Conductor as CEO, blog

Have you ever shared a struggle with someone and they responded with something encouraging? That might be the problem.

In music, there's often no tolerance for mistakes. We are taught to see a mistake as game over, especially given our competitive landscape. Our cultural norms and expectations keep enforcing this over and over, until it stops feeling like a belief ...

I want to reflect on a post I made recently that got a lot of attention. And honestly, the responses made me think more deeply about the nuances, in ways that I think actually helped me deepen my original point.

The post was about a phenomenon I've noticed in music environments:

Many musicians only know they did well when nobody yelled at them. Over tim...

Height is not a skill. But studies show taller people are perceived as better leaders. There's no reason height should predict leadership ability, and yet we treat it like it does.

We do this constantly, and not just with height. But with things like pedigree, nationality, education, skin color, accent, gender, etc. These are all traits

If it comes easy for you, you're hailed a star — worthy of support and attention. If you have to struggle for the same achievement, people often quietly assume you're less worthy of that support and attention.

What’s interesting is both become just as capable, but we assume one is better. Simply because of how long it took them to get there.

Once, I conducted the same opera in two back to back productions at two different companies. I approached both rehearsal processes the same way, and well, the resulting experiences could not have been more different. That surprised me and I learned a big lesson about the cultures that we inherit, especially when we are a guest.

I learned that the culture I...