TAG: Listening

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The Musician’s Elevator Pitch: How To Connect Authentically and Effectively

One of the things I love about the music world is that it is still a people business. We have not outsourced the face-to-face contact that is so vital to making great music and sharing it with live audiences. It is no surprise, then, that successful musicians know the art of networking: a combination of using your head to be …

The Art of Collaboration: Top 10 Skills for Creative Success

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This semester, I am teaching a new course at the Yale School of Music using the collaborative project as the vehicle through which to teach arts entrepreneurship and innovation. Arts entrepreneurship involves coming up with innovative ideas that create value to society and actualizing those ideas. Collaboration is more than teamwork, where there is a leader to set the agenda and …

Networking for Music Entrepreneurs: Using Emotional Intelligence to Connect and Build Your Network

I enjoy teaching networking because it involves complex relationship building skills and requires a high degree of emotional intelligence. Rather than thinking of networking as trying to “get” something from others, it is, instead, a powerful way to make new business friends and expand your circle so that you can create a mutually-supportive community. At the heart of networking is …

Networking for Arts Leaders: Top 10 Tips for Creating a Life-Long Supportive Network

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In my work with arts leaders, I emphasize the importance of networking and therefore consider networking to be an essential leadership skill. My definition of networking is very simple: Connect + Share + Remain Relevant This boils down to the art of creating successful relationships in a mutually-supportive community that can help you both personally and professionally, as well as …

LOCAV: 5 Top Communication Skills for Today’s Musicians and Leaders

Effective communication is critical in all aspects of your creative, professional and personal lives: for creating powerful connections with your colleagues, friends and loved ones; for teaching; for getting your points across and being understood; for interacting with audiences, donors and supporters; and for heading off conflict. As a savvy music entrepreneur or arts leader, communication is an essential skill …

Powerful Questioning: A Key to Effective Communication for Today’s Music Entrepreneurs and Arts Leaders

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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 …

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 …

Conflict Management for Musicians and Arts Leaders: 4 Tools to Diffuse Conflict and Build Stronger Relationships

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This week, I had the pleasure and privilege of working with the Fellows of Ensemble ACJW/The Academy, the preeminent teaching artist program and ensemble collective of young top-level musicians, on the fascinating topic of conflict management.   Conflict is inherent in the work of musicians and arts leaders who are passionate and have strong ideas about and high standards of excellence …

Building Empathy: Lessons from the Heroically Thwarted Georgia School Shooting

In my most recent post on how to build emotional intelligence for musicians and arts leaders, I focused on how to develop empathy and 5 other strategies for social awareness. Empathy is particularly effective in creating a social bond because it enables you to understand what someone else is going through and see the other person as a fellow human …

Emotional Intelligence for Musicians and Arts Leaders Part III: How to Develop Empathy and 5 Other Strategies for Social Awareness

As a musician or arts leader, you have undoubtedly dealt with some “interesting” personalities in the course of your work!  Inevitably in the course of putting together an artistic venture, people put forth strong ideas that might clash with your own. Have you ever stopped to think what might be going on with the other person that would lead him …