I had a quick conversation with a brick mason who was doing a bit of work outside my building. It's a conversation I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Why do we find rehearsals boring sometimes? Patrick Lencioni compares meetings to movies: “Every great movie has conflict. Without it, we just don't care what happens to the characters.” Can infusing that conflict within rehearsals make them less boring?

A leader's ability to build capacity in people is capped by their own capacity. I found this to be a profound statement. It's perhaps the strongest endorsement for bettering ourselves as leaders. So, what does it mean to build capacity? Here are three possible ways to do so.

Avoid certainty about what your future is going to be. I heard this recently and it made me think. The reality is that we don't know for certain what is going to happen. Certainty is an illusion. What happens when we avoid certainty? How do we avoid certainty? I offer two thoughts I found helpful for me.

It's impossible to not have conflicts in work and life. When it happens, it's so tempting to go into either defense or avoidance mode. Neither really works. Here's an alternative: knowledge is power.

I heard recently that in the U.S., people who have less time have higher status. In Italy, people who have more time have higher status. What can we learn from Italians about time and status?

Leadership is not only what we do for others to help them grow, but also what we do for ourselves to continue growing. I share two helpful thoughts/questions to practice self-awareness and reflection.

Our industry needs two things: psychological safety and a solid sense of belonging. So imagine how lucky I feel that all three gigs I had in 2023 allowed me to experience first-hand the positive impacts of both. I share a few thoughts about each experience and three major conditions that made them so.

Will Guidara says that successful companies "go out of their way to choose conflicting goals." Goals that seem to contradict each other forces us to innovate and be creative. The orchestra and opera industry can benefit from a similar mindset. Here are 6 sets of conflicting goals to get us started.

We spent our entire musical training and profession being told what to do. The thing is: people don't like being told what to do. The plot twist is: people also like being told what to do. This is the conundrum that musicians can face. The solution is to take action and choose. We have two - both valid - choices.

I think the relationship we have with our why can feel like the relationship we have with our clothes. I found myself in the metaphorical changing room recently when I updated my "why" message.

We don’t give ourselves credit for what we find easy and natural. We actually devalue them. What we find easy is definitely not easy for everyone else. Arts leaders have a responsibility to shed light on these qualities in our people, including musicians. Here are 3 steps to do this.

Pilots often have only one goal in simulators - fly the perfect flight. We actually don't want to do this in a setting where we are allowed room to experiment. Rehearsals are the musician’s equivalent of the flight simulator. And we, like pilots, often are only using rehearsals to “fly the perfect flight.” So how could we use our simulator differently for innovation and growth?

There is no question that good conductors make orchestras sound amazing. What makes this possible? We think first musical imagination, powerful stage presence, or command and control over the orchestra. Those are all true. Something to add to the list is the conductor's ability to create comfort - both physical and psychological comfort.

When we lead by assumption, we imagine that 1) the way we see the world is accurate and 2) everyone else sees it that way too. This can result in missed communications, misunderstandings, loss of connection, and decline in trust. Here are five assumptions we may be making as conductors.

When leaders operate simply under the premise of “do what I tell you”, the result is (at best) hushed compliance. What if we start with the premise that we can’t control anything people do, say, or think? Our next best strategy is to get them to want to do it on their own accord - in other words, influence. I share three actions that can help.

"Culture is the sum total of shared habits and expectations." One of my favorite definitions of culture from Atul Gawande. Here are 4 tiny habits we need more of in our orchestral and opera rehearsals.

What is good feedback? What if our feedback is not as good as we think it is? Here's a different way to think about feedback.

Once upon a time when I ran my own orchestra, I wrote thank you cards, one for every musician - a deeply meaningful ritual for me. Recently, I realized… I stopped doing this. I asked myself, why did I stop? Why don’t I do it anymore? The honest answer is that I felt weird doing it.

To have creative freedom as musicians, we need to feel safe. We need to feel safe from judgment, rejection, and retribution. Unfortunately, these kinds of spaces don't come as a default in our orchestras and opera companies. We have to intentionally create them. Here are 3 ways to do this.