After 25 Conductor as CEO blog posts, I'll take this opportunity to revisit why I started and why it means so much to me. The generous people in the altMBA helped me craft this message. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read or listen!

Who gets to decide we're a leader? Other people. Leaders exist all around us. Why do we follow them? Why do we volunteer to join? Why do we enroll in their cause and stick with it? I share Rich Diviney's 5 leadership attributes.

So you love your job? Of course, we all love the concerts. Would you say that you love the rehearsals just as much? I pose many questions in this post. I hope maybe just one of those would inspire you to think differently.

Do you know what WD-40 stands for? The company highlights risk taking and iteration as core values by way of its name. I talk about how we use fear as a motivator to inspire great work, but it motivates covering up too. We don't only cover up mistakes, but also ideas, solutions, and the freedom to iterate and try again.

When the people are motivated to be better themselves and have a clear purpose to be better, they show up - again and again. They don't need anyone else to convince them it's a good idea.

Why are we scared of taking risks in large ensembles? Because we might fail. Harvard psychologist Amy Edmondson places causes for failures into two categories - praiseworthy and blameworthy. What can the difference reveal for us?

Empathy is the key to trust and a feeling of safety, whether it's in a relationship between two people or a culture within an entire organization. We know we need empathy to be excellent leaders, friends, or colleagues. But we also need to understand what empathy is not.

Not knowing answers kills my confidence. It leads me to believe that wrong solutions make me a bad leader. There is perhaps another way to unpack my battle with confidence. I take a look at what Adam Grant calls "confident humility.”

As leaders, we often want our performers to be advocates in bringing in audiences. But we often don't start with asking: why would they want to talk about it in the first place?

When you make decisions or take actions, are they determined by whether they would be deemed acceptable by the leader, teacher, or other authority figure? I examine author Jim Collins' thoughts on the liabilities of charisma.

We often wait to be told what to do next, how to play something, or what we need to do to fix problems. Overtime, we become out of practice in thinking for ourselves. I explore how articulating purpose transforms mindset to see value in our work, and how fulfillment may come from a permission to think for ourselves.

If there was any inherent passion and intrinsic motivation for large ensemble playing (or anything artistic), they are quickly squashed and diminished by association with extrinsic motivators (what we call carrots and sticks). What if we could connect grades to purpose and values?

My "Part 2" on Zappos and their vision of delivering happiness. I share Tony Hsieh's three types of happiness and how Zappos' vision journey can inspire us to evolve our visions as musicians beyond achievement of metrics - and toward purpose, happiness, and fulfillment.

Zappos is well-known for its obsession with providing the best customer service. Did you know that the record for the longest customer service call is currently at 10 hours and 43 minutes? I explore the difference between focusing on the outcome versus on the people who create the outcome.

I reflect on the frustrations I shared recently about my work. I touch on a collection of topics, including belonging, fitting in, status through the work of Ron Carucci, Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, and Seth Godin.

What are the stories we tell ourselves in rehearsal? What are the thoughts that go through our minds? I talk about just how hard empathy is.

In sports, many hours are spent in reviewing game footage--as a team, with the coach. The U.S. Army developed a debriefing process called the After Action Review (AAR). How can the AAR could have a profound impact on large ensemble culture at any level?

I conducted an informal survey asking musicians to rank 12 fears. Here are the results, how fear hurts us, why we need fear, and ideas for practicing emotional hygiene (via the thoughts of Andrew Huberman and Guy Winch).

50 states + 71 orchestra mission statements - what did I discover I share why mission statements may not be necessary, how you can evaluate you and your orchestra's shared cause, and my hope for some what if's.

What is The Peter Principle? What does a business concept from 1969 originally meant as satire have to do with musicians and leadership? I explore how it could provide insight into what may be missing in our educational values, training programs, and hiring processes.