of experience playing in various orchestras, from different parts of the world, have assured me that regardless of the cultural canon or language, the dynamics that make us play together not only notes but music, function in every corner and also in non-musical contexts.
What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?
My main literary base is poetry, which is where I started and where I continue my work. I honed my skills under the supervision of the best poet from my region, I started winning competitions, and thanks to that I gained more courage. Now, I no longer have to look for confirmation of the value of my writing capacity in competitions. I’m sure that the creative freedom that poetry unleashes is what gave me wings for years to come.
Author Links: Goodreads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Through the lens of orchestral wisdom and rich metaphors, Kuk reveals how the change we seek in society begins within us and echoes through our interactions with others. Immerse yourself in this melody of insights and reignite the symphony of your life and work.
The Power of We Begins With Me
Peernovation helps readers build high performing teams with a system that is easy to follow and understand. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I’ve been studying high-performing peer advisory groups for more than a decade, and it’s clearer to me now more than ever that teams have a great deal to learn from what these groups do so well. During a time in our history when we need to focus on cooperation and collaboration, I felt it was important to write this book.
You are a thought leader on peer advantage and Peernovation. How has your professional experience helped you write this book?
I’ve led my own small companies and subsidiaries, worked with senior-level executive cohorts in academic settings, played a leadership role at Vistage (which assembles and facilitates peer advisory groups for senior-level executives in 20 countries), and facilitated more than 160 workshops with CEOs and business leaders throughout North America and the UK – a healthy combination of personal experiences, academic study, and practical fieldwork.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about teams?
Most people don’t necessarily understand how powerful they are to make their team better. I listen to people who complain about their team as if they don’t recognize that they are part of the team they are dissing.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
A central tenet of Peernovation is that the power of we begins with me. Whether you are the leader of your team or a leader in your team, you are not just there to fill a spot – you are there to make a difference!
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | LinkedIn
Leo Bottary follows up on his two earlier books about leveraging the power of peers in business and in life. With its roots in CEO and executive peer groups, the team-building framework presented in these pages is designed for leaders who want to coach engaged, adaptable, and higher-performing teams. Peernovation embraces lessons from more than a decade of academic research, fieldwork, and personal experiences throughout North America and the United Kingdom. Whether you’re a team leader or team member, learn how to:
select the right people for your team
create psychological safety and inspire greater productivity
build a positive culture of accountability
become a better team leader
foster a robust learning-achieving cycle
If you believe “the power of we begins with me” and that meeting future challenges will require building the best teams possible, then Peernovation is for you.
What Anyone Can Do – Book Trailer
Most of us don’t seek advice or reach out to others for help very easily. In part, it’s because we’re conditioned to see life as an individual endeavor rather than a team sport. Or because we believe that asking for help makes us look weak or incapable. We regard self-help as by-yourself-help. News flash: no one in the history of the world has ever achieved any level of happiness or success totally by themselves.
In his 1976 book The Long Run Solution, Joe Henderson suggested that becoming truly accomplished at running (or at anything) doesn’t typically require us to perform superhuman feats. In fact, success is frequently realized by those who simply do the things anyone can do that most of us never will.
In What Anyone Can Do, with the help of Leo Bottary’s Year of the Peer podcasts guests (and playful illustrations by Ryan Foland), you’ll discover that if you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll do the things anyone can do far more often. And when you do that, you and the people around you will realize more of what you want out of business and life. It’s that simple.
The Power of Peers (2016) made a strong case for how and why formal peer groups are so effective. This book steps outside the formal peer group arena to examine all the important relationships we have in our lives (parents, teachers, spouses, mentors, children, mentees, etc.) and provides a practical approach and specific framework for harnessing their power for your benefit (and theirs). It’s what anyone can do. You’re anyone, right?
LITERARY TITAN 