I must admit that it's always felt frustrating that my work about rethinking leadership in music doesn't seem to resonate with the music industry. Perhaps what hurts the most is that people outside of music are avidly resonating with and affirming my work.

It's as if the music industry is the only one rejecting it! It makes me feel like an outsider within my own profession. And I feel like I have no business doing what I'm doing if nobody in music approved of it.

About a year ago, one conversation changed my mind. Someone said to me, "It sounds like your industry is not ready to be coached."

Wow - that was shocking to hear.

What does it mean "to be coached"?

There's a book called Being Coachable and it says, "Most coaching involves identifying weak spots, changing behaviors, and reimagining goals." I realized that's kind of what I incorporate into my work on and off the podium - awareness of where and how we are not our best, adopting new behaviors to become better, and adjusting our goals with that new knowledge. That's really hard work. And I can see how not everyone's ready for it.

Then it said, "The qualities you need to be successfully coached [are] self-awareness, humility, the ability to listen, a hunger for feedback, a commitment to action, and a willingness to be held accountable." It started to click for me. Maybe we are lacking in these qualities as an industry? If so, it makes sense that we may not be ready to be coached.

I began to realize that we actually need to be coachable in order to fully receive the benefits of new information and alternative strategies. Maybe in order to access the change I seek for our industry, I would need to unlock the question "Are we ready to be coached?" first.

If it's true that we're not ready, why not? How could we change that?

All this makes me think of another quote from the book I really love: "Coaching is more like physical therapy than surgery… The physical therapist doesn't fix you. You fix you."

I hope this makes us consider whether we are ready to be coached, and whether that’s what’s getting in our way.

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