This paper presentation will examine 3-5 notable producers including George Martin, Rick Rubin and Phil Ramone and their creative leadership styles. Well-known motivational and managerial theories such as those developed by McGregor, to Ouchi, Maslow, Hermann and Haermann and Yukl will be used to analyze famous studio interactions and techniques of these celebrated studio visionaries. For example, using Haermann’s theories, Spector could be considered to be an autocratic leader, Martin a referent leader and Rubin a transformational leader. Biographical information, interviews and studio stories will be used to show the relationship between the creator’s personality and leadership style. Furthermore, we will examine if these traits are innate or if students can begin to master these qualities in a classroom experience using leadership modeling.
