Over the course of a week, think of all the situations where musicians and arts leaders different situations ask questions: To gather information To get to know someone else better in a networking or in an interpersonal situation To solve problems and clear up potential conflicts with collaborators or colleagues Asking questions is the most basic form of communication, designed …
The Mindset of Success: Four Pillars for Today’s Music Entrepreneurs
Note: A longer version of this post appeared in I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. It is a fascinating, challenging time to be a musician. Traditional institutions struggle to remain relevant as new technologies and new ways of performing, disseminating music and interacting with audiences are changing our very world. A new model and more entrepreneurial model of success is emerging. What …
Entrepreneurial Projects: Creating and Pitching Successful Creative Projects
In my last post on the wonderful entrepreneurial projects of my students at Yale, I mentioned that we were very privileged to have a class with leading arts consultant and Yale Drama School Faculty Member Greg Kandel. The class took place at the beginning of our semester when the students were in the process of formulating their project plans and timelines. …
Entrepreneurial Projects: How Today’s Musicians Are Expanding the Horizons of Classical Music
Each semester, the students in my class at Yale learn how to apply their new entrepreneurial skills in a semester project that is subject to two rules: 1. Do something you never done before; and 2. Go outside your comfort zone. The goal is for students to feel free to experiment, focusing on the learning experience and not on achieving …
Top 10 Tips Time Management Tips for Music Entrepreneurs
This year, one of my biggest discoveries was Quadrant 2 time management, the strategy that has you focusing on what is really important to you as opposed to what is urgent, and realigning your time to honor and commit to Quadrant 2 activities each week (for more on this, see tips 2 and 3 below). Q2 time management is helping …
Creating Success in a DIY World: 4 YSM Music Entrepreneurs Share Their Insights
One of the highlights of my semester is when I invite recent alumni from the Yale School of Music to speak to our students about how they created their career success. My students are consistently impressed and amazed that musicians who are a mere 5-8 years ahead of them are already successfully wending their way through the world of music. …
Crafting a Great Speech to Engage Today’s Audiences: How Musicians Can Become Ambassadors for Music
I am passionate about the importance of speaking to audiences about music because it is an opportunity to bring our audiences into our world and let them discover the transformative power of music. Over the past few weeks, I have been addressing this topic both with my students at the Yale School of Music, as well as at a wonderful …
Emotional Intelligence for Today’s Leaders Part II: Self-Management
Once you have developed better self-awareness, there is a second skill in developing personal competence: self-management.
Self-management is the ability to express the appropriate emotions at the appropriate time. Self-management is about slowing yourself down so that you can check any inappropriate behaviors and formulate the most appropriate response to the challenging situation.
Self-management strategies fall into two categories: actions to take in the moment so that you do not act on your emotions inappropriately and long-term actions that help you to improve your response to emotionally charged situations.
Let’s continue with our example of the email from a collaborator with whom you have been working closely. This individual makes a lot of demands about how a performance is supposed to run and her latest email lays out yet another requirement just when you thought that everything had been agreed upon.
If your first thought in receiving this email is to send back a nasty email or pick up the phone to yell at your collaborator, here are some alternatives that can help to slow you down and manage your emotions more effectively.
Emotional Intelligence for Today’s Leaders Part I: Self-Awareness
Lately, there has been a lot of press about the importance of emotional intelligence for successful entrepreneurs and leaders.
- Recent reports indicate that applicants to Yale’s School of Management will be tested on their emotional intelligence.
- An entrepreneur and investor with a Harvard MBA published an article in Forbes magazine about the importance of getting an “emotional education” in addition to a traditional education.
- Daniel Goleman, author of the groundbreaking book Emotional Intelligence, posted an article on LinkedIn with 9 different questions to help you evaluate your own emotional intelligence.
So what is emotional intelligence and why should leaders cultivate this skill?
Emotional Intelligence (know as “EQ”, as opposed to “IQ”) is the ability to recognize and control your emotions and then pick up on the emotions of those with whom you are interacting in order to influence and work effectively with them. It’s the ability to express the appropriate emotions at the appropriate time.
This psychological model was introduced in 1990 by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer and popularized by science writer Daniel Goleman in his groundbreaking work, Emotional Intelligence (1995). Emotional Intelligence has been called ” a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea” (Harvard Business Review) since it is strongly correlated with success.
Having high EQ is the way to get buy-in from the people with whom you are dealing and get them to listen, be engaged and inspired to follow your lead. Research has shown that having high EQ is a better indicator of success than having a high IQ. That is why it is such an important leadership skill The great thing about EQ is that it is a skill set that you can develop to make you a more effective leader. Let’s take a closer look.
EQ involves four underlying sets of skills, two having to do with your own emotions and two having to do with the emotions of those around you:
Conflict Management for Emotionally Intelligent Musicians: How to Run a Conflict Meeting
In my last post on how to prepare for a conflict meeting, we took a look at how the members of a string quartet could prepare for a brewing ensemble conflict stemming from a perception that one of the members of the quartet was not fully committed to the ensemble and was engaging in behaviors that undermined the rehearsal process, threatened …