Leaders on Stage
Leaders on Stage, Trudy Wright in Conversation:
How did the idea for Leaders on Stage emerge?
It’s more Synchronicity, Jane – and you play a leading role in this! As well as coaching individuals, I’d always had this idea in my mind about bringing coaching into orchestras. Although they function incredibly well much of the time, especially given the number of people involved, the high pressure of live performance and the unpredictability of being on tour, I’d observed a few toxic relationships in numerous orchestras and ensembles during my years on the road with them. There didn’t seem to be any mechanism for dealing with this, and I was certain that coaching could be an enlightened way to bring awareness and understanding to some of these situations. I embarked on some relationship systems coach training (ORSC) which was fascinating and hugely informative, but for various reasons I could see there were complications in offering this approach to orchestras. And, this is exactly where you come in, Jane, because orchestras are a joint passion of ours, aren’t they…?! For you as a professional clarinettist, having performed with many of the world’s leading period orchestras and for me, of course, given my background. I remember very clearly our lunch together when we were co-leading Guildhall’s Leaders & Managers course; we both believed that so many of the coaching skills and tools we were sharing with the participants that day could be of benefit to orchestral musicians. In fact we got quite excited about this, and that’s when our idea began to take shape…
What is the aim?
Orchestral musicians are outstanding performers in their own right, who’ve trained for years to reach the high standards required to play in a professional orchestra. They’ve gone through gruelling musical and technical training to become masters of their instruments and the repertoire they perform, but, they’re not given any training in how to excel as part of a high performance team or how to lead a section of super-talented individuals. Although some musicians have an instinctive way of dealing with people, many have spent hours alone in a practice room for many years and sometimes that shows! The aim of our new training programme, Leaders on Stage is to equip orchestral musicians with non-musical leadership skills and techniques that empower them to lead their sections, from a “people management” point-of-view, with the same mastery as they lead their sections musically.
Course Details
Dates: 2, 3, 4, 16, 17 & 18 November (morning half day sessions)
Course fee: Special offer price for launch of programme £1020
Course being delivered online via Zoom.
About the course
This new programme combines the core competencies from our highly successful Leaders & Managers course with the data from new research undertaken in 2019 directly with principal and section players by Guildhall Associates, Jane Booth and Trudy Wright.
Leaders on Stage is specifically designed for orchestral principals based on feedback given to us by orchestral principals and section players. It’s an experiential, highly interactive programme backed up by neuroscience, positive psychology with tried-and-tested tools and techniques; we work on real material with real people with lots of practice time during sessions to try out new skills.
Topics covered include, understanding the impact of different leadership styles, managing conversations with colleagues which result in the required action, leading difficult conversations, giving and receiving feedback, introduction to a tool for regular reviews with colleagues, an introduction to neuroscience which backs up all the processes shared.
Participant requirements
All participants will be encouraged to be open and to engage in self-reflection as part of the work. A willingness to embrace change and work authentically and generously with their peers and clients is also essential to successful coaching & mentoring. Participants should have a current line management role.
Special access needs
If you have any special access needs, please contact us to discuss your requirements using the contact details below.
Apply
Please contact coachingandmentoring@gsmd.ac.uk for enquiries and bookings.
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