One of the great things about musicians is that we never compromise our high standards. We’ve come to expect it every day, and it makes us the most disciplined, committed, and high-performing people in the world. 

At the same time, there is a high degree of burnout and disillusionment in our industry. High standards only get us so far. What we need is add the ingredient of devotion. 

Harvard Business School professor and former Uber executive Frances Frei specializes in how leaders create the conditions for organizations and individuals to thrive. She talks about the need for leaders to have both high standards and high devotion. 

• Standards refer to the performance we want out of our people and the level they are to meet. 

• Devotion refers to how much we care for our people - their wellbeing, their success, and whether they are OK.

We can plot these two factors on a 2x2 matrix with four quadrants:

Frei calls these four quadrants:

• Justice - high standards + high devotion

• Severity - high standards + low devotion

• Fidelity - low standards + high devotion

• Neglect - low standards + low devotion

Obviously, we don’t want neglect and we want justice. We can also beware of the severity and fidelity quadrants where we are less effective.

Where do we fall in music? We tend to gravitate toward the severity quadrant. We expect high standards without putting the same expectation on devotion. This can be detrimental over a long time, resulting in low sense of belonging, self-esteem, and fulfillment. 

To strive toward the justice quadrant, we can increase our devotion to as high as we’ve elevated standards. Here are 5 ways to start: 

1. Prioritize relationships: Invest time in building genuine connections to understand musicians’ goals, aspirations, and challenges. 

2. Empathize with active listening: Musicians want and need to be heard, so it pays to show care for their well-being simply through active listening.

3. Provide meaningful feedback: Offer constructive feedback that focuses on growth and development. 

4. Increase trust through safety: Encourage independence and initiative without the threat of losing your devotion. Musicians don’t take risks because they don’t trust they would still be cared for if they failed or made a mistake. 

5. Celebrate successes: Make a point to recognize achievements. This boosts morale, motivates, and reinforces a positive culture.

It’s also good to note that this is not an invitation to lower our standards. 

This is how the fidelity quadrant (high devotion + low standards) is ineffective. It gives us the image of control and that we’re in service of others (because we care about them), but lowering standards doesn’t promote growth in them (and is mostly about maintaining our own comfort as leaders).

How could you use this standards-devotion matrix to evaluate where you currently are and where you want to go?

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