Do you have a mission statement? Did you create it, checked it off your to-do list, and forgot about it? During both prosperous and tough times, our mission can be leveraged to validate us, challenge us, help us grow, and reveal to us the impact we are having. Consider which of these 8 ways your mission can be serving you.

I share what happens when we apply this Zoom community agreements to the orchestral context. Expectations, boundaries, safe spaces, values and guiding principles are what makes teams do extraordinary work - with great productivity and impact. This includes orchestras.

Substitutes are common. Our mindset can become one where musicians are replaceable, like a machine part. We end up separating contribution with its contributor. What if our premise is that every musician is truly irreplaceable? What if we put a bit of effort into connecting contribution with contributor?

"Feedback is often prompted by a problem.” It doesn't always have to be. Response to a problem is actually only one (out of many) reasons to give feedback.

What are our habits? Sometimes our expectations can stop being true. How can we audit culture through the lens of habits and expectations?

How tapping into the influencer industry for orchestras has the added benefit of increasing job fulfillment. My reflections on a conversation with Aubrey Bergauer and David Taylor.

How would you answer: Why do you do what you do? I share some prompts and resources to help us discover our purpose.

Employer brand (“who you say you are”) vs. talent brand is (“who you actually are”). Imagine the impact this distinction can have on recruiting, marketing, fundraising, risk management, and employee fulfillment.

Philosopher Isaiah Berlin coined the “the two concepts of liberty” - negative and positive liberty. Why is it easier to focus on negative liberty, and how what might positive liberty look like for musicians?

Imagine a service that matches compatibility between musicians and orchestras using purpose and values. What is the status quo for us to traditionally identify our "matches"? How can a Tinder for orchestras disrupt that?

In the marketing industry, a reform has been taking place to go from selling commodities to satisfying a need of the customer. Instead of telling a story where the company is the hero, marketers are starting to tell stories where the customer is the hero. We can learn from them.

Do you ever feel like things have to be "just right"? I realized that what is more important is to strive for connecting with the context of “now.” Lesson: Perfection is boring. Repetition is not.

I've been pushed to excel and achieve, but it has also limited my potential for growth and to learn from those around me. A lesson I learned from conducting opera: I don't need to know everything.

In the military, they observe if people would refer to their commander as "the" commander or "our" commander. I ask how many times would you use the pronoun "our" or "we" in our work?

Are you a perfectionist? I share the consequences of this perfection as a virtue and the expectation, using parallels in medicine. Plus four actions we can adopt to dispell it so we continue to grow, to perform better, and to be happier.

"Receiving feedback sits at the intersection of these two needs--our drive to learn and our longing for acceptance." This quote made me think a lot. How can we actually be more strategic about giving appreciation feedback?

A story about two soloists. How anybody can have the influence of trust and safety on us, allowing us and our work to thrive.

Have you heard of finite and infinite games? Do you know which one you're playing? Hint: Have we all agreed on the rules?

The military inspired me to think about what are some of our own signs of psychological danger. I share 4 ways we may operationalize and normalize behaviors and mindsets that cue belonging--the true crux of the matter.

It's been ONE YEAR of Conductor as CEO! Post 52! I share my reflection of this journey and share my gratitude.