5 Lezioni di leadership corale dallo Spazio: “Consistency Is King”

Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity
- Bruce Lee-

It doesn’t necessarily take prodigious talent or genius to rise to the level of greatness, if you can be consistent in implementing positive values. Here are some simple steps for choral leaders:

1. SHOW UP. We’re consistently dismayed at the number of people in leadership positions who can’t even do this reliably. Just showing up- consistently, reliably and on time- puts you in the top 10% of your field.

2. START ON TIME. The subject of timeliness has already been discussed here (ad nauseam!), but it’s worth emphasizing. Starting consistently on time creates a culture of productivity and accountability.

3. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. We all encounter frustrations in our work, but being able to respond to these with grace and good humor is a powerful way to build trust with your ensemble. When members of your ensemble worry about whether you’re in a good mood on any given day, it’s a sign that trust isn’t really there.

4. TREAT EVERYONE THE SAME. “Star players” don’t get special allowances (if anything, they should be leading by example). If there’s a policy on lateness or absenteeism, it must apply to everyone (including the conductor!).

5. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY. E-mail is a great tool for giving your choristers advance notice and reminders of upcoming events. But communicating via e-mail also brings the responsibility of communicating consistently- they need to trust that your e-mails are timely (not last-minute) and necessary (i.e., you don’t e-mail them more than once a week).

As we demonstrated in our examples above, consistency is hard. It’s difficult to show up on time, every time, and we all fall short occasionally. But the goal is to create a high enough level of consistency that we only miss the mark once in a blue moon (ultimately, we hope that our instances of inconsistency are so rare that our choristers become truly alarmed when we’re not on time!). You can begin by setting small goals; start with Step 1, and go from there.

 

da http://unchoiryourchoir.blogspot.it/